>>duracell down, energizer up

The battery market continues to enjoy growth however this has slowed of late, up 4% year-on-year compared with the 9% growth in the previous year.
General purpose batteries (alkaline and zinc carbon batteries) continue to dominate the batteries market with 87% share of sales, growing at 2% year on year.
Specialist battery (rechargeable and lithium) growth is well ahead of general purpose at 20% in the latest year.
Within general purpose batteries, Duracell remains the number one selling brand with 33% of sales. In the previous year, Duracell was at the heart of category growth, however in the latest year, this has turned into a decline, at 5% year-on-year.
Much of this is owed to the poor performance of Duracell Ultra in the latest year.
Energizer, the second most important brand in the market, has 16% share of general purpose battery sales, turning an 8% decline in sales from the previous year into 15% growth year-on-year.
Much of this performance is owed to the Energizer Ultimate range that was launched in June last year.
Grocery outlets account for 56% of batteries sales, with growth slowing most recently to 2% year-on-year, from 11% a year ago.
Of the grocers, Tesco is key for share and also performance, accounting for 17% of battery sales, and with 18% growth year-on-year.
Asda and Sainsbury follow in share terms, although their growth is substantially behind that of Tesco.
The slowing growth in the battery category can be linked to two key pressures - firstly, the reduction in the level of price-related promotions. A major influence here has been the acquisition of Safeway by Morrisons.
Secondly, portable devices that have become popular in the market - such as portable DVD players and MP3 players - now often come with integrated rechargeable batteries.
Ece Tovil, TNS Superpanel
Produced for The Grocer by TNS Superpanel. For more information call 020 8967 4521