LONDON (Reuters) - British supermarket sales increased by 3.6 percent in the 12 weeks to Sept. 10, largely driven by higher inflation and extending a run of above-3-percent growth to six months, industry data showed on Tuesday.
Lidl [LIDUK.UL] grew the fastest, with an increase of 19.2 percent taking its share to a record high of 5.3 percent, Kantar Worldpanel said, while growth at rival Aldi [ALDIEI.UL] was 15.6 percent, resulting in a share of 6.9 percent.
Of the "big four" supermarkets, market leader Tesco (L:TSCO) came out on top, with sales up 2.7 percent, although its share was squeezed by 0.3 percentage points to 27.8 percent.
Sainsbury 's (L:SBRY) sales were up 2.1 percent, Asda (N:WMT) rose 1.5 percent and Morrisons (L:MRW) was up 2.3 percent, Kantar said.
Food inflation was 3.2 percent, compared with 3.3 percent in the previous period.