Discount supermarket growth slows

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Source PA News

Discount supermarkets are giving back the strong gains made last year when hard-pressed shoppers hunted for savings, according to new figures.

Mainstream rivals have fought back against stores such as Aldi and Lidl as food price inflation also eased, according to TNS Worldpanel.

Aldi's till takings were 8% ahead of a year earlier in the 12 weeks to September 6 - but this is well below the 26% year-on-year growth seen late last year. Rival Lidl saw 5.2% growth in line with the market.

TNS Worldpanel director Ed Garner said the figures "increasingly confirm the impression that 'recession panic' is ebbing away as far as the grocery market is concerned".

"Food remains a manageable proportion of most household budgets by historical standards and, it could be argued, the grocery sector suffered from an over-reaction at the end of 2008," Mr Garner said.

The figures came as official data showed annual food price inflation at 1.9% - its lowest level in more than three years - after a better than expected European harvest helped bring wheat prices down.

Waitrose enjoyed its strongest growth since August 2006, with till takings 11.2% ahead of last year and its market share up from 3.7%, although the group received some help from its acquisition of 13 Somerfield stores.

Meanwhile, market leader Tesco continued to lose ground to its UK rivals, with its share slipping from 31.1% to 30.9% and growth at 4.6% - below the level of the wider market.

Morrisons was the strongest performer among Tesco's main rivals. The firm's share jumped from 10.8% to 11.3% after 9.3% growth over a year earlier.

Market forces hit street traders

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Updated on 23 July 2009

By Channel 4 News

Competition from the internet and from high street retailers has hit Britain’s traditional street markets, according to a report by MPs. Ben King reports.

In these credit-crunched times, Britain's traditional street markets ought to be thriving.

But most markets are actually in decline, according to a committee of MPs.

Competition from cheap conventional retailers and the internet is one cause.

But MPs have warned that local and central government weren't doing enough to help.

For Channel 4 News, Ben King went down to one street market to find out what was going wrong.

United Airlines hit by complaint song

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By Channel 4 News

A musician who blames United Airlines for breaking his prized guitar has taken revenge by writing a song that has hit the company's share price.

Dave Carroll has finally won a nine-month battle with United Airlines after they broke his instrument.

His video 'United Breaks Guitars' has had three and half million hits in ten days and has been a PR disaster for the airline, which has seen its share price plunge by 10 per cent, wiping $180 million off the company's value.

Mr Carroll says he has now been offered $1.200 in flight vouchers as compensation, while United says they will be using his video for training purposes.

Setanta Sports goes off air

Link to the article: Channel 4 News

By Benjamin Cohen

Struggling sports broadcaster Setanta goes off-air after announcing it is to axe 200 jobs as efforts to rescue the business fail.