LONDON, Jan 13 (Reuters) - Wm Morrison Supermarkets was the fastest growing UK food retailer in the run up to Christmas, as cash-strapped Britons flocked to chains with reputations for low prices over upmarket rivals, a survey showed on Tuesday.
Market researcher TNS Worldpanel said sales at Morrison, Britain's fourth-biggest supermarket group, rose 9.7 percent in the 12 weeks to Dec. 28 against a comparable period last year, outperforming a grocery market growing 6 percent.
Industry number two Asda followed with growth of 7.2 percent, with number three J. Sainsbury on 5.1 percent and market leader Tesco on 4 percent.
Earlier on Tuesday, Tesco met forecasts with a 2.5 percent rise in underlying UK sales for the seven weeks to Jan. 10.
Discount retailers continued to grow strongly, with sales surging 25.4 percent at privately-owned German group Aldi and 13.4 percent at privately-owned frozen food specialist Iceland.
Food price inflation was 8.3 percent, down from a peak of 9.3 percent for the 12 weeks ended Oct. 5, TNS Worldpanel said.
12 wks to 12 wks to 12 wks to
28/12/08 30/11/08 30/12/07 Total till roll (mln stg) 33,121 30,131 32,351 Total grocers (mln stg) 22,509 21,225 21,240 Total multiples (mln stg) 21,036 19,821 19,801 Market share in percent Tesco 30.7 30.9 31.3 Asda 16.9 16.8 16.7 Sainsbury 16.2 16.0 16.3 Morrison 11.9 11.8 11.5 Somerfield 3.5 3.7 3.7 Waitrose 3.7 3.6 3.9 Aldi 3.2 3.1 2.7 Lidl 2.4 2.4 2.3 Iceland 2.0 1.8 1.8 (Reporting by Mark Potter; editing by Simon Jessop)