Tesco has managed to maintain its share within the grocery market, coming out on top amongst the big four, the latest statistics have revealed.

Kantar Worldpanel has published the latest grocery market data for the 12-week period to 20 January, highlighting how the supermarket business, headed by Philip Clarke, upheld its 30.4% share in the market. Tesco was also able to match market growth for the first time since June 2011.

Edward Garner, director at Kantar Worldpanel, said: “These positive results are a sign of stabilisation for Tesco as the retailer gets back on track with its customers. However, this improvement has put some pressure on the rest of the big four, with Morrisons in particular suffering a drop in sales and a share decline of 0.6 percentage points in the latest period.”

Asda and Sainsbury’s both saw a 0.2% and 0.1% drop in market share year-on-year (YOY) respectively, bringing their totals to 17.6% and 16.9% for the 12 weeks to 20 January.

Morrisons suffered the worst blow, with its market share recorded at 11.9% for the same period, compared to 12.5% reported for the 12 weeks to 22 January 2012.

Garner added that The Co-operative’s 0.9% sales rise during this period could be “a positive step for the grocer”, after reporting sales declines throughout the last year.

Kantar said discount retailer Asda led the way during the first part of 2013, outperforming the market with growth rates of 28.2% and highlighting a 0.6% growth in market share YOY to 3.1%. Lidl also showed a strong growth level of 10%.

Waitrose, which reported its most successful Christmas earlier this month, saw a strong YOY growth rate of 8%, and took a 4.6% share during the most recent 12 weeks.

Kantar added that grocery inflation stood at 4.9% for the same 12-week period, a 0.4% increase on the last reported figure and continuing to rise since last September.