Morrisons boosts UK grocery market share -TNS

LONDON, Jan 9 (Reuters) - WM Morrison Supermarkets (MRW.L)
strengthened its position in the UK grocery market during the
Christmas trading period, the latest figures from research group
TNS showed on Wednesday.

Britain's fourth-largest grocery retailer improved its
market share to 11.4 percent from 11.0 percent a year earlier,
powered by a year-on-year growth rate of 9 percent.

It was the best recorded growth for Morrisons since its
takeover of Safeway in 2004 and the highest for any grocery
retailer this Christmas, TNS said.

Growth rates for larger rivals Tesco (TSCO.L), Asda (WMT.N)
and J. Sainsbury (SBRY.L) effectively matched the market figure
of 5 percent year-on-year growth.

Following is a breakdown of the market share data published
by TNS for the 12 weeks to Dec. 30, 2007:

12 wks to 12 wks to 12 wks to

Dec 30 Dec 2 Dec 31

2007 2007 2006

Spending (mln stg)
Total till roll* 32,409 26,373 31,667
- Total Grocers** 21,299 20,039 20,300
- Total Supermarkets*** 19,860 18,662 18,848

Market share (percentages)
Tesco (TSCO.L) 31.5 31.7 31.4
Wal-Mart Asda (WMT.N) 16.7 16.6 16.6
Sainsbury (SBRY.L) 16.4 16.1 16.4
Morrison (MRW.L) 11.4 11.3 11.0
Somerfield 3.7 4.0 3.9
Waitrose [JLP.UL] 3.9 3.8 3.9
Iceland 1.8 1.7 1.8

* The till roll measures, by retailer, the total amount
spent by each household interviewed in the grocery store as
shown by the total amount printed on their till receipts,
excluding items such as motor fuel purchases and kiosk sales.

** Total grocers refers to stores whose principal business
is grocery retail.

*** Total supermarkets refers to all those stores operating
from multiple locations.
(Compiled by Rachel Sanderson; Editing by Quentin Bryar)