MORRISONS boss Dalton Philips is likely to come under increased pressure following the latest supermarket sales figures which reveal the Bradford-based grocer has suffered another slump in sales and market share.

In spite of going head-to-head against discounters Aldi and Lidl with a £1 billion price cutting campaign – including its new Match & More discount card scheme – Morrisons was the worst performer of the big four supermarkets in the past three months.

Its sales slumped 3.2 per cent, with market share down to 11.2 per cent from11.6 per cent In September Morrisons announced a 51 per cent slump in half-year profits to £181million, with like-for-like sales falling 7.4 per cent. This followed a £176 million loss for 2013 – which prompted former company supremo Sir Ken Morrison, son of the founder, to lambast the company’s current bosses at the shareholders’ annual meeting.

In October Morrisons became the first of the big four supermarkets to pledge a price match guarantee against Aldi and Lidl, whose market share continues to soar, according to the latest figures from analysts Kantar Worldpanel.

Announcing the half-year figures, Dalton Philips, said: “Although it is too early to see the benefits of the three-year plan in the sales line, Morrisons is getting back on the front foot and implementing change and innovation at real pace throughout the business.

“While like-for-like sales performance is yet to improve, there are some encouraging initial trends. There is still a lot of hard work ahead and the process will take time.”

In the past quarter the discounters continued to go from strength to strength with Aldi recording the fastest sales growth of any retailer at 22.3 per cent and Lidl not far behind at 18.3 per cent. Aldi and Lidl posted market shares of 4.9 per cent and 3.7 per cent respectively.

Tesco, which issued its fourth profit warning last week, saw sales fall 2.7 per cent, with market share slipping to 29.1 per cent from 29.9 per cent a year ago.

Sainsbury’s sales fell 1.8 per cent, with its market share dropping to 16.5 per cent from 16.8 per cent.

Asda’s sales fell by just one per cent with market share slipping to 16.7 per cent from16.9 per cent.

Top end food retailer Waitrose, which has an Otley store, grew sales by six per cent, an unbroken pattern of rising sales stretching back to February 2009. Its market share lifted to five per cent from 4.7 per cent a year ago.

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