A DAY before Morrisons is expected to announce a sharp drop in annual profits, the latest supermarket till roll analysis shows the Bradford-based grocer's sales are still falling. New figures from Kantar Worldpanel reveal that Morrison sales were down by 0.4 per cent in the 12 weeks to March 1 and it now has a market share of 11 per cent.

There are hopes that Morrisons will be able to show that it is starting to get to grips with falling sales days before its new chief executive former Tesco executive David Potts takes up his post on Monday.

Kantar's figures show that a resurgent Tesco outperformed its Big Four rivals in the latest phase of a price war that has seen record low grocery deflation. Tesco posted its strongest performance in 18 months with sales up 1.1 per cent in the period compared with a difficult 2014.

Asda's sales were down 2.1 per cent and Sainsbury's by 0.5 per cent .

Aldi's growth of 19.3 per cent was its slowest since June 2011 but it was enough to take the discount retailer to a new record market share of five per cent. Fellow German chain Lidl saw growth of 13.6 per cent and a market share of 3.5 per cent.

Sales at upmarket Waitrose, which has a store in Otley, increased by 4.9 per cent, with its market share remaining at its highest level of 5.2 per cent.

Kantar added that price competition between the supermarkets saved shoppers £400 million in the past 12 weeks

Fraser McKevitt, head of retail and consumer insight at Kantar Worldpanel, said: "All of the major supermarkets are cutting prices to win shoppers, especially within everyday staples such as eggs, vegetables and milk. Retailers are focusing their efforts on simple price cuts rather than complicated 'multibuy' deals."