Battle of the posh supermarkets! M&S overtakes Waitrose as middle class favourite for the first time

Marks & Spencer has overtaken Waitrose in market share for the first time outside the Christmas period and beaten every other supermarket in sales growth.

M&S held a 4.03 per cent share of grocery market for the four weeks to November 3 - up from 3.76 per cent a year earlier, the data from Kantar analysts revealed.

At the same time market share for Waitrose fell to 3.91 per cent - down from 3.76 per cent a year earlier, according to the unpublished data seen by the Telegraph .

This is the first time on record that M&S has overtaken Waitrose other than during the Christmas period when data is skewed by greater spending on food-to-order.

M&S also saw the biggest sales increase of any supermarket over the four-week period, up 11 per cent against a year ago - compared with a 6.9 per cent rise at Lidl .

As for the biggest two chains, Sainsbury's was up 6.3 per cent and Tesco increased 5.8 per cent - but Waitrose rose just 1 per cent, only above Asda and the Co-op.

The figures emerged a week after M&S notched up a better-than-expected jump in half-year profits thanks to buoyant food and clothing trading, but cautioned over an 'uncertain' consumer backdrop and rising costs.

Last Wednesday, the firm reported underlying pre-tax profits up 17.2 per cent to £407.8million for the six months to September 28 as a turnaround plan continues to pay off.

Like-for-like sales rose 7.5 per cent across its food business and increased 5.3 per cent in its clothing and home division, after a bounce back in demand for fashion ranges in the second quarter thanks to more seasonal weather.

But the results showed the impact of soaring cost pressures, with the firm's wages bill up 10 per cent after retailers were hit hard by the increase in the minimum wage earlier this year.

The company has been pressing ahead with a revamp plan in recent years, led by group chief executive Stuart Machin, including heavy cost-cutting and store closures, after previous attempts to regain its former glory fell short.

In May, it declared that the company was in its strongest financial health for nearly 30 years and was seeing the 'the beginnings of a new M&S' as it posted a 58 per cent surge in annual profits.

M&S is not currently included in Kantar's publicly available data, and Kantar refused to share the unpublished figures with MailOnline today.

As for Waitrose, the chain and its parent company the John Lewis Partnership are also undergoing a turnaround effort.

In August, the chain revealed plans to open up to 100 convenience shops over the next five years as part of a £1billion investment in its chain of supermarkets.

The new shops across England, Wales and Scotland will be the first openings in six years for the upmarket grocery group.

The £1billion will be spent on launching the new stores, building on the Little Waitrose convenience model, and improving 150 existing ones, almost half the 329-strong chain.

It is also transforming a shop in London's Finchley Road to trial new services, products and concepts over the next year - helping the group draw up a blueprint for all its shops which will be shared in 2025.

Waitrose has also enlisted a host of celebrities for a 'whodunnit' Christmas advert, including Matthew Macfadyen of Succession, comedian Joe Wilkinson from Afterlife and Rakhee Thakrar of Sex Education.

And it has been in the process of recruiting 7,700 seasonal roles across more than 300 shops, including supermarket assistants, night shift workers and customer delivery drivers.

Richard Hammond, chief executive and co-founder of analytics firm Uncrowd, told MailOnline that Waitrose was 'doing some good things, but M&S is doing more of them, better and faster'.

He added that Waitrose spent too long having 'fretted about lowering prices and proving they could do value, but nobody wants cheap tins of beans from Waitrose or M&S' – and its customers are instead looking for 'treats' and 'special' items.

Mr Hammond continued that his firm's observation data had shown Waitrose has achieved a 'better value message, but have done so at the expense of having damaged their posher experience'.

He added: 'While Waitrose are investing £1billion in store improvements, the new Waitrose refurb formats are lacklustre.

'By contrast, have you walked an M&S lately? They're like wonder palaces that us ordinary plebs are allowed, no welcomed, into - they're world class special.'

MailOnline understands that bosses at Waitrose believe that they are on par for market share with M&S, given their competitor has about 1,000 UK stores compared to their 330 – and the chain is at the start of its expansion plans with the benefits of this yet to come.

The latest Kantar figures showed Waitrose had a 4.6 per cent market share for the 12 weeks to November 3, up 2.9 per cent on the year and above the sector average of 2.3 per cent growth.

It also comes after the firm reported an adjusted operating profit for the first half of the year of £113million - up by £75million – and made more profit in the first half of 2024/2025 than it did across the whole 2023 financial year.

A Waitrose spokesman told MailOnline: 'We're delighted that the latest Kantar figures show Waitrose outperforming the grocery sector.

'We've got momentum behind us with new customers, investment in our shops, a fantastic Christmas range and a festive ad campaign that has been universally well received - so we are full of confidence.'

MailOnline has also contacted M&S for comment.

The Kantar figures also showed grocery price inflation rose again in October but households shrugged off increases with a four-year high in supermarket shopping trips.

Supermarket prices were 2.3 per cent higher than a year ago last month, up slightly on September's 2 per cent increase but still within 'typical levels', according to analysts Kantar.

Despite the rise, take-home sales across the grocers increased by 2.3 per cent over the four weeks to November 3 to reach £11.6billion, making it the biggest sales month of the year so far, and coinciding with the number of shopping trips made by households reaching 480million.

Halloween played a part in galvanising sales, with 3.2million households buying at least one pumpkin, while spending on confectionery hit £525 million as sales of chocolates and sweets climbed by 13 per cent and 7 per cent respectively.

Households are already stocking up for Christmas, with 648,000 shoppers having already bought a Christmas cake, and 14.4% of households picked up mince pies in October.

Fraser McKevitt, head of retail and consumer insight at Kantar, said: 'October 2024 was the busiest month for the supermarkets since March 2020, when people were preparing for the first national lockdown.

'Trip numbers have been going up gradually for some time, but this steady march hasn't reached pre-Covid levels of shopping frequency just yet. The average for each household is slightly over four trips per week.

'What's interesting this month is the number of households who are already stocking up the cupboards for the big day in December. Some people think Christmas ads hit our screens too soon but it's clearly important for retailers to set out their stalls early.'

Ocado topped the growth table, boosting its sales by 9.5 per cent over the 12 weeks, while Lidl's sales were up by 7.4 per cent to make it the fastest growing retailer with a bricks and mortar presence for the 15th period in a row.

Tesco outperformed the wider market with sales rising by 4.6 per cent taking it to 27.9 per cent of the market, up 0.6 percentage points on last year, while spending at Sainsbury's climbed 4.4 per cent, making its overall share 15.5 per cent.

Asda's sales are down 5.5 per cent on a year ago, holding 12.5 per cent of the market, while Morrison's sales grew by 2.4 per cent, outpacing the market average for the first time since June 2021.

The figures come as a swathe of high street businesses including Sainsbury's and Asda warned over the impact of tax rises in the Budget.

Asda said the increase in employer taxes would 'probably be inflationary to some degree', with it expecting to face £100million in extra costs.

Last week, Sainsbury's warned of a £140million hit, while M&S said it was expecting £60million in extra costs, which will be pushed higher by an increase to the national minimum wage.