LONDON (Reuters) - British consumers have not stockpiled groceries ahead of Brexit though they are considering it, market researcher Kantar said on Tuesday.
It said while a quarter of UK shoppers say they are considering stockpiling it seems they are waiting to see how the next few weeks play out.
"We expect if they take any action it will be closer to the deadline if a chaotic trading situation looks increasingly likely," Kantar said.
With just 16 days before Britain is due to leave the European Union, it is still unclear on what terms it will leave or indeed whether it will become the first sovereign state to depart the bloc.
Kantar said total UK grocery sales rose 1.3% in the 12 weeks to Oct. 6.
It said Sainsbury's <SBRY.L> was the only one of Britain's big four grocers to achieve growth. Sainsbury's sales rose 0.6%, while sales at market leader Tesco <TSCO.L>, Asda <WMT.N> and Morrisons <MRW.L> were down 0.2%, 0.9% and 1.8% respectively.
All of the big four continued to lose market share to the German owned discounters Aldi and Lidl, who are aggressively opening new space.
Aldi and Lidl's sales rose 7.3% and 8.2%, giving a combined market share of 14.1%.
(Reporting by James Davey; Editing by Alistair Smout)
