Winner: Tesco
The UK’s largest supermarket took home the most coveted accolade of the night at The Grocer Gold Awards 2026. Tesco beat off fierce competition to be named Grocer of the Year – a title last won by discounter rival Lidl.
Tesco once again proved a worthy winner – having last scooped the prize in 2022 – thanks to a mix of value, quality and convenience. In a tough trading environment, the supermarket achieved its highest market share for over a decade – 28.7% – by applying a rigorous approach across all areas of the business. As the judges put it: “Tesco is strong on all counts, which is one of the hardest things to achieve.”
That strength has stemmed from concerted efforts to reach an ever more discerning, cost-conscious customer. Crucially, Tesco has fought off stiff competition from the discounters with an even stronger focus on price.
In January 2026, the supermarket launched its Everyday Low Prices scheme on about 3,000 popular products. Alongside ongoing initiatives – such as Aldi Price Match and Clubcard Prices – that commitment has resulted in 6,500 grocery products falling in price since last year, by an average of 9%. And it’s not stopping there. Tesco is on track to reach a £500m Save to Invest target for 2025/26, which will help offset the latest round of cost inflation.
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However, price is only one element of Tesco’s mission to deliver great value. The supermarket has worked to elevate quality with launches such as a revamped sushi offer, enhanced Finest BBQ range and Finest Gelato. Tesco is also consistently looking to increase the value of its Clubcard loyalty scheme, which now has 84% penetration in the UK. Shoppers can now triple the value of their points when eating in seven major restaurants, including Pizza Express and Zizzi.
Such work has been complemented by a commitment to another key customer priority: convenience. Tesco opened an additional 60 Express convenience stores in 2025 and is on track to unveil 70 more before March 2027. The supermarket has also been actively pushing its rapid delivery service Tesco Whoosh, which delivered sales growth of 47% over Q3 and Christmas. And tech could stand to offer shoppers even more convenience in the future, as Tesco is working with French startup Mistral AI to create new generative AI solutions for different parts of the Tesco business – with a focus on “enhancing our operations and improving the customer experience”.Crucially, even as it doubles down on tech, customers remain at the heart of everything Tesco does. The ongoing expansion of its fruit & veg for Schools programme – which has recently doubled from 500 to 1,000 schools– is designed to support communities in a meaningful way. Already, it has donated 10.8 million pieces of fruit & veg to children in economically challenged areas.
By truly understanding its customers, Tesco has driven continual switching gains across the spectrum of full-line grocers, premium retailers and discounters – gaining market share for 32 consecutive four-week periods. Net promoter scores are growing ahead of the market, while quality perception is also on the rise.
The judges commended Tesco for delivering share growth from a leading position. “To show such leading and impressive results is commendable, given their sheer size,” they said. Our panel attributed Tesco’s success to “clear direction from the top” and a “solid performance on the fundamentals”, which culminated in a “great, well-run machine of a business that knows what it’s doing”.
Shortlisted:
- Lidl GB
- M&S
- Ocado Retail
- Sainsbury’s
- Tesco
- Waitrose
