A summery boost for the grocery market in Ireland

Among the retailers, Aldi and Lidl both continue to post impressive growth of 26.6% and 14.8% respectively.

Shoppers spend more because of picnics and barbecues

The latest supermarket share figures from Kantar Worldpanel in Ireland, published today for the 12 weeks ending 18 August, show a €30 million uplift in consumer spend as a result of the heat wave compared with the same period the previous year.

David Berry, commercial director at Kantar Worldpanel, explains: “The good weather has clearly had a positive effect on the grocery market, with consumers spending more on traditional barbecue and picnic foods. Shoppers have spent an extra €2m on sausages, boosting sales by 12%. However, sales of frozen burgers continue to decline despite the BBQ weather, with shoppers increasingly likely to buy chilled burgers instead. Cooked meats, bagged salads and bread rolls have all seen double digit sales growth, helping overall grocery sales grow by 1.5%. Ice creams and cider have helped keep consumers refreshed with sales of both growing by over 30%.

“Among the retailers, Aldi and Lidl both continue to post impressive growth of 26.6% and 14.8% respectively, capturing a combined record market share of 15.1%. SuperValu has also performed strongly over the summer period, attracting new shoppers through the door and seeing them spend 60c more on each trip. This has helped boost its share from 19.5% last year to 19.8% now with sales growth of 3.1%.”

Tesco has seen a drop in sales compared with a strong performance last year, with fewer customers spending less in store.

David continues: “Interestingly, there has been no negative effect for Superquinn following the recent announcement that the stores will be renamed as SuperValu, with sales and market share remaining in line with last year.”

The coming weeks will be important for each of the retailers as they look to win new customers during the important back to school period and retain them as the winter season approaches.

An update on inflation

Grocery inflation stands at 5.5%* for the 12 week period ending 18 August 2013, up from the 4.6% seen last period.

*This figure is based on over 30,000 identical products compared year-on-year in the proportions purchased by Irish shoppers and therefore represents the most authoritative figure currently available. It is a ‘pure’ inflation measure in that shopping behaviour is held constant between the two comparison periods – shoppers are likely to achieve a lower personal inflation rate if they trade down or seek out more offers.