Irish grocery competition increases in run up to Christmas

The latest supermarket share figures show a year-on-year growth in sales of 2.1% across the Irish grocery market.

The latest supermarket share figures from Kantar Worldpanel in Ireland, published today for the 12 weeks ending 11 October, show a year-on-year growth in sales of 2.1% across the Irish grocery market.

David Berry, director at Kantar Worldpanel, explains: “This is the most positive performance the market has seen in over five years. The growth in sales this period was ahead of the rate of inflation, indicating that consumers are becoming less restrictive in what they buy and adding extra items to their baskets.

“With the countdown to Christmas now underway and seasonal items appearing on the shelves, the battle to win during this vital season is on. Intense competition means that consumers are already seeing a range of strong offers as retailers try to outdo each other on price and quality, and this will only continue as Christmas approaches.”

Among the big three retailers Dunnes posted the strongest performance this period, with sales growth of 4.7% increasing their share of the market to 23.2%. This marks the eleventh successive period of sales growth for Dunnes, as its ongoing ‘Shop and Save’ campaign encourages shoppers to buy more items in each shop. Dunnes has also focussed on price promotions this period, with products on offer accounting for 39% of all consumer spend in its stores during the past 12 weeks.

David Berry continues: “Tesco retains its position as the largest supermarket in Ireland, with sales performance continuing to stabilise and market share standing at 24.5%. SuperValu has seen an improvement in performance this period, bringing its market share to within just 0.1% of Tesco. This can be attributed to a significant increase in repeat shopping trips, with each shopper making an additional two visits to the retailer when compared with last year.”

Elsewhere, both Lidl and Aldi continued to gain ground, with year on year increases in sales of 9.8% and 4.5% respectively. For both retailers the strongest source of growth has been larger trips – each basket in Lidl contained on average two additional items when compared with last year, while Aldi’s baskets saw an increase of one item. Lidl has also managed to successfully win new shoppers, with an additional 40,000 choosing to shop with the retailer this year.

Kantar Worldpanel has launched a new data visualisation tool that allows you to view and analyse Grocery Market Share data online. The latest sales share figures for all of the major grocers can be viewed and compared with historical figures here and all graphics within the Kantar Worldpanel dataviz are available to embed in your site. (Optimal viewing in recent versions of Internet Explorer or Chrome)