Dunnes top of class in grocery market battle for back-to-school trade

Dunnes has won the back-to-school battle successfully managing to get consumers to spend more money in their shops, according to the latest Kantar Worldpanel survey.

Dunnes managed to push the average spend in their stores up by nearly €2, according to the commercial director of Kantar Worldpanel, David Berry.

“After losing out in the ‘back to school’ battle last year, Dunnes has placed more emphasis on beating the competition this year. It has seen a sharp increase in shopping basket size, with average value growing from €28.12 last year to €30 now.

“Shoppers have been encouraged to spend more through a targeted voucher campaign, leading to a 6% boost in larger, €50-plus shopping trips. This has helped to turn what was a €17m loss from shoppers switching away from Dunnes last year into a €10m gain this year.”

SuperValu continued to show growth of 1.8% to increase its market share to 19.7%, while Aldi and Lidl reported growth of 24.3% and 13.1%, while their combined market share has actually fallen, 14.9% versus the record high of 15.1%.

SuperValu managing director Martin Kelleher said that the addition of Superquinn has given them access to nearly a quarter of all shoppers.

“With a market share of 19.7%, we are continuously working with our independent retail partners to deliver our customers real quality and value on a daily basis.

“The addition of Superquinn to the SuperValu network will create an unrivalled national Irish retail brand with one in four Irish consumers shopping at the expanded network of 222 stores and is indicative of our long-term national commitment to Irish communities and the agri food industry,” he said.

Mr Berry said that the discount retailers have eaten into the success of Tesco, with the build-up to Christmas expected to be a key battleground.

“The build-up to the key Christmas period will show if the discounters can sustain their strong growth or if a ceiling is starting to be reached. Their ongoing growth, combined with the improved performance from Dunnes, has placed pressure on Tesco. Its sales have declined by 5.6%, leading to a 1.9 percentage point drop in market share,” he said.