Grocery sales hit five-year high in last quarter

The Irish grocery market enjoyed its best quarterly period in more than five years, in the past 12 weeks, with combined sales across the main players rising by 2.1% on an annualised basis.

Latest data from consumer insights agency, Kantar Worldpanel, covering the 12-week period to October 11, shows that while competition is, as expected, intensifying ahead of the festive season, consumers are generally loosening up in their grocery buying habits.

“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,” noted Kantar director, David Berry.

Dunnes put in the strongest showing of the domestic players, with a 4.7% annualised sales rise and market share up from 22.6% to 23.2% in the year.

Market leader, Tesco continued to see a stabilisation in its till sales, with its market share standing at 24.5%, albeit down by 0.6% on a year-on-year basis.

SuperValu saw a 1.3% over-the-counter sales increase in the period, with its market share now standing at 24.4%.

Where Dunnes has continued to grow on the back of price promotions and its successful ‘Shop and Save’ voucher campaign, repeat shopping trips have aided SuperValu’s progress.

German discounters now have a combined 17.4% share of the Irish grocery market, up from 16.6% this time last year, with Aldi upping its sales by 4.5% in this period, and Lidl by 9.8%.

“For both retailers, the strongest source of growth has been larger trips, each basket in Lidl contained an 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,” explained Mr Berry.