Tesco closes gap as grocery market sales increase 4%

Consumer spending on grocery products enjoyed a further strong rise in the past three months; a period also notable for Tesco Ireland further eating into SuperValu’s market share lead.

Latest data from consumer insights agency Kantar Worldpanel shows grocery sales grew by 4%, on a year-on-year basis, during the 12 weeks to May 22; marking a third consecutive quarter of similarly strong gains.

“Consumers are making more frequent visits to supermarkets, averaging an additional four trips in the latest 12 weeks compared with last year and driving volume growth across the market.

Coupled with increased prices, this means the average household is spending an additional €50 on groceries this year, amounting to an extra €89m for the market,” according to Kantar director David Berry.

SuperValu still leads the way with a 22.7% share of the market; however this is slightly down on both a rolling quarter-by-quarter basis and when compared to the same period last year.

Tesco has been eating into that lead in the past few cycles and is now only 0.3 percentage points behind.

Dunnes is down on a quarter-by-quarter basis, but holds a 21.3% share of the market. This is up nearly one percentage point year-on-year.

Dunnes and Lidl were the only two players to perform ahead of the market, in the current cycle, in over-the-counter sales terms — with them seeing 8% and 7.2% till sales increases respectively.

“Each of Ireland’s five main retailers has seen sales either flat or growing on the year prior, this period,” said Mr Berry.

Tesco’s till sales were flat, while SuperValu grew 3%.