Valentine's Day boosts Irish grocery market

Sales of wine, chocolate and convenience foods received a Valentine's Day boost in the past three months.

According to the latest Kantar Worldpanel survey of supermarkets, wine sales increased by 17%, the amount of chocolate purchased was up by 10% while sales of ready meals and desserts also saw jumps of 8.4% and 6.9% respectively.

The latest figures from Kantar Worldpanel show the Irish grocery market grew by 3.5% in the 12 weeks to February 24, 2019.

The report shows that Dunnes Stores remains Ireland's largest retailer, while Aldi and Lidl continued their impressive start to the year by growing their sales by 10.5% and 6% respectively.

However, Tesco and SuperValu saw their overall market shares decline, despite enjoying sales growth of 1.1% and 0.8% respectively.