Supermarket spend hits €11.2bn

Spending at supermarkets in the Republic reached €11.2bn so far this year, up 3.2% from the same 10 month period in 2018.

The figures from market researcher Kantar also show that in the period before the Christmas spending splurge that the big five supermarkets have further tightened their grip on the grocery market.

Spending on grocery items in the big five supermarket chains and the branded convenience outlets climbed to €2.5bn in the latest 12 weeks to November 3.

But the big five — Dunnes, SuperValu, Tesco, Aldi, and Lidl, have increased their share of the expenditure to 89.6% from 88.6% a year ago.

Outside of the big five, Kantar includes M&S, Boots, Spar, Centra, greengrocers, butchers and cross border shops as making up the rest of the grocery retailing market. Their share has continued to decline, figures show.

Grocery prices rose by an annual 1.2% in the period, according to Kantar, which surveys 30,000 grocery items bought by 5,000 households in the Republic.

At 22.8%, Kantar said that Dunnes again secured the largest share of the €2.5bn spent in the 12 weeks, ahead of SuperValu and Tesco, on shares of 21.2% and 21.1%. German-owned supermarkets Aldi and Lidl had shares of 12.5% and 12%.

Kantar said that Dunnes of the top three supermarkets grew by the fastest rate. “Typically Dunnes performs well during the festive season as shoppers trade up and are willing to spend more on premium items,” said Charlotte Scott, consumer insight director at the resercher.

“Last Christmas the retailer recorded its highest market share since March 2013 and having been top of the retailer rankings for over a year now, it will be looking to break that record this December,” she said.