Irish supermarket sales set to show surge as Britain exceeds Christmas levels ahead of Covid-19 lockdown
Sales at the big five supermarkets in Ireland will likely post a huge surge, reflecting a record level of sales and shopping visits in Britain ahead of the Covid-19 lockdown there, two major surveys suggest.
Market researcher Kantar said that grocery sales in Britain leapt by over 20% to post a record spend of £10.8bn (€12.1bn) in the four weeks to March 22 from a year earlier, ahead of the UK’s lockdown, according to researcher Kantar. Online grocery spending in Britain was up 13% .
Kantar said the average British household spent an extra £62.90 over the four weeks--higher than levels seen at Christmas, said Fraser McKevitt, Kantar’s head of retail and consumer insight.
Rival researcher Nielsen recorded 79 million extra grocery shopping trips in the four week period.
Its data showed that in the last week of February and the first week of March, shoppers focused on stockpiling necessities, such as medicines, cleaning supplies, pet care items and groceries, such as pasta and rice. This continued through to the final two weeks.
Kantar’s Irish grocery sales figures are likely to show strong growth too when it publishes its latest survey next week.
Its previous survey up to late February showed that most of the big five Irish-based supermarkets tapped the bulk of the additional spend on groceries, including soap and hand sanitisers, ahead of the Covid-19 restrictions.
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