Grocery price inflation falls again in June

Sales of burgers, prepared salads and alcoholic and soft drinks increased during warm weather, new figures show

This is the second month of decline since a rate of 6.7% was recorded in April.

Annual grocery price inflation declined to 4.77% in the 12 weeks to June 14 as the warmer weather sees shoppers spend more on summer essentials, new figures from Worldpanel by Numerator shows.

June’s inflation figure is down from the 5.51% recorded in May. This is the second month of decline since a rate of 6.7% was recorded in April.

Take-home grocery sales in the four weeks to June 14 increased by 4.8% compared to the same period last year.

Head of retail at Worldpanel by Numerator Ireland Eimear Faughnan said June delivered another bank holiday and the start of the World Cup with “barbecues fired up across the country, with shoppers spending just over €502,000 more on chilled burgers and grills, and a further €775,000 on prepared salads”.

“Shoppers also widened their drinks repertoire, spending an additional €2m on flavoured alcoholic drinks and mixers, while beer and cider saw value sales fall by €3.3m compared to last month.” 

Soft drinks grew by €2.9m compared to last month, water and squash by €1.27m, and ice-cream and sorbets added €4.2m in value sales compared to last month.

Shoppers also spent an extra €2.2m on suncream.

Branded goods held the highest value share in shopper baskets at 49.1% over the latest 12-week period, growing by 8.8% in value.

Shoppers are taking advantage of summer promotional offers, with promotional value spend reaching its highest point this year at 23.5%.

Dunnes Stores has retained the highest market share of consumer supermarket spend during the 12 weeks to June 14, with 23.8%. Over this period, it experienced sales growth of 4.9%, with increased customer visit frequency and new shoppers combined contributing €21.4m to its performance.

Slightly behind Dunnes Stores is Tesco, with a market share of 23.6%. Shopper footfall increased by 2.3% on the same period last year, adding €18.9m in value sales to its performance.

SuperValu was in third place at 19.5%, with new shopper arrivals contributing an additional €17.4m to performance.

Lidl leads the two German supermarkets in terms of market share, at 15% to Aldi’s 11%.

Online sales continue to post strong growth in the latest 12-week period, increasing in value by 16.8% year on year.