Fizzy drinks and crisps remain Ireland's top selling consumer brands, despite Covid spike in healthier options

Coca-Cola has been Ireland's best selling brand for 17 years.

Despite a huge surge in sales of healthy drinks and personal hygiene products since the start of the pandemic; the Covid crisis has failed to dent old habits with fizzy drinks, crisps and chocolate remaining Ireland’s biggest selling consumer products, according to a survey.

The latest list of Ireland’s top 100 brands, from grocery trade publication Checkout, shows Coca-Cola topping the table for the 17th year in a row.

This year’s list does show a significant Covid effect in that there was huge growth in the popularity and sales of vitamin, minerals and special dietary products and personal hygiene and health products, led by liquid soap. Powdered baking products also saw a boost.

But, the four most popular brands are currently Coca-Cola, Tayto crisps, Dairy Milk chocolate, and Lucozade. Monster, and Red Bull energy drink brands also made the top-10, which was rounded out by 7-Up and Irish brands Jacob's, Brennans, and Avonmore.

“Like 2020, 2021 has been defined by the Covid-19 pandemic, which created a seismic shift in consumer purchasing habits,” said Checkout editor Maev Martin. 

“In 2020, we witnessed a big transition to in-home food and drink consumption. This continued into 2021 and will remain with us until there is a return to an open economy. We are also seeing strong sales growth for Irish brands, and shoppers have moved away from shopping little and often and are making fewer and bigger trips." 

Irish brands

Irish-owned brands have performed well; with the likes of Vit-Hit, Keogh’s crisps, Stafford’s Bakeries, and Fitzgerald’s Family Bakery all making huge jumps up the list. 

The likes of O’Donnells crisps, Clonakilty, Carroll’s meats, The Happy Pear, and Charleville also surged in popularity.

“During the past year, the Irish FMCG [fast moving consumer goods] industry has come up against unprecedented challenges in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic,” said Karen Mooney, commercial market leader in Ireland for NielsenIQ, which compiled the report for Checkout. 

“Not only did consumers shop more than ever before, but the ways in which they shopped also changed.

“The positive performance of many Irish brands shows the nation’s effort to back local. While pandemic fads like banana bread may already have passed, a focus on buying local is set to continue as we begin to recover from this pandemic," she said.

Meanwhile, the world’s largest consumer foods company Nestlé has said it expects even higher input cost inflation in 2022 than this year. 

It said it plans to pass on higher costs to the trade and to consumers.

Nestlé chief executive Xavier Roger said the company was gaining market share in most categories and regions, with the exception of infant nutrition in China that wouldn't return to growth this year and frozen pizza due to supply chain constraints.

• additional reporting Reuters