Irish supermarket price inflation remains subdued as big five widen lead over rivals

Kantar said they are seeing shoppers choosing to visit bigger stores rather than smaller convenience retailers on their doorstep

Grocery sales boomed last year as supermarkets remained open.

Grocery price inflation has remained subdued despite the huge squeeze on global supply chains, while the big supermarkets made gains over their smaller rivals in the €13bn market, a leading survey suggests. 

Market researcher Kantar said prices across the 30,000 grocery items bought by households in the Republic rose 0.3% in the 12 weeks to September 5 from a year earlier. 

The inflation figure compares with an annual 1.3% price hike for grocery items in Britain's supermarkets in early September, a Kantar survey showed last week. 

The Irish survey covers all five of the large supermarkets that dominate the market, including SuperValu, Dunnes, Tesco, Lidl, and Aldi, as well as the branded and small independent grocers. The grocery market in the latest 52 weeks is worth almost €13bn.                      

Kantar said the big five supermarkets had gained market share even as the overall grocery market shrunk somewhat compared with crisis levels last year.   

Grocery sales boomed last year as supermarkets remained open but sales remain above pre-crisis levels despite dipping in recent Kantar surveys. 

"We're also seeing shoppers choosing to visit bigger stores rather than smaller convenience retailers on their doorstep," Kantar analyst Emer Healy said. 

"That's been good news for Ireland's largest grocers as all of the big five gained market share this period for the first time since 2010," she said.

The big five together secured a share of 90.7% of all grocery sales in the Republic in the latest survey period. 

At 22.5%, SuperValu had the largest share of the sales in the latest survey. It was ahead of Dunnes and Tesco which both recorded shares of 21.4%. Lidl and Aldi were almost neck and neck with shares of 12.8% and 12.7%, respectively.