Kantar: Irish grocery market grows in latest period
Ireland's grocery market has defied expectations and shown growth for the latest period, according to the latest figures by Kantar. Experts incorrectly predicted that the unprecedented weather from this time last year would be no match for the cooler month of August 2019.
Print27 August 2019
Ireland’s grocery market continued to grow in the 12 weeks to 11 August 2019, according to the latest supermarket share figures from Kantar. The growth is against predictions, coming against a challenging backdrop of summer 2018’s unprecedented weather and major sporting events, both of which were a major boost to sales.
The overall grocery sector increased by 2.7% in the latest period, with cooler weather leading to a deviation from typical spending for this time of year. Kantar’s report explains how shoppers made larger, but less frequent grocery trips, and the average spend per shop increased by 84c to €23.29.
Charlotte James, consumer insight director at Kantar, broke down the report into more specific segments. “Ice cream and sun care sales were down 17% and 41% respectively,” she said, “while wine, which is usually more popular in colder months, grew by 13.7%.
“The major retailers all took advantage of this,” she adds, “by ramping up promotions in the segment.”
Tesco in particular benefitted from the move, which resulted in a category growth of 14.9%.”
Meanwhile, Aldi and Lidl continued their march on the Irish grocery sector again this month. Aldi’s impressive growth of 12.7% helped it achieve a record market share of 12.6%. Dublin remains a key area for the retailer, with Munster and the rest of Leinster contributing two-thirds of its overall sales increase.
Lidl now accounts for 12% of Irish grocery sales, and is particularly popular in Munster, where it increased sales by 12.1%.
Dunnes Stores, Ireland’s largest grocer once again, enjoyed success with sales of fruit, veg and salads growing ahead of the market rate at 2.9%.
“Dunnes has had a strong 12 weeks across the board,” says Charlotte James, “growing at 6.4% and claiming 21.6% market share. The retailer is focusing on differentiating itself from competitors through a range of in-store experiences and this month opened a new premium food hall in Dublin’s Ilac Centre as well as a new site in Naas which focuses on its fresh counters.”
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