Off-trade stout sales in Ireland surged by 137% and lager increased by 71% for the week ending 26 April, compared to the same week in 2019.
Research conducted by Nielsen on behalf of Checkout showed that grocery spend showed a 4.3% increase versus the previous week, and was up by 10% compared to the same week in 2019 to €323.9 million.
Once again, alcohol was the highest growing category with year on year take-home sales up by 46% to €39.1 million.
Frozen food also saw extraordinary sales growth of 23% to €8.2 million, while ambient grocery grew by 18% to €25.4 million.
Total household grew by 9.6% to €10.7 million this week, with outperformance seen in several sub categories including household bleach which was up by 38% and kitchen towels which were up by 37%.
In the week ending 26 April, health & beauty grew by 5.2% to €8.6 million, with over performance seen in subcategories including hair colourants which grew by 103% and vitamins and minerals by 45%.
Slow Down
The research showed that the average spend per household in week ending 26 April was approximately €191, which is only 8% higher than average weekly sales in 2019.
"This is significantly down from the peak of weekly spend of €236 which we saw in mid-March, indicating that although increased in home consumption is continuing to fuel FMCG growth, less panic buying and stockpiling have meant that these growth levels are more subdued, which is in line with the trends we have seen in other European markets,” noted Nicole Farren, senior account manager, Retailer Service, Nielsen.
© 2020 Checkout – your source for the latest Irish retail news. Article by Donna Ahern. Click sign-up to subscribe to Checkout.
