According to the latest supermarket share figures from Kantar Worldpanel, for the 12 week-period ending 19 June 2016, the grocery market has continued to grow with sales rising by 2.5% compared to the same period last year, thanks in part to an increase in average spend per household of €27.
Georgieann Harrington, insight director at Kantar Worldpanel, explains, "While higher prices have played a small part, this growth is primarily the result of an increased number of shopping trips: the average household has made 62 visits on average over the past 12 weeks, compared with 58 trips last year. With the number of items per basket also falling, we’re seeing a return to the tendency to shop ‘little and often’."
However, the outlook for the rest of the year isn't all positive despite the good news; "While the grocery market is in growth, the landscape remains competitive. With the recent EU referendum result and the weakening of the pound against the euro, it could be that we see Irish shoppers return to old habits: during the recession many headed across the border in search of better value at UK retailers in Northern Ireland. Cross-border shopping only accounted for 0.3% of Irish grocery sales in the latest 12 week period, but at the peak of the recession this stood at 4.1%."
When it comes to the supermarkets, Tesco was the only retailer that didn't see an increase in sales in the past 12 weeks. Dunnes performed strongly, growing sales by 5.9%, thanks to an extra 13,000 shoppers visiting its stores this year along with an increase in average spend of almost €20.
The discounters both enjoyed sales growths with Lidl posting growth of 5.8% and Aldi by 3.6%. In terms of market share, the discounters combined now hold the highest proportions of customers with a share of 22.8% (Aldi 11.1%; Lidl 11.7%) which is just ahead of the number one retailer SuperValu for whom 22.6% was enough to retain their position at the top of the leaderboard.
Georgieann Harrington continues, “SuperValu retains its position as Ireland’s largest retailer, growing its sales by 1.4% and capturing 22.6% of market share. SuperValu’s success is largely down to persuading the average shopper to spend an extra €14 per trip, no doubt driven by its 'Let’s Get Cooking' campaign.
"Sales remain challenging for Tesco in second place: the retailer saw a decline of 2.7% in the past 12 weeks. It’s not all bad news for Ireland’s number two retailer though, with the number of visits to its stores edging up: from 14 on average last year to 15 this year."
© 2016 - Checkout Magazine by Niall Swan
