Food and drink prices are rising at the lowest level since March 2012, according to the latest supermarket share figures from Kantar Worldpanel in Ireland, accounting for the 12 weeks ending August 17. Grocery price inflation now stands at 1.5%, down from 1.9% last period.
David Berry, commercial director at Kantar Worldpanel, says that the intense price competition between Ireland’s larger grocers doesn’t show any signs of letting up. "This has led to falling prices across a number of staple food and drink items. We have seen prices fall across popular products and vegetables, bread and milk are now all cheaper than this time last year."
In terms of supermarket shares, the discounters Aldi and Lidl maintained their forward momentum during the period, with both posting strong increases in market share. Berry says that increased footfall has helped to boost Lidl’s share of the market to a record 8.5%. "Some 65% of Irish households have purchased their groceries from Lidl over the past 12 weeks – 46,000 more shoppers than a year ago," he said.
Aldi, meanwhile, has seen a slight slowdown in its sales growth, at 14.4%, however, this remains well ahead of the market. Aldi, which holds a market share of 8.5% has seen increased numbers of shoppers visiting its stores more frequently and spending more per trip.
Amongst the multiples, Tesco once again sees its market share drop, from 25.6% to 25.4%, despite its recent spate of charitable initiatives and 'money back' coupons. Despite sales falling by 5.5%, Tesco has improved its performance compared with last month, when its sales fell by 6.2%.
Elsewhere, Dunnes Stores (21.0% market share) and SuperValu (25.0%) have both broadly held sales in line with last year, albeit slightly behind overall market growth. Both Dunnes and SuperValu have attracted more shoppers into their stores, by 41,000 and 60,000 respectively, however the challenge lies in enticing customers to up their in-store spend.
According to Berry, "The recent surge in footfall for Dunnes is linked to up-weighted promotional support across a range of branded goods, with 'round Euro' offers playing a significant part. Meanwhile SuperValu’s improvement in footfall is a long term trend, which can be linked to the underlying strength of the SuperValu brand."
© 2014 - Checkout Magazine by Genna Patterson
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