SuperValu has retained its position on top of the grocery retail sector leaderboard, with the retailer accounting for 23.0% of the market according to the latest figures published by Kantar Worldpanel Ireland for the 12-week period ending 24 April 2016.
This follows year-on-year increase in sales of 2.8%, which has been boosted by a renewed consumer focus on purchasing fresh food, something which SuperValu has sought to capitalise on.
David Berry, director at Kantar Worldpanel, elaborated, saying; "Most recently, SuperValu has launched its ‘Good Food Karma’ campaign, which aims to inspire the general public to cook from scratch using fresh ingredients. The retailer saw strong growth across fresh staples in the past 12 weeks as a result: sales of fruit, vegetables, meat and poultry all saw healthy increases.”
Interestingly, the latest figures have seen a significant rise for the two discounters Aldi and Lidl, who now hold a combined market share of 22.1% (10.9% and 11.2% respectively) which is only 0.1% behind second place Tesco who come in at 22.2%.
"Lidl has maintained its position as the fastest growing retailer – an additional 43,000 shoppers visited the grocer this year, and the discounter is getting customers through the door more often than ever before," explains Kantar Worldpanel.
"The average number of visits per person increased to a record high of 10.6 trips in the latest 12 weeks, and has meant that Lidl’s market share now stands at 11.2%. Elsewhere Aldi has grown sales by just over 1%."
Kantar Worldpanel Ireland also noted that these significant changes can be explained by a recalibration of its sample size this month, which has grown from 3,000 to 5,000 households.
Dunnes Stores grew its sales by 8.0% year-on-year, to solidify its third place in the rankings, with 21.5% of the market. According to David Berry, "Bigger trips have been the main driver of this growth, with an additional €2.50 spent each time the tills ring compared with the same time last year.
"This is testament to the ongoing success of Dunnes’ ‘Shop and Save’ campaign: incentivising shoppers to spend more each visit in return for money off next time is a formula that has really worked for the grocer.
In terms of the overall market, Berry said that supermarket sales have grown by 3.8% when compared with the same period last year, which is slightly behind last month's growth of 4.6% but still ahead of February's 3.6%.
"As competition amongst the main grocery retailers remains intense, we’re actually seeing shoppers visit stores more often. Over the latest 12 weeks the average household has made 63 separate trips for grocery items, an additional four trips compared with last year. This is linked to a reduction in the overall size of the average grocery trip – which has dropped from €22.40 last year to €21.60 this year," concluded Berry.
