Dunnes Stores was a big winner over Christmas, according to the latest supermarket share data from Kantar Worldpanel, with the retailer posting a sales increase of 5.6% during the 12-week period to 3 January.
Boosted by its 'Shop & Save' voucher campaign, Dunnes' market share now stands at 24.0%.
The last time Dunnes achieved a share of 24% was back in December 2013, Kantar Worldpanel's David Berry told Retail Intelligence, adding that through Shop & Save, Dunnes has managed develop a degree of year-round stability.
"Traditionally, for Dunnes, the first half of the year would not be as strong, and then the second half would be a lot stronger," he explained. "The second half contains a lot of the events: Back To School, Halloween and Christmas, in which Dunnes usually performs. It was a lot more 'evenly spread' in 2015."
Dunnes is now just 60 basis points behind Tesco (24.6%, up 0.1%) and 110 basis points behind SuperValu (25.1%, up 4.3%). The Musgrave retailer retained its market leadership position for the third successive period.
For Tesco, the period was its first to see growth since March 2013.
Elsewhere, Lidl posted 11.6% growth during the period, to stand at 8.0% market share, while Aldi saw its sales rise 2.9% to stand at 7.9% share.
Overall, the market posted growth of 3.5% for the period, which is the biggest increase since January 2009.
"The past 12 weeks are the first time since March 2013 that all five of the major supermarkets in Ireland have grown sales," said Berry. "Shoppers spent an additional €77 million on groceries compared with the same time last year, with confectionery, crisps and other snacks doing particularly well.
© 2016 - Checkout Magazine by Stephen Wynne-Jones
