(13 May) The grocery market has shown signs of returning to growth, according to the latest supermarket share figures from Kantar Worldpanel in Ireland, for the 12 weeks ending April 27. David Berry, commercial director at Kantar Worldpanel, explains that during the recession shoppers turned to "little and often" shopping to control their spending.
However, Berry says, “This trend is now showing signs of reversing. The latest figures show consumers making slightly fewer shopping trips but buying more groceries each time. This means bigger baskets and an increase overall of the volume of goods purchased, which has provided an €18 million boost in grocery sales in this 12 week period.”
Unsurprisingly, the discounters posted another successful month, with Aldi the strongest performing retailer. Aldi’s sales surged ahead by 22.2% for the 12 week period to 27th April 2014, versus the same twelve weeks last year. Aldi has now captured 8% of the country’s grocery market, up from a 6.6% market share for the same period last year.
Rob Farrell, Aldi’s Group buying director said, “We are delighted that more and more Irish consumers are making Aldi their weekly supermarket of choice. We have invested heavily in our product range, and particularly in our Irish sourced products, to provide groceries that exceed the high quality standards demanded by Irish consumers.”
Berry attributed Aldi’s success to shoppers buying more items and spending more each time they visit an Aldi store. Fellow discounter Lidl has also posted double digit sales growth, boosting its market share from 6.9% last year to 7.6%.
Meanwhile, SuperValu increased sales by 0.5% this period and attracted 18,000 new customers this year. As the only supermarket outside of the discounters to increase sales over the period, Martin Kelleher, managing director of SuperValu said that the momentum behind the brand was key to its success. He said, “This research and the latest market share figures underline the fact that our customers choose to shop with us because of our unique combination of value, fresh food leadership and our commitment to Irish suppliers and local communities across the country.”
SuperValu’s market share now stands at 25.1%, with market leader Tesco at 26.3%. While Tesco’s performance remains behind the market, there are signs that this is beginning to stabilise with a 4.2% decline in sales – the lowest fall since July 2013. Dunnes share of 21.6% is down from 22.1% for the same period last year. Dunnes has convinced its shoppers to increase spending this year, but it “must reverse its loss of shoppers to the other grocers in order to overturn a 1.3% drop in sales this period,” according to Berry.
© 2014 - Checkout Magazine by Genna Patterson
