As Valentine’s day fell mid-week on a Thursday, many retailers in Ireland reaped the benefits of the ‘dining in’ trend on the 14 February this year.
As most retailers had meal deal offers, sales of chilled ready meals and chilled pizza showed growth of 10% across all the channels, according to the Nielsen Multiples (incl.Dunnes)/Symbols/Forecourts Value Sales, week ending 17 Feb 2019 report.
Traditional Gifts
The research showed, that sales of sparkling wines up 16% on same week last year and gin also preformed strongly as sales were up 24%.
“We spent over €2.5 million on boxes of chocolates in Valentines week as sales were up +20% on last year and over €3.7 million on plants and flowers with sales up over +7%," said Karen Mooney, head of retail services Ireland at Nielsen.
The global information and measurement company also outlined that Irish consumers spent over €2.3 million on cards with sales up 15%.
Alternative Items
Alternative gifts such as candles were up 17% and packaged small cakes up 16%, the research showed.
According to Nielsen, hair removal products sales were up by 4% this year and sales of condoms increased by 8%.
© 2019 Checkout – your source for the latest Irish retail news. Article by Donna Ahern. Click subscribe to sign up for the Checkout print edition.
