The latest Kantar Worldpanel data, which takes into account the 12 weeks ending October 13, indicates that a slowdown in grocery market growth took place in advance of this year's Budget.
The total market sales growth stood at 0.6% for the period, which is the lowest level of growth recorded since June.
Commenting on the slowdown in growth, David Berry, commercial director at Kantar Worldpanel said “Many of the main grocery retailers have been actively targeting shoppers with money-saving vouchers in recent months and this has led to a change in consumer shopping habits. Shoppers have switched from the ‘little and often’ approach to stocking up, making fewer trips, but purchasing more items per shop.”
In terms of retailer market share, Dunnes maintained its growth, driving sales up 5%, with its ‘Shop and Save’ campaign helping to lift it to 23% market share.
According to Berry, the resurgence of Dunnes has had an impact right across the market, even at Aldi and Lidl. "We have seen Dunnes Stores bounce back significantly in terms of performance. In the 12 weeks to July 7, Dunnes market share stood at 20.9%, and since then it has rebounded to 23.0%. This has put pressure on the competition and has led to a slight dip in share for the discounters."
Aldi and Lidl stand at a combined 14.5%, compared to a combined 15.1% in the 12 weeks to 18 August (however Aldi is up 22% and Lidl is up 10.3% on the same period last year).
Elsewhere, SuperValu has seen a slight dip (0.3%) since last year to stand at 19.5%, while Superquinn has dropped 1.8%, reducing its market share to 5.2%. Berry told Retail Intelligence that Superquinn's drop in share is due more to competitive pressure within the market, rather than the merger between Superquinn and Supervalu affecting consumers' perceptions of the retailer.
Tesco on the other hand continues to show declines, with a 6.5% drop recorded in the period. The grocery giant’s market share has fallen from 28.6% last year to 26.6%, in part due to the successes of the discounters. According to Berry, Tesco's “'Price Promise’ campaign is clearly aimed at challenging the view that Aldi and Lidl are cheaper, and it will be interesting to see the response from shoppers over the coming months.”
With the recent Budget announcement, Berry thinks that all is not lost for retail spend in the upcoming festive season. "I think that for many shoppers the anticipation of the Budget was worse than the reality, and so the impact will not be as great between now and Christmas. Inflation has been a more consistent pressure point for shoppers this year but this has started to reduce recently, which will prove a welcome boost.”
© 2013 - Checkout Magazine by Genna Patterson
