The latest grocery market share figures from Kantar Worldpanel, published today for the 12 weeks ending 17 June 2018, reveal that the soaring temperatures have increased sales of summer grocery favourites by 9%.
The overall market only grew by 2.1%, and Kantar said that this surge in summer essentials, such as sun care products and ice cream, has boosted the Irish grocery sector to the tune of €27 million.
“With hot, sunny weather comes barbequing, sunbathing and socialising – and this has had its impact on the grocery market,” said David Berry, director at Kantar Worldpanel.
“Sales of ice cream, barbeque foods and sun care products have rocketed by 12%, 10% and 8% respectively compared to this time last year. Alcoholic drinks have also experienced a surge in demand – cider has seen an impressive growth of 14% and beers and lagers are up 5%. The influence of the hot weather on sales of summer essentials looks even more impressive when you compare this to overall market growth at 2.1%.”
The Hot Weather Effect
Berry highlighted Tesco as the front-runner in terms of grocery market share, with the retailer experiencing a sales growth of 3.7%.
“Tesco remains the leader of the pack among the retailers, increasing its market share to 22.4% – a jump of 0.3 percentage points,” he continues.
“Over the past 12 weeks, 1.3 million customers chose to shop at Tesco – the highest reach of all the retailers. Although the grocer has not notably increased this shopper base compared to this time last year, Tesco has encouraged customers to add an extra item to their baskets every time they shop – upping their average spend by 80c to €25.50.”
Based on Kantar’s research, SuperValu comes in the second position in with 21.8% of Irish shoppers’ grocery spend. Last year it experienced a humble 0.1% growth in sales. Kantar attributed its performance to its continued loyalty from Irish shoppers.
Dunnes Stores has also performed well, according to Kantar. The retailer posted sales growth of 2.6% and has increased its market share by 0.1 percentage points.
Dunnes’ success has come from encouraging shoppers to up the value of their baskets to an average of €42.60 – an increase of over €2.50 compared to this time last year.
Popular discount chains Lidl and Aldi hold a market share of 11.7% and 11.4% respectively. Kantar noted that the two retailers have performed particularly well in Munster.
© 2018 Checkout – your source for the latest Irish retail news. Article by Aidan O’Sullivan. Click subscribe to sign up for the Checkout print edition.
