The Supermarket & Convenience sector remains the bedrock of retail growth in the third quarter, according to Retail Ireland.
In its latest quarterly Retail Monitor, the Ibec group that represents the sector said that the performance of grocery stores in quarter one has been strong.
At the end of September, the change year on year showed that value was up 4.6% and volume increased by 5.3%.
The findings of the report showed that growth is not evenly spread however with convenience stores faring better than supermarkets and within the supermarket sector hard discounters doing better than traditional supermarkets.
The gap between volume and value growth continues to narrow, but with volume leading value there are no signs of inflation in food retailing yet, the group said.
'Brexit Jitters Endure'
Overall the report outlined that the volume of sales which showed a 5.1% growth, far outpaced the value of sales which increased by 2.3%, in the third quarter of the year, with many retailers continuing to engage in the deep discounting of goods.
The research reflected the impact Brexit related concerns have had on retail sales that have continued to cause nervousness throughout the year.
“Since 2016, the issue of Brexit has been a constant concern for business and consumers alike," Thomas Burke, Director of Retail Ireland, said.
"While the recently agreed extension of the UK’s planned exit from the EU to January 2020 has given some respite to the retail sector, this is only a momentary one as all eyes will once again be trained on the UK as the country goes to the polls on December 12th.
"We now have the prospect of Brexit uncertainty continuing over the most important trading period of the year, Christmas.”
Deep Discounting
Burke outlined that one constant in the Irish retail industry for some time now has been the trend for deep discounting. Regardless of the category it appears that Irish consumers, and by default.
“This continues to pose a challenge for the retail sector, one which is likely to be exacerbated in the coming weeks as we approach the landmark discounting periods of Cyber Monday and Black Friday," he said.
Consumers are ever increasingly seeking discounting and sales throughout the year not just confined to these two periods which have now become a main stay of the retail landscape in Ireland.”
© 2019 Checkout – your source for the latest Irish retail news. Article by Donna Ahern. Click sign-up to subscribe to Checkout.
