SuperValu has been crowned Irelands top supermarket for the third month in a row, new research showed.
The latest figures from Kantar highlighted that SuperValu held the highest share of the Irish grocery market with 22.9%, in the 12 weeks to 14 June, 2020.
The data showed that the retailer achieved the fastest year-on-year growth of 35.2%, during the period.
SuperValu also remains the only retailer not to experience reduced footfall in the last 12 weeks and welcomed an additional 53,000 shoppers into its stores, said the CSO.
Elsewhere, Tesco’s sales grew by 22.2% during the period and the retailer now holds a 21.5% share of the Irish market.
'This was driven by consumers significantly increasing the amount they buy each trip – picking up five additional items each visit and spending more as a result,' the report showed.
According to Kantar, Dunnes customers also added an additional five items per trip and spent an extra €14.23 per trip, compared with the same period last last year, generating strong overall growth for the retailer of 15.4%.
Lidl boosted its sales by 29.7%, while Aldi’s sales was 20.4% higher than 2019.
Face to Face Shopping
The latest figures from Kantar showed that take-home grocery sales in the Republic of Ireland increased by 24.7% in the 12 weeks.
“We haven’t quite shaken off the habits of lockdown life just yet – people are still making fewer, larger trips to the supermarket, but there are signs that Irish shoppers are taking their first tentative steps back to normality," said Emer Healy, retail analyst at Kantar.
“As restrictions start to ease, including the lifting of limits on travel today, people are growing more confident and the number of shopping trips inched up slightly in the most recent four weeks, by 2.3%," she added.
"When in store, shoppers are continuing to buy more than in normal times and the average person has spent €204 extra this June than last year, on average €30.77 each trip."
Online Shopping
Online demand continues to soar with an additional 99,000 households receiving a delivery in the latest 12 weeks, the research indicated.
Healy outlined: “An extra €70.9 million was spent online during the past 12 weeks, which is a year-on-year increase of 114.3%. Retailers will now be looking ahead and thinking how they can retain new online shoppers when things return to normal."
"The answer to that is likely to be in different demographics – retired households for example, where their share of online grocery sales now sits at 14.1%," she added.
Shop Local
According to Kantar, 40% of Irish consumers shopped closer to home during the period.
Independent outlets sales rose by 44.8% during the 12 weeks.
Irish grocery shoppers spent an additional €2.4 million at greengrocers and €11 million at butchers compared with the same period last year, the data showed.
© 2020 Checkout – your source for the latest Irish retail news. Article by Donna Ahern. Click sign-up to subscribe to Checkout.
