Tesco has reclaimed the top spot as Irelands leading supermarket for the first time in more than two years with an overall market share of 22.3%.
The latest grocery market share figures from Kantar Worldpanel, published today for the 12 weeks ending 20 May 2018 shows that the retailer grew sales by 4.5% – far ahead of the overall market, which saw growth of 2.8%.
“A strategic emphasis on volume sales, particularly through its private label offering, has been key to Tesco becoming Ireland’s biggest grocer once again,” said Douglas Faughnan, consumer insight director at Kantar Worldpanel.
While value sales are robust, growing at 4.5% on last year, volume performance has been even stronger. Tesco’s own label range has been at the centre of its performance, now accounting for more than half of overall sales following double digit growth this period.”
Gap Widens
The report showed that the gap between the top three has widened, with SuperValu and Dunnes capturing 22.0% and 21.8% of the market respectively.
For the first time in more than 12 months, Dunnes has seen an increase in customers coming through its doors – an extra 9,000 shoppers in the last 12 weeks
This, combined with a 3.4% increase in average price paid and shoppers buying more items per trip, helped the retailer grow by 2.6% compared with last year.
Branded Sales
Faughan said that branded sales have been helping boost discounter performance.
“Combined, private label items at Aldi and Lidl still account for over 90% of sales, but both retailers have expanded their branded ranges to attract shoppers and encourage more spend from existing customers,” he said.
“Branded sales at Aldi now account for 7.6% of overall sales, up from 6.5% in 2017, while 11.1% of Lidl’s sales are from branded items, compared to 8.6% at the same time last year. These increases have been central to the overall growth of 2.0% and 3.5% at Aldi and Lidl respectively.”
The report outlined that the introduction of the sugar tax in Ireland on 1 May has not yet been reflected in volume sales of carbonated soft drinks.
© 2018 Checkout – your source for the latest Irish retail news. Article by Donna Ahern. Click subscribe to sign up for the Checkout print edition.
