Sales in the Irish grocery market managed to grow 3.8% despite the 'Beast from the East' storm which brought the country to a standstill, according to grocery market share figures from Kantar Worldpanel for the 12-week period ending 25 March.
Douglas Faughnan, consumer insight director at Kantar Worldpanel, commented, “Although shoppers had upped their spend in preparation for the Beast from the East, the length of the storm meant that cupboards were emptied by the time it came to an end.
"As a result, in the week following the cold snap Irish households spent €20.33 more than usual on restocking their kitchens. Far from denting the Irish grocery market, the subsequent shopping rush meant that the Beast from the East made little impression on overall sales.”
The storm also didn't dent sales in the UK, with Kantar reporting an increase of 2.5%.
Eggsceptional Easter
The Easter sweet tooth also drove revenue up in the country. Sales of Easter eggs and confectionery jumped by 75.2% compared to 2017 for a total of €20.6 million, in spite of price increases of 2.4%.
Finally, the report found that Tesco experienced its strongest sales growth in over six years, with an increase of 7.1%.
Faughnan said, “Encouraging shoppers to splash out and spend more every time they shop has proved the key to Tesco’s success. Over the past 12 weeks, customers upped their average spend by €1.36 to €26.06."
The retailer still lags 0.2 percentage points behind Dunnes Stores and SuperValu, which are now 'neck and neck'. Both retailers possessed a market share of 22.1%.
Discounter Lidl was one of only two retailers that gained market share in this period. Boosted by sales growth of 4.7%, it carved out 11.5% market share. Rival Aldi saw an increased growth of 2.4%, but its market share fell 0.2 percentage points to 11.3%.
© 2018 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Karen Henderson. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine.
