Grocery sales in Ireland increased by 6.1% in the four weeks to 29 September 2024, as households settled into their autumn and back-to-school routines of preparing school lunches and dinners, according to Kantar.
Sales volumes increased by 3.6% in September, as people shopped more frequently, resulting in a 1.5% rise in shopping trips.
In this period, grocery inflation stood at 2.67%, representing a slight decline of 0.09 percentage points from the previous period, the data showed.
Consumer Trends
Irish households spent an additional €2.6 million on fresh vegetables and €1.9 million on fresh fruit, Kantar noted.
Shoppers stocked up on pantry staples, spending an additional €1.4 million on ambient bakery breads, nearly €1 million on frozen goods, and €1.5 million on soft-drink carbonates.
Moreover, some shoppers got an early start preparing for the Halloween season, which was reflected in a €3 million increase in spending on confectionery.
Eimear Faughnan, Kantar Worldpanel’s head of retail, commented, “As shoppers returned to their back-to-school routines, they continued to purchase family favourite brands.
“Brand sales grew by 8%, compared to last year, outperforming own-label products once again this period, increasing their value share of total spending to 48.2%.”
Other Trends
Despite this growth in the branded category, own-label ranges saw sales go up by 3.9% in this period, compared to last year.
Most of this growth came from standard private-label products, which added an extra €50 million in value to the own-label range, Kantar added.
Despite comprising a smaller portion of retailer offerings, the sales of premium own-label products contributed an additional €9.2 million, compared to last year.
Elsewhere, sales in the e-commerce channel increased by 9.6%, year on year, with shoppers spending an additional €17 million in this channel.
This growth was driven by online incentives offered by retailers, such as money-off vouchers and free deliveries.
The increase in visits to the online channel have contributed to its growth in the latest 12 weeks.
Top Retailers
Dunnes Stores emerged as Ireland’s top retailer, with close to a quarter of the total market share (24%).
The company reported value growth of 9.5%, year on year, with the highest growth frequency among all retailers, at 9.3%, year on year.
This has contributed an additional €67 million to its overall performance.
Tesco emerged in second place, with a market share of 23.4% and a value share that went up by 10%, year on year.
The retailer attributed its growth to the addition of new shoppers, alongside existing shoppers making more frequent and larger trips, which contributed an additional €47.5 million to its overall performance.
With 19.6% of the market, SuperValu saw growth of 1.7%. The retailer saw the highest number of trips in store, compared to other retailers.
The average number of trips was 24 and contributed an additional €13 million to its overall performance.
Lidl’s market share stood at 13.7%, with growth of 8%, year on year, and new shoppers contributing an additional €12 million to its overall performance.
Aldi’s market share stood at 11.7%, with growth of 0.6%, year on year, the data showed.
