Dunnes Stores Remains Ireland’s Leading Supermarket

Dunnes Stores Remains Ireland’s Leading Supermarket

Dunnes has claimed the highest share of the Irish grocery market at 22.2%, in the 12 weeks ending 1 November 2020.

Kantar Worldpanel, an international agency that provides information on consumer brands, reported that Dunnes Stores continues to lead the way for others in retail, during this dramatic period.

Dublin seemed to pull in a particularly strong per cent of the retailer’s sales, where shoppers have been living under lockdown since mid-September and spent an additional €38.8 million at the retailer during the period.

The figures showed that grocery sales growth in the capital was the fastest across all regions.

Chilled-convenience categories like pizza and ready meals proved popular at all the retailers, and this was particularly true at SuperValu which boosted sales of the cosy night in favourites by 15% year on year.

Sales at the grocer grew by 18.0% this period and it increased its market share by 0.7 percentage points to 21.9%.

Emer Healy, retail analyst at Kantar, commented: “Irish shoppers spent over €1 billion on take-home groceries in October, €161.6 million more than last year.  With dining out officially off the table, and families preparing more meals to eat at home, this was the biggest month for grocery sales since the height of the previous lockdown in June.”

Online Sales

Online grocery sales continue to soar, rising by 90% year on year in the latest four weeks.

“Online grocery continues to set new records, with almost 255,000 of us shopping through digital channels in October. New converts to online grocery contributed an additional €30.8 million to the market in the past month as tighter restrictions were introduced,” she said.

Festive Shopping

Consumers are accepting that seasonal traditions and festivities will look a little different this year.

Healy noted: “Halloween was certainly a quieter affair this year and, with trick or treating out of the question, sales of multipack sweets declined by 40% compared with October 2019.”

“Sales of pumpkins also dropped by 15.5% as households had less need for the usual welcoming jack-o’-lanterns,” she added.