Dunnes surges as grocery market continues rapid growth
Dunnes enjoyed the strongest rate of growth of the top three supermarkets over the last 12 weeks, with sales up 5.1 per cent compared with last year.
The strong performance was revealed by Kantar Worldpanel in Ireland as part of its analysis of the grocery market for the 12 weeks ending 31 January.
Overall, Irish grocery retail showed strong growth following an impressive Christmas performance. Shopper spend increased 3.8 per cent over the past three months, a slight improvement on the Christmas growth of 3.5 per cent.
Georgieann Harrington, insight director at Kantar Worldpanel, said: “The increased consumer confidence we saw over Christmas has continued, with little indication that shoppers are tightening their belts after the festive period.
“Combined with a 0.4 percentage point increase in price inflation over the past 12 weeks, this means that consumers have been spending more on their grocery shopping than this time last year.”
SuperValu remains Ireland’s number one retailer, capturing 25 per cent of the grocery market. Impressive sales growth of 4.4 per cent saw the grocer perform ahead of the market, increasing its share from 24.8 per cent last year.
Shoppers visited the retailer nearly 21 times on average in the latest period – more frequently than last year – spending an additional €27 with SuperValu as a result.
According to Kantar, Dunnes’ growth was down to larger shopping trips, with customers spending an additional €1.70 on average every time they visit the store.
Georgieann Harrington added: “Tesco is still in second place, half a percentage point behind SuperValu, with a 24.5 per cent share of the grocery market. However, sales growth of 1.1 per cent makes this the most positive performance Tesco has seen since November 2012, so things are still looking up for the retailer.
“Elsewhere, Lidl has now seen double digit growth for the fourth consecutive 12 weekly period. The retailer is successfully driving growth across the board, with a higher number of shoppers visiting its stores more often and spending a larger amount each time.”
Aldi also posted a positive performance, with sales 2.9 per cent higher than in 2015.
Its main growth driver was an increase in customer numbers: almost 65 per cent of all Irish households visited the retailer within the past 12 weeks, compared with just shy of 63 per cent a year ago.
