Market Share Ireland - A Back To School boost for Dunnes

After losing out in the ‘Back To School’ battle last year, Dunnes has placed more emphasis on beating the competition this year

The latest supermarket share figures from Kantar Worldpanel in Ireland, published today for the 12 weeks ending 15 September, show a strong performance from Dunnes with the retailer successfully encouraging shoppers to spend more.

David Berry, commercial director at Kantar Worldpanel, explains: “After losing out in the ‘Back To School’ battle last year, Dunnes has placed more emphasis on beating the competition this year. It has seen a sharp increase in shopping basket size, with average value growing from €28.12 last year to €30.00 now. Shoppers have been encouraged to spend more through a targeted voucher campaign, leading to a 6% boost in larger, €50 plus shopping trips. This has helped to turn what was a €17m loss from shoppers switching away from Dunnes last year into a €10m gain this year.”

Elsewhere, SuperValu’s strong summer performance continues with sales growth of 1.8% improving its share slightly to 19.7%. The performance of Aldi and Lidl continues to impress with respective growth rates of 24.3% and 13.1%. However, their combined market share has dipped slightly to 14.9% versus the record 15.1% achieved last period.

David continues: “The build up to the key Christmas period will show if the discounters can sustain their strong growth or if a ceiling is starting to be reached. Their ongoing growth combined with the improved performance from Dunnes has placed pressure on Tesco. Its sales have declined by 5.6%, leading to a 1.9 percentage point drop in market share. This decline also reflects the strong performance posted by Tesco last year and its record market share over the summer of 2012.”

An update on inflation

Grocery inflation stands at 4.8%* for the 12 week period ending 15 September 2013, down from the 5.5% seen last period.

*This figure is based on over 30,000 identical products compared year-on-year in the proportions purchased by Irish shoppers and therefore represents the most authoritative figure currently available. It is a ‘pure’ inflation measure in that shopping behaviour is held constant between the two comparison periods – shoppers are likely to achieve a lower personal inflation rate if they trade down or seek out more offers.