Best Christmas for Grocery market since 2010
The latest supermarket share figures from Kantar Worldpanel in Ireland, published today for the 12 weeks ending 4 January, show the best Christmas for Irish supermarkets since 2010, as sales grew by 1.1%.
Georgieann Harrington, insight director at Kantar Worldpanel, explains: “Growing confidence in the economy meant shoppers relaxed the purse strings this Christmas, visiting the supermarkets more often in the seasonal period than last year. Perhaps unsurprisingly, festive shoppers reached for the treats, and sales of confectionery grew by 6%, crisps and snacks were up by 3% and soft drinks enjoyed a 2% sales growth.”
Competition for market share remains fierce, with less than 2 percentage points separating the big three retailers. Tesco continues to hold the top spot with 25.4% and reported its best performance since May 2013 thanks to an increase in customers. Following closely behind is SuperValu, which holds 25% market share and enjoyed a 0.3% increase in sales. Almost three-quarters of all Irish households visited the retailer in the past 12 weeks, with 52,000 new shoppers enticed through the doors by its value-for-money positioning. Despite a decline in footfall, Dunnes posted seasonal sales almost exactly in line with last year.
Elsewhere in the market, Lidl and Aldi topped off an excellent year with sales growth of 15.0% and 12.2% respectively. A strong Christmas extends an impressive run that has seen each retailer enjoy double digit sales growth for 14 successive months.
Georgieann Harrington comments: “The battle for market share looks set to continue well into 2015. With the top three retailers separated by the narrowest of margins, it really is all to play for in the coming months.”
An update on inflation
Grocery inflation stands at 1.8%* for the 12 week period ending 4 January 2015, down marginally from 1.9% 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.
