Musgrave-owned Irish retailer Superquinn has grown ahead of the market for the first time in five years with sales rising at the supermarket by 1.9 per cent year-on-year, according to the latest supermarket share figures from Kantar Worldpanel in Ireland for the 12 weeks ending 17 March. Superquinn currently stands on 5.7 per cent market share.
David Berry, commercial director at Kantar Worldpanel, said, “Superquinn’s focus on its traditional strengths is really working well for the chain, with customers buying more each time they shop and in particular their fresh and chilled offering is proving popular. There has also been significant investment in Superquinn stores recently so perhaps all of the work that has been put into the chain is now starting to pay dividends.”
SuperValu was another reasonably strong performer in the period with its market share hitting 20 per cent.Growth at Dunnes Stores (22.6 per cent market share) and Tesco (27.5 per cent market share) however, has continued to stall. “The recent growth at Dunnes really peaked around Christmas and now it seems, for this period, that has fallen back again. Obviously they had a lot of activity before Christmas and that carried through and created some momentum in January and February. Going forward they will have to try and win back some of that momentum,” says Berry.
Tesco has performed behind the market for the third consecutive month. Aldi and Lidl are continuing to perform well, growing at 30.7 per cent and 5.8 per cent respectively year-on-year.
Overall however, the market continues to move upwards with growth of 0.3 per cent in December, 0.6 per cent in February and 1.5 per cent in March. Grocery inflation stands at 5.7 per cent for the 12-week period, down slightly from 5.8 per cent previously. (3 April)
© 2013 - ESM: European Supermarket Magazine
