The latest Kantar Worldpanel figures have shown that retailer Tesco is back on top in Ireland after more than two years, with an overall market share of 22.3%.
In the period ending 20 May 2018, the retailer's sales rose by 4.5%, ahead of overall market growth (2.8%).
Rivals SuperValu and Dunnes Stores garnered 22.0% and 21.8% of the market, respectively, in the period.
Robust Value Sales
The consumer insight director at Kantar Worldpanel, Douglas Faughnan, explained, "A strategic emphasis on volume sales, particularly through its private-label offering, has been key to Tesco becoming Ireland’s biggest grocer once again.
"While value sales are robust, growing at 4.5% on last year, volume performance has been even stronger," added Faughnan.
"Tesco’s own-label range has been at the centre of its performance, now accounting for more than half of overall sales, following double-digit growth this period," he said.
Fresh-Produce Volume Increase
SuperValu saw its sales grow by a little under 1%, Kantar Worldpanel said. Fresh-produce sales have increased in volume, boosted by the 'SuperValu 7' offer. Volume sales of vegetables saw an increase on last year, with tomatoes, potatoes and carrots experiencing 'particularly strong' growth.
For the first time in more than a year, there was boost in footfall at Dunnes Stores. The retailer received an extra 9,000 shoppers in the last 12 weeks.
It also saw a 3.4% jump in the average price paid and more items in baskets, which supported a growth of 2.6% (compared to last year).
Branded Boost
As for the discounters – Lidl and Aldi – branded sales have helped improve their performance.
Faughnan commented, "Combined, private-label items at Aldi and Lidl still account for over 90% of sales, but both retailers have expanded their branded ranges to attract shoppers and encourage more spend from existing customers.
"Branded sales at Aldi now account for 7.6% of overall sales – up from 6.5% in 2017 – while 11.1% of Lidl’s sales are from branded items, compared to 8.6% at the same time last year. These increases have been central to the overall growth of 2.0% and 3.5% at Aldi and Lidl, respectively," he added.
The introduction of the sugar tax on 1 May has not yet been reflected in volume sales of carbonated soft drinks. In May, total volume sales rose by 4.8% year on year, but Kantar noted that the period of hot weather over the May bank holiday weekend saw other beverage categories, such as fruit squash and mineral waters, rise in volume.
Although the tax has been recently launched, 50% of Irish shoppers said that they were aware of the tariff and found it important.
© 2018 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Karen Henderson. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: European Supermarket Magazine.
