New figures from Kantar today show that take-home grocery sales increased by 5.4% in the four weeks to September 1 as Irish households prepared for the new school year.
Shopping frequency increased by 0.7% in September, along with an increase in average prices of 2.4%, while volumes per trip were also up slightly by 0.4% after six months of decline.
Today’s Kantar figures show that despite inflation rising to 2.8% over the last 12 weeks to September 1 compared to the same time last year, it is still the lowest inflation level since March 2022 and is down 8.5 percentage points from September 2023.
Emer Healy, Business Development Director at Kantar, said that shoppers continue to take advantage of promotional offers from retailers with spending on promotions up 9.6% compared to this time last year.
Shoppers were also drawn to retailers’ own label ranges in the latest period under review. Sales of own label products performed strongly, up 4.5% year-on-year, holding a value share of 47%, with shoppers spending an additional €66.8m on these ranges.
Emer Healy noted that premium ranges also continued to do well, with shoppers spending an additional €14.2m on these lines, an increase of 10.2% on the same time last year.
“However, with major retailers heavily promoting brands in their recent advertising campaigns, branded goods outpaced total market growth, increasing by 8.4%, with shoppers spending an additional €121m compared to last year,” she stated.
Over 60% of branded products were purchased on some form of promotion, a 9.8% increase on the same time last year.
Kantar said that as the back-to-school season approached in late August and early September, parents starting preparing for the return of school routines, including packed lunches.
This led to additional €2.1m being spent on biscuits, €1.3m on cheese and €460,000 on bread.
Shoppers also turned to quick meal options, resulting in an extra €2.6m spent on chilled convenience foods compared to August.
Today’s figures show show that online sales were up 10.7% as shoppers spent an extra €18.2m year-on-year.
Meanwhile, Dunnes held a 23.6% market share with growth of 9.4% year-on-year in the latest figures from Kantar.
Dunnes had the strongest growth in trips amongst all the retailers, up 12% year-on-year and contributing an additional €83.6m to the chain’s overall performance.
Tesco holds a 23.5% of the market, up 10.4% year-on-year, with its growth mainly coming from more frequent trips, which contributed an additional €32.9m to its overall performance.
Meanwhile, SuperValu holds a 19.9% share of the market with growth of 2.5% with its shoppers making the most trips in-store when compared to all retailers – 21.8 trips on average, an increase of 2.5% year-on-year.
Lidl holds 13.7% share with growth of 6.9% year on year. More frequent trips in-store, alongside new shoppers, contributed an additional combined €27m to its overall performance.
And Aldi holds an 11.8% market share with growth of 1% year on year, with more frequent trips contributing an additional €9.4m to its overall performance.
Article Source – Monthly grocery sales rise by 5.4% in latest four week period – RTE
