Although value sales are up, grocery-price inflation is the real driving factor behind this rather than increased purchasing. Grocery inflation rose by 14.7 per cent in the 12 weeks to July 9, but was down from last month’s 15.8 per cent, and a new low this year.
Emer Healy, business development director at Kantar, comments: “This is the second month in a row there has been a drop in inflation, which is welcome news for shoppers. Although the rate is still high, with just a 1 per cent drop since January, we expect to see further gradual decline over the coming months”. The average annual increase to household spending over the past 12 months has actually been €427.
Emer adds: “While shoppers are returning to store more often, they are picking up less volume per trip, while there has also been more out of home dining during summer”.
Shoppers value Irish brands
The Irish market continues to see stronger own-label growth (13.3 per cent) compared to brands (7.6 per cent) as shoppers look to save money. Value own label saw the strongest growth year-on-year at 26.3 per cent with shoppers spending €14.2m more on these ranges.
However, according to Kantar’s latest Brand Footprint report, Irish shoppers value home-grown brands, with four out of the top five most chosen brands being Irish. The average Irish household buys of 81 different food and drink brands in a year, showing just how important brands are for Irish consumers.
Irish consumers have not let the recent wet weather dampen their spirits with typical barbeque categories performing well as consumers spent an additional €3.6m on chilled burgers and grills, and ice cream combined.
With children off school and Irish shoppers taking time off for the summer, typical items for homemade lunches and picnics such as cooked meats, yoghurts, chilled prepared salads, and hot beverages all saw a significant boost in sales, up €6.1m year-on-year. With all these outdoor summer celebrations in full swing over July, Irish consumers also raised a toast with alcohol sales up 11.2 per cent year-on-year.
Online sales remained strong over the 12 weeks, up 6 per cent year-on-year with shoppers spending an additional €9m on the platform, a significant boost on June’s increase of €3.5m. More frequent trips online boosted its performance contributing an additional €8.5m.
Irish retailer performance update
For another month in a row, Dunnes, Tesco and Lidl all grew ahead of the total market in terms of value this month. The gap between the retailers is closing as it becomes even more competitive for the highest share. Just 0.1 per cent separates Dunnes and Tesco, while last August saw a similar situation between the two retailers.
Dunnes holds the highest share amongst all retailers at 22.7 per cent with growth of 14.5 per cent year-on-year. This growth is down to shoppers returning to store more often (+2.9 per cent year-on-year) together with a 2.6 percentage points increase in new shoppers in-store.
Tesco holds 22.6 per cent of the market with growth of 13.6 per cent year-on-year. Tesco has the strongest frequency growth amongst all retailers, up 18.4 per cent year-on-year, contributing an additional €106.1m to overall performance along with a 0.3 percentage points increase in new shoppers in-store.
SuperValu holds 20.7 per cent of the market and growth of 6.7 per cent. SuperValu shoppers make the most trips in store when compared to all of the retailers, an average of 23.5 trips, which is up 12 per cent compared to the same time last year.
Lidl hit a new record share of 13.9 per cent with growth of 14.4 per cent year-on-year. More frequent trips contributed to an additional €47.2m to overall performance. With strong market growth, Lidl holds the potential to hit 14 per cent market share by the end of the summer.
Aldi holds 12.5 per cent and growth of 9.7 per cent year-on-year. A strong boost in more frequent trips has contributed an additional €41.6m to its overall performance.