Value sales in Ireland slow as grocery price inflation dips for the first time in almost two years
While grocery price inflation remains high, it has dropped from 16.8% to 16.6% in the 12 weeks to 16 April
Print5 May 2023
Take home grocery sales in Ireland increased by 10.9% in the four weeks to 16 April 2023 as the average price per pack increased, according to the latest data from Kantar. Shopper visits to stores were up 10.6% in April, making an additional two trips compared to last year.
“Although grocery price inflation remains high, it is now lower than the level seen last month, having dropped from 16.8% to 16.6% in the 12 weeks to 16 April. This is the first dip seen in almost two years, which will be welcome news for Irish consumers,” said Emer Healy, senior retail analyst at Kantar.
In the 12 weeks to 16 April 2023, take-home grocery sales increased 11.5%, the highest growth rate seen since February 2021. Consumers are turning to shopping little and often to help manage household budgets. They are also returning to store more often, with visits up 10.2%, which contributed an additional €278.4m to the overall market’s performance alongside a significant increase in average price per pack, up 14% year-on-year.
Celebrations
Irish shoppers enjoyed more celebrations in April, with Easter Sunday and a bank holiday weekend, along with President Biden’s much publicised visit to Ireland,” added Healy.
With many households catering for Easter Sunday dinner, sales of wine, vegetables, lamb and chilled desserts soared by an additional €3.4m, €5.1m, €1.5m and €1.3m respectively. Irish shoppers indulged this holiday as sales of Easter chocolate confectionary soared 13% with shoppers spending an additional €3.7m year-on-year. Sales of own label Easter eggs rose by 28.1% with branded eggs seeing slower growth at 13.9% year-on-year. However, 93% of all Easter eggs sold were still branded products and 37.7% were bought on promotion, up 15.4% compared to last year.
Despite a spell of bad weather, Spring is definitely in the air. Irish shoppers took full advantage of this to start their spring cleaning, spending an additional €5.3m on household and cleaning products, with sales up 10.4% compared to last year.
Own label value ranges
The market saw much stronger own label growth (15.6%) compared to brands (8%) as shoppers look for ways to save money. Value own label had the strongest growth, up 33.4% with shoppers spending €18m more on these ranges. Brands hold 47.5% of the market with own label holding 46.9%.
Online sales remained strong over the 12-week period, up 4%, with shoppers spending an additional €6.5m online year-on-year. Unlike the total grocery market, shoppers returned to the online platform less often, down 3.5% year-on-year and continue to buy less volume compared to last year (-13.5%). However, online attracted new shoppers who contributed an additional €6.9m to its performance, with 16.5% of Irish households purchasing online.
Irish retailer performance update
With frequency driving sales growth, Tesco, SuperValu, Lidl and Aldi all saw growth ahead of the total market during this period.
Dunnes holds the highest share amongst all retailers at 23.2% and with growth of 15.3% year-on-year. This stems from an influx of new shoppers to store, up 1.4 percentage points, and shoppers returning more often, up 6.9%.
Tesco holds 22.4% of the market with growth of 14.9% year-on-year. With the strongest frequency growth amongst all retailers (+13.2% year-on-year), Tesco also saw an increase in new shoppers in store, up 1.7 percentage points.
SuperValu holds 20.7% of the market with growth of 5.7%. SuperValu shoppers make the most trips in-store when compared to all retailers, an average of 23 trips over the 12-week period, which is up 12.6% year-on-year.
Lidl holds 13.3% share and growth of 14.4% year-on-year. An influx of new shoppers and more frequent trips contributed an additional €43.9m to overall performance. Aldi holds 12.1% with growth of 11.4%. A strong boost in new shoppers and more frequent trips contributed an additional €55.2m to overall performance.
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