Dunnes Stores has held onto its position as Ireland’s largest supermarket for the second consecutive month, as consumers bought chocolates and flowers, pushing overall grocery sales up by 3 per cent. Dunnes grew its sales by 4.6 per cent in the 12 weeks to February 26th, giving it a total market share of 22.9 per cent, closely tracked by rival Supervalu on 22.6 per cent.
Dunnes’s “Shop & Save” initiative, which gives €10 back on every €50 spent on groceries is still reaping rewards for the retail giant, with the average basket now featuring an extra one and a half items – adding up to an additional €3 per trip and €25 million for the retailer in the past 12 weeks, figures from Kantar show. But its pole position is by no means secure.
More cash
SuperValu remains “hot on the heels of Dunnes”, David Berry, director at Kantar Worldpanel, said, noting that the retailer also managed to convince shoppers to splash a little more cash.
“The average customer spent over €1 more per trip, causing sales to grow by 0.5 per cent amounting to an extra €3 million for the grocer,” he said.
German discount retailers Aldi and Lidl also posted strong growth during the period under review, growing their sales by 5.3 per cent and 4.1 per cent respectively. Over the 12 weeks Aldi managed to attract an additional 20,000 customers into its stores, meaning it has pushed past Lidl, with a market share of 10.8 per cent. Lidl’s uplift in sales enabled the retailer to increase its share of the market to 10.6 per cent.
Tesco was the only retailer to report a drop in sales, with the value of its sales in the period falling by 1 per cent, and its market share dropping back to 21.7 per cent compared with 22.6 per cent in the same period in 2006.
