Supervalu has leapfrogged Tesco in the never-ending race to be number one in the Irish supermarket sweeps while Dunnes Stores is now close to knocking the British retail giant into third place.

The latest supermarket share figures from Kantar Worldpanel in Ireland show SuperValu growing its share of the market by 2.5 per cent over the 12 week period to November 8th.

The growth takes its market share to 24.6 per cent, a full half a point higher than Tesco which saw its sales shrink by 0.7 per cent over the same period.

Tesco is now dangerously close to falling into third place with Dunnes Stores now just 0.4 per cent behind it.

The latest raft of figures from the retail analysts show that retailer continuing its successful performance, with growth in value sales of 3.3 per cent taking its total share of the market to 23.7 per cent

The success of Dunnes Stores is attributable mainly to larger, more frequent shopping trips with Dublin, it’s now the number one retailer, proving to be a key source of growth .

According to the figures, Lidl maintains its position as the retailer with the strongest sales growth and has been the only grocer to expand its customer base during the past 12 weeks.

It has recruited more than 40,000 new shoppers this year, helping to grow sales by 11.2 per cent which takes its market share to 8.7 per cent. Like Dunnes, Lidl has drawn much of its success from expansion in the capital, having increased footfall in Dublin by 33,000 compared to last year.

The picture looks good for Aldi too. Its performance remains ahead of the overall market, with sales growth of 3.6 per cent and market share increasing to 8.5%.

"The grocery market is arguably the most competitive retail sector and the latest figures emphasise this," said David Berry, director at Kantar Worldpanel.

He said SupeValu’s jump was “the strongest growth rate recorded by [IT]since August 2013, which the retailer has achieved by encouraging more repeat shopping trips. The average consumer has visited the retailer on two additional occasions and spent an extra €16 over the past quarter when compared with last year.”

While Tesco sold more items over the 12-week period in 2015 compared with last year, it was sold a lower price point, leading to a slight decline in value sales of 0.7 per cent. Market share for Tesco has dipped to 24.1 per cent, compared with 24.8% this time last year.