Dunnes Stores has leapfrogged SuperValu to take the lead in the Republic's never-ending battle for supermarket supremacy.
The latest share figures from Kantar Worldpanel covering the 12 weeks to the end of January will also make for happy reading for Aldi, which was the strongest performing of the big five supermarkets leading it to overtake its main rival Lidl.
Overall the news was not entirely positive for retailers who failed to sustain the same level of strong growth as was achieved over the Christmas period with grocery sales growth falling to 3 per cent compared with 4.6 per cent in December.
With a market share of 22.7 per cent Dunnes Stores has returned to first place for only the second time, having first held this position in November last year.
There is hardly room for complacency, however as only 0.3 per cent separates the top three.
SuperValu is in second place on 22.5 per cent while Tesco is in third on 22.4 per cent.
Fastest-growing
Aldi continues to set the pace as the fastest-growing retailer with year-on-year growth of 6.3 per cent delivering it a market share of 10.6 per cent compared to the 10.3 per cent enjoyed by Lidl.
“The slowdown in overall market growth has led to even stronger competition between the major supermarkets and it’s tight at the top of the market share table – only 0.3 percentage points separate Dunnes Stores, SuperValu and Tesco.
“This points to a good year for consumers as the retailers battle each other fiercely for their all-important grocery spend, keeping price inflation low. Grocery prices are only 0.7 per cent higher than they were this time last year – which for the average shopper only amounts to an extra 17 cents per trip.”
The supply issues affecting fresh produce in the last few weeks have contributed to the dampening of the overall market.
"Southern Europe might be suffering from continuing rainfall but it's having a substantial impact on Irish shopping baskets. Courgettes, cauliflower and spinach have all seen volume sales drop by at least 20 per cent while a host of other categories including lettuce and cabbages have been affected to a lesser degree," Mr Berry said.
