Dunnes Stores tops the grocery market for the three months to February 25 in share figures released by Kantar Worldpanel. Growth for the period was up by 3.9 per cent to €96 million. Dave Berry, director, Kantar Worldpanel, said two factors led to the growth. First, shoppers bought slightly more expensive items, reflected in sales growth for brands.
Secondly, customers have picked up more items during their weekly shop, spending 60c more than this time last year. Dunnes won 23.1 per cent of shoppers’ spend. Growth remains strong at five per cent but it dipped from a high of 5.7 per cent last period. Tesco tops the growth charts, with sales up by almost seven per cent and market share hitting 22.3 per cent.
This time last year Tesco faced some store closures due to strikes and its most recent performance reflects this. The strongest performance for Tesco has been among younger shoppers, with share among the young family demographic increasing from 26.5 per cent last year to 29.3 per cent this year. SuperValu is third with market share of 22 per cent.
The Musgrave retailer continues to grow outside its normal base. Two areas that stand out are young families, where market share increased by almost two points, and Dublin, where sales were up by 3.5 per cent. Lidl was second in terms of growth, with an uplift in sales of 5.9 per cent. An increase in loyalty is behind this, with shoppers returning to the store more often.
It resulted in an extra 780,000 trips for Lidl this period, compared with last year. Having previously reported a drop in sales, Aldi is back on track. Sales increased by 1.3 per cent and market share stands at 10.6 per cent – just 0.2 percentage points behind Lidl.
