The Irish grocery market has continued to grow with both the discount retailers, Aldi and Lidl, notching up double digit growth in the latest figures compiled by Kantar Worldpanel.
The figures, which cover the 12 week period to May 25th 2014, show that Aldi’s market share grew to 8%, a 21.6% increase on the same period in 2013 while Lidl saw its market share over the same period rise by 13.2% to 7.9%, just behind rival Aldi.
Mirroring similar trends being experienced by its parent group in the UK, Tesco Ireland saw its share slip to 26.3%. While the retailer is still the largest in Ireland, its share is down by 4.7% on the same period in 2013.
Trailing Tesco was SuperValu which accounted for a 24.8% of the market, a 0.1% decline while Dunnes saw its share increase to 21.4%.
“Dunnes is the only one of the big three retailers to grow its sales this period, albeit by a relatively modest 0.7%. Its clear strategy of offering ‘round euro’ promotional offers is appealing strongly to price-conscious consumers. Some 30% of Dunnes’ in-store sales are now sold on a round euro deal – up from just over 20% a year ago,” says David Berry, commercial director of Kantar Worldpanel.
“SuperValu’s sales remain in line with last year, with a slight dip in market share from 25.2% to 24.8%,” he adds.
“Tesco continues to perform behind its main competitors, but the retailer’s sales have improved since the decline of almost 7% seen at the end of 2013. Interestingly, both retailers have succeeded in recruiting new shoppers this month. SuperValu has gained 32,000 additional shoppers and in so doing has recorded a seventh consecutive month of footfall growth. Tesco’s additional 12,000 customers is more modest, but the trend over the past year has been one of losing shoppers, so this is a welcome change for the retailer.”
