SuperValu looks set to rival Tesco for top spot

SuperValu continues to close the gap on market-leader Tesco and while its market share has dipped slightly over the last 12 weeks, it is now less than one per cent behind the State's supermarket frontrunner, according to the latest figures from retail analysts Kantar Worldpanel

Tesco remains the most supermarket, but the new figures covering the 12 weeks up to the end of March, show its market share falling from 27.5 per cent at the end of March last year to its current level of 26 per cent, a year on year decline of 6.6 per cent. At the end of 2012, Tesco had a total market share of 27.9 per cent.

Supervalu, which subsumed the Superquinn brand two months ago, also saw its combined market share fall from by 0.1 per cent to 25.2 per cent. The combined market share of Supervalu and Superquinn at the end of 2012 stood at 24.7 per cent.

Market conditions are also tough for Dunnes Store which saw its sales decline be 3.9 per cent over the last 12 weeks. It now has 21.9 per cent of the market compared with 22.5 per cent over the same period last year.

Both Aldi and Lidl are continuing to out-perform the market with both recording strong sales growth over the last 12 weeks with the former growing its market share by 21.9 per cent and the later increasing its slice of the supermarket pie by 11.1 per cent to 7.5 per cent. At the end of 2012 German headquartered Aldi and Lidl both had a market share of 6.2 per cent.

While Tesco continues to attract high numbers of customers through its doors, with the number of shopping trips falling by just 1 per cent, the spend is shrinking with customers picking up an average of one item less per shop.

By contrast Aldi is capturing more spend from its shoppers and each shopping trip has grown by an average €2 per two additional items being added to baskets, according to David Berry, commercial director at Kantar Worldpanel,.

“Lidl has also performed strongly with double digit sales growth for the fourth successive month. This growth is likely to continue in the coming months thanks to a number of recent new store openings,” Mr Berry said.