Discount chains benefit from growth in Irish grocery market

Discount grocery chains benefitted from the first growth seen in the Irish supermarket sector in six months, with both Lidl and Aldi boosting their market share.

According to the newest figures from Kantar Worldpanel in Ireland, the 12-week period ending April 27th saw an €18 million rise in sales.

"During the recession shoppers turned to 'little and often' shopping to control their spending, but this trend is now showing signs of reversing," said David Berry, commercial director at Kantar Worldpanel. "The latest figures show consumers making slightly fewer shopping trips but buying more groceries each time. This means bigger baskets and an increase overall of the volume of goods purchased, which has provided an €18 million boost in grocery sales in this 12-week period."

Aldi saw its sales rise 22 per cent over the period, lifting its share of the market to 8 per cent, with Lidl increasing sales by 12 per cent in the period to reach 7.6 per cent of the total grocery market.

Aldi's group buying director Rob Farrell said the company had heavily invested in its product range and its Irish sourced products, tripling its annual spend on Irish goods over the past five years.

Supervalu, which recently rebranded its Superquinn stores around the country, increased sales with an additional 18,000 shoppers visiting the retailer over the period. The company now has 25.1 per cent of the Irish grocery sector.

Martin Kelleher, managing director of SuperValu said the company was also hoping drive down the cost of the average grocery basket, which would cause deflation in the market but increase footfall in its stores.

Tesco remains the biggest retailer in the Irish market, although its sales continued to fall, declining by just over 4 per cent in the period, bringing it to 26.3 per cent of the supermarket sector. That was the smallest decline since July last year, indicating that the retailer's sales may be showing some stabilisation.

Dunnes Stores also continued to decline, but shoppers were spending more, Kantar said.