The Northern Irish grocery market experienced growth of 6.8% during the 52 weeks to 12 July. Sales accelerated by 17.1% in the latest 12 weeks as lockdown restrictions remained in place for the majority of the period.
Sales at Asda were up this month by 1.6% thanks to its customers making the biggest additions to their weekly food shop, with basket sizes growing by 15.3%. However, its growth was behind Sainsbury’s, which increased sales by 7.4%. Sainsbury’s success was driven by shoppers making larger trips, up 7.2%
Tesco, which holds the biggest share of the market, grew its sales by 7.5% year-on-year, adding 0.3 percentage points of share this period. Shoppers continued to buy more when in store, with volumes up 7.6% on average, and prices were 1.5% higher than this time last year. Tesco was once again the only retailer to attract new shoppers in the past year.
Meanwhile, Lidl maintained its crown as the best performing retailer – increasing its sales by 10.3% year-on-year and bringing its market share to 6.2%, gaining 0.2 percentage points. Higher average prices in store, up 1.8%, and larger shops, which grew by 10.9%, both contributed to the retailer’s strong numbers this month.
Emer Healy, retail analyst at Kantar, commented: “Shopper trends in the most recent 12 weeks reflected Northern Ireland’s continued lockdown restrictions. We saw sales of hair colourants grow by 83% as shoppers tried to replicate the work of closed hair salons and take-home alcohol sales were also boosted, growing by 73.5%, as pubs and restaurants remained closed until 3 July.”
