Latest data from Kantar shows that take-home sales at grocers in Ireland increased by 6.4% over the four weeks to 3 November, reaching €1.16bn, making it the biggest sales month of the year. Grocery inflation stood at 3.3%, which is down 6.15ppts versus the same time last year.
Irish households shopped more often in October, up 2.6% compared to last year, stocking up for Halloween, the bank holiday ahead of the school mid-term break and Christmas, leading to a 5.4% overall increase in volume sales. While pumpkin sales increased by 4.5% (€63k), sales of brussels sprouts surged up 43% as shoppers spent an additional €149k on the traditional festive staple.
Eimear Faughnan, Head of Retail at Kantar, commented: “October was an important month for Irish shoppers as they prepared for the first school holiday of the new term and Halloween, enjoying above-average temperatures that delayed the need to don winter woollies. Shoppers stocked up on Halloween treats, spending a ‘frightening’ €8.9m more than last year on chocolate confectionery. €2.4m on savoury snacks and €1.6m on sweets.
“But it’s clear that Irish households are also preparing for the holiday season. Shoppers spent an additional combined €774k on flour, fruits & nuts, icing & cake mixes as they ready their Christmas cakes.”
Over the 12-week period, shoppers took advantage of promotions, spending an additional €40m on deals compared to the previous period. The share of products sold on promotion was 18.5%. Branded products outperformed own label for the third consecutive 12-week period, resulting in a 2.6 percentage-point gap, as shoppers boosted branded value sales by 7%.
Meanwhile, online sales rose by 11.8% year-on-year, with shoppers spending an additional €21.5m through this channel. The number of online shopping trips increased by 16.5%, adding €29 million to the channel.
Looking at the performance of the leading retailers, Dunnes held 24.5% of the market, with sales growth of 9% as shoppers increased their number of trips by 7.3%, contributing an additional €55.9m to its overall performance.
Tesco controlled 23.4% of the market, with value growth of 9.6%, as shoppers increased their trips to its stores by 6.7%.
SuperValu held 19.7% of the market after growth of 2.3%. Consumers made the most shopping trips to this grocer, averaging 24.4 trips. The increased number of shopping trips and additional items picked up per trip contributed €28.8m to its performance.
Lidl delivered growth of 6.3%, capturing a 13.5% share of total spending. Increased store visits and higher volume per trip contributed to an additional €26.3m in sales compared to the same period last year. Meanwhile, Aldi grew by only 1.2%, with its market share falling to 11.5% despite increased store visits driving an additional €16.4m in sales.
NAM Implications:
- Ireland was always more brand loyal, and less attracted to own label than UK shoppers.
- And consumer confidence is growing, especially in anticipation of Christmas.
- Meanwhile, Dunns and Tesco growing share…
- …while Aldi share losses continue to be a puzzle.
- (But clearly the discounter model works as per Lidl, albeit both underperforming vs the market…)
