Take-home grocery sales in Ireland increased by 1.8% in the 12 weeks to 4 September, due mostly to a 7.8% increase in average prices, as grocery price inflation hit 11%.
The data from Kantar showed that in the four weeks to 4 September, the price of back-to-school essentials (bread, ham, cheese, yoghurt, cereal and milk) rose by 19.5%, making a basket of these staples €2 more expensive. The most basic items saw some of the biggest jumps, with bread up 20%, ham up 12%, milk up 26%, and yoghurt up 17%. Collectively, shoppers in Ireland spent an additional €17m on these products compared to the same period last year, driven entirely by price as volumes were down 6%.
Emer Healy, a senior analyst at Kantar, commented: “Grocery price inflation is at its highest level since Kantar began tracking grocery price inflation in May 2008. As food and drink prices continue to climb alongside increasing pressure on other household bills, the impact is unavoidable for many Irish consumers. The average annual grocery bill could go from €6,985 to €7,753 – that’s an additional €768 a year that Irish consumers will have to spend if they do not make any changes to what they currently buy or where they shop.”
As consumers search for better value, the biggest winners have been supermarket own-label lines. In the latest 12 weeks, sales of these products were up 5.8%, representing an additional €72m year-on-year. Value own-label ranges, the cheapest products available, saw even stronger growth, up 21.4% compared to the same period last year as shoppers spent an additional €10.2m.
Kantar noted that the cost-of-living crisis has also encouraged an influx of new shoppers to go online. In the last four weeks alone, volumes were up as shoppers increased their packs per trip by 2.9%, contributing an additional €6.8m to the overall market performance. More than one-in-10 Irish shoppers (12%) now purchase their groceries online.
Appealing to the need for better deals helped all the major retailers to grow in the last 12 weeks. Market leader Dunnes (22.3% value share) saw growth of 7.2% year-on-year, driven by an influx of new shoppers (up 4.7%), and an increase in shopping trips (up 1.7%). Dunnes traditionally performs well at back-to-school times and experienced strong own-label growth of 13% year-on-year.
Tesco sits second with a 21.9% share after seeing sales up 3.9% compared to last year as shoppers returned to its stores more often (6.6%). Meanwhile, SuperValu (21.4% share) continued to attract more trips than any other retailer, with an average of 21.5 trips made in the last 12 weeks.
Lidl holds 13.2% share after growing 3.5% year-on-year, while Aldi sits at 12.7% share – an increase of 1.4% as a result of existing shoppers returning to its stores more often.
