Growth in the Northern Irish grocery market accelerated to 14.8% in the 52 weeks ending 21 February, although it slowed slightly in the shorter 12-week period to 12.7%.
Approaching a full year since the start of restrictions in Northern Ireland, the data from Kantar showed lockdowns have meant shoppers have made 20 fewer trips to the supermarket in the past 12 months. However, they have bought extra items when they do visit and volume sales have increased by 18.6% compared with the previous year, picking up two additional items per trip on average.
Looking at individual retailer performances, Emer Healy, retail analyst at Kantar, commented: “Tesco maintained its position as Northern Ireland’s biggest grocer with 35.1% of the market this period. Shoppers continued to pick up more per trip, increasing basket sizes by 22% and adding an extra £240m to Tesco’s overall sales.
“Sainsbury’s grew by 14.2% this period, as shoppers picked up more in store and boosted its overall sales by £78.7m. It was very a similar picture at Asda, where customers increased their trip size by more than at any other retailer, up 28.1%, and total sales rose by 10.6%.
“Lidl achieved the strongest growth among all the retailers at 21.7% with an additional £43m spent in store this period.”
