The Northern Irish grocery market has continued to grow, with overall sales up 1.0% during the 52 weeks to 11 August 2019. The data from Kantar shows shoppers are making smaller but more frequent trips, on average heading to the shops nearly 12 extra times during the year. While volume sales continue to decline, falling by 0.5%, a 1.6% increase in prices is driving growth in the overall market.
Commenting on individual retailer performances, Charlotte James, consumer insight director at Kantar, said: “Tesco’s market share held steady at 35.0% as it was once again the only big three retailer to achieve growth, increasing sales by 0.3% over the year. Tesco is following a similar trend to the overall market, with the average number of items bought per shopper down by 2.5%.
“Sales at Sainsbury’s and Asda declined by 0.6% and 0.8% respectively. Sainsbury’s attracted more customers, with 70% of Northern Irish households shopping at the retailer over the year, but smaller baskets and less frequent trips have driven an overall decline in sales. At Asda, shoppers visiting more regularly failed to offset smaller basket sizes and a fall in customer numbers.
“Lidl is the only retailer to buck the trend and increase its market share this period. It successfully increased its customers’ basket sizes to an average of 15 items per trip, compared to 14 this time last year. While Lidl has experienced a fall in shopper numbers and frequency of trips, but overall volumes are up 5.7%.”
NAM Implications:
- How much longer can you afford to be surprised by Lidl growth, anywhere?
- i.e. a 5.7% growth rate has to be worth your attempts to find ways of working with Lidl.
