Irish grocery sales were down 5.2% to €3.1bn during the 12 weeks to 26 December 2021 as consumers enjoyed more freedom to spend money in restaurants and bars compared to last year. However, the figures from Kantar show the market grew by 10.9% compared with the same pre-pandemic period in 2019 as people geared up for a larger Christmas celebrating with friends and family after the restrictions in 2020.
€1.1bn went through tills during December alone, just 0.6% lower than 2020’s record-breaking figure, and an increase of €141m compared with 2019, equivalent to an extra €65 per household.
Emer Healy, senior retail analyst at Kantar, commented: “More guests meant larger trips to the supermarket for many people in the run-up to Christmas. Shoppers were eager to make up for lost time last year and willing to spend a little more on the big day itself to make it special. An extra €3.1m was spent on Christmas dinner, with whole turkey sales up by €1.9m as the public splashed out on a showstopping centrepiece. “
Sales of other festive foods, including Christmas biscuits, cheese and confectionery, were €10.5m greater this year than last December. Kantar highlighted that homegrown Irish brands were popular with standouts including Brennans bread and Keogh’s crisps, which saw sales rise by 6.6% and 34.3% respectively. People’s desire for a more luxurious Christmas also pushed up premium own-label sales to a record-breaking €58m over December, €604,000 more than in 2020.
Over the latest 12 weeks, year-on-year take-home alcohol sales fell by 22.9%, though they were up by 6.7% compared with Christmas 2019. Healy commented: “Pubs were only open for three of the final twelve weeks of 2020, which resulted in unusually high sales of alcohol at supermarkets and independent shops. It was always going to be difficult to match that this year, but the numbers are still positive compared with pre-pandemic.”
She added: “No and low alcohol options had an even stronger performance as the value of the market rose by 12.2% over the year. Young people especially have been buying no and low alcohol products and the sector really has potential to grow this year, particularly as it will be boosted by its exemption from minimum unit pricing and separated stocking rules.”
Meanwhile, online grocery sales continued their strong run this period. Nearly 17% of Irish households purchased groceries digitally over the latest 12 weeks, with sales soaring by 9.3%. Healy said: “The Irish public has really embraced online shopping and more and more people are trusting delivery services to get what they need. Online is far from reaching its ceiling. We’re still seeing new buyers being converted and those shoppers are buying increasingly bigger baskets too.”
As usual, 23 December was the busiest shopping day of the year with people spending a combined €81.6m on their final shop before Christmas. Healy commented: “Despite concerns about supply chain issues and inflation, consumers were confident that retailers would have fully stocked shelves and they left much of their food shopping until the final few days. That boosted retailers over the festive trading period and all the major grocers were in year-on-year growth over the four weeks to 26 December.”
Looking at the full 12 week period, Dunnes retained the number one spot as Ireland’s largest retailer, securing 23.2% of the market. SuperValu and Tesco were both close behind, with shares of 22.2% each, while Lidl and Aldi accounted for 11.7% and 11.6% respectively.
NAM implications:
- Key retail standouts have to be:
- SuperValu, Lidl and Aldi outperformance of Mults average vs 2 years ago.
- Aldi & Lidl combined share exceeding any mult.
- Online grocery ‘nearly 17% of Irish households’
