The significant upgrade that Dunnes Stores has made to a number of its largest outlets and its product range would appear to be reaping benefits for the retailer with the latest figures from Kantar Worldpanel indicating strong growth strong growth during the 12 week period ending September 11.
The figures show that the retailer increased sales by 6.3% to draw level with Tesco. The two stores now account for 21.6% each of the Irish grocery market, which continues to grow rapidly overall with sales 3.7% year on year during the past 12 weeks.
According to David Berry, director at Kantar Worldpanel, “larger trips have boosted sales for Dunnes, with the average spend increasing by €2.50 to €37.20 in the latest quarter, compared with the same time last year. Dunnes has successfully tempted shoppers to add more expensive items to their baskets, with the average price per item rising to €2.05 – an increase of 12% on last year.”
SuperValu remains Ireland’s largest grocer with a 22.4% share of the market, increasing sales by 3.1% year on year. This is the third consecutive month where growth for the retailer has been above 3%, helped by shoppers adding more items to their baskets on average every time they shop.
While Tesco has seen value sales fall by 2.3% it continues to sell more items, with volume sales 1.9% higher than the same time last year according to Berry. The performance gap between value and volume sales is a reflection of a lower average price point at Tesco, in part the result of its ‘Staying Down Prices’ campaign.
Sales at both Aldi and Lidl, meanwhile, continued to grow with Lidl’s market share standing at 11.7% ahead of Aldi’s 11.4%.
“Lidl’s market share now stands at 11.7% – in line with last year – while sales increased by 4.5%,” says Berry.
“Three core categories have contributed most significantly to the strong performance, with produce, meat and bakery together accounting for €11m of extra sales compared with last year. Lidl has also managed to increase the number of repeat visits its shoppers make, with the average customer returning 11 times over the past 12 weeks compared with fewer than 10 times last year,” he says.
