Ireland’s top brand is Avonmore, according to the fifth annual Brand Footprint Ireland ranking which is published by Kantar Worldpanel.
The Brand Footprint rankings measure which brands are being bought by the most consumers the most often with Irish brands Brennan’s, Denny and Jacob’s also making it into the top four.
While competition in the market from own-label products has intensified over the last year, six of this year’s top 10 brands – Avonmore, Brennan’s, Jacob’s, Heinz, Coca Cola and Tayto- have seen the frequency at which their goods are bought increase by an average of 6.6%. However, across eight of the top ten names the percentage of the population buying the brand has gone down, and overall branded sales have decreased by 0.2% in comparison to private label growth.
According to David Berry, director of Kantar Worldpanel in Ireland: “Brands across all sectors are finding the Irish retail landscape more challenging. Traditional retailers have responded to a more competitive marketplace by expanding and improving their own-label lines – and brands and manufacturers are feeling the impact. While own label is growing by almost 6.2%, the proportion of the population buying the top 10 branded products is down by an average 2.8%.
“Consumer behaviour is changing at a rapid pace. To keep up, brands and manufacturers will need to recognise consumer needs which aren’t being met or demographic group which are under-performing and come up with innovative new products and experiences that can successfully tap into these markets,” he says.
Avonmore leads the Irish ranking for the fifth consecutive year thanks to 73.4% of the population picking it from supermarket shelves an average of 28.8 times a year. Brennan’s and Denny remain in second and third place respectively while Jacob’s has climbed one place to fourth as consumers buy its products 3.4% more often than the year before.
The biggest success story of this year’s ranking is fish specialist John West, which has risen 16 places to 37th in the overall Irish ranking by achieving the highest penetration increase among any brand in the top 50. This has been driven by a strong consumer response to new product innovation such as its John West Steam Pots range, which meet the growing trend for convenient food options among consumers.
