Grocery sales are expected to exceed €1.4 billion for the first time ever in December, according to the latest predictions from Kantar.
New figures from Kantar today show that take-home grocery sales increased by 7.2% in the four weeks to November 26.
Kantar noted that shoppers visited stores more often in November, making an average of 21.3 trips over the month, an increase of 4.4% on last year. But volumes per trip continued to decline on last year, dipping by 4.4%.
Today’s figures also show that grocery price inflation fell to 8.6% in the 12 weeks to 26 November – the seventh month in a row that there has been a drop in grocery inflation and the lowest level since August 2022.
Emer Healy, Business Development Director at Kantar, said this gradual decline in inflation rates is expected to continue over the coming months.
Kantar said the percentage of packs sold on promotion rose by 1.9% compared to last month to 26.7%, up 15.3% year-on-year. Own label goods continue to be popular with sales up 10.4% in the latest 12 weeks but down by a slight 0.4 percentage point decrease on last month.
Kantar noted that Irish consumers have been getting in the mood for the festivities with premium own label products up 10.6% with shoppers spending an additional €13.4m on these items compared to last year.
Own label value share currently stands at 46.6% with brands holding 48.5% of share, up 1.1% compared to last month as shoppers turn to trusted brands in the lead up to Christmas.
Emer Healy said the Irish grocery landscape is as competitive as ever with retailers continuing to battle it out to offer the best value to consumers by keeping prices competitive.
She said the cost of a Christmas dinner for four has risen by 3.2%, well below the overall average growth in price per pack of 5.4%, with some festive items even falling in price.
Brussels sprouts and Christmas pudding are down, 0.6% and 22% respectively, compared to last year.
Kantar expects Saturday December 23 to be the busiest day in store this year as €96m in value sales rang through the tills the same day last year.
Meanwhile, online sales remained strong over the 12-week period, up 25.7%, with shoppers spending an additional €37.3m on the platform compared to last year.
Today’s figures show that Dunnes, Tesco and Lidl all grew ahead of the total market in terms of value this month.
Dunnes hit a new record share of 24.2% and growth of 11.7% year-on-year. This growth was driven by a strong boost in new shoppers, along with more volume per trip, which both contributed an additional €31m to overall performance.
Tesco has 23% of the market and growth of 11.4% year-on-year. Kantar noted that Tesco had the strongest frequency growth amongst all retailers once more, up 11.2% year-on-year, as well as seeing new shoppers in store, which combined contributed an additional €81.1m to overall performance.
Meanwhile, SuperValu holds 20.6% of the market with growth of 6.2%. Its shoppers made the most trips in-store compared to the other retailers – an average of 22.6 trips – which along with a boost in volume per trip contributed an additional €47m to their overall performance.
Lidl holds 13.2% share and growth of 10.4% year on year with more frequent trips contributing an additional €39.3m to the supermarket’s overall performance. And Aldi holds a 11.7% market share with growth of 1.4% year-on-year. More frequent trips contributed an additional €17.3m to its overall performance.
Article Source – Grocery price inflation falls again to 8.6% – RTE