Irish consumers made the most of their Easter break this year, buying nearly 100,000 chocolate eggs in recent weeks and increasing their spend on the Easter treats by over €3million this year compared to 2016.
According to the latest grocery market share figures from Kantar Worldpanel in Ireland, which cover the 12 week period up to April 23rd , shoppers were more than willing to spend heavily on traditional seasonal favourites such as Easter eggs, hot cross buns and fresh lamb. Supermarket sales were boosted by the growing popularity of some seasonal favourites with the Kantar figurers revealing sales of hot cross buns jumping by 24% increase buns, a 9% increase in the sale of Easter eggs and fresh lamb sales increasing by 10%.
This boost comes during a time of deflation within the grocery industry with the cost of groceries has fallen slightly in recent months although few consumers are likely to notice much benefit from a 0.3% price decline.
In terms of the ongoing fierce battle for number one supermarket, SuperValu have remained in top spot with 22.8% of the market, which is up 1.8% compared to this time last year.SuperValu was also the only one of the country’s top five grocers’ to have attracted more shoppers within the period with an additional 8,000 customers visiting the supermarket in the past 12 weeks compared to the same period the year before.
Dunnes Stores remained in second place but posted the strongest growth in sales out of all the major retailers. The retailer’s sales increased by an impressive 5.1% since last year. This growth has been caused in part by shoppers adding more to their baskets, with an average spend of just under €40, almost €17 higher than the average for the grocery market.Tesco saw sales fall by 0.6% meaning the chain now occupies 21.6%of the market. Lidl remains slightly on top with a market share of 11.3% while Aldi commands 11%.
