Dunnes closing the gap on SuperValu

Dunnes had moved level with Tesco in the previous quarter and is now nearly 1% better off — in market share terms — than it was this time last year.

Dunnes is now just 0.4% behind SuperValu, in market share terms, having been nearly 1% adrift in the previous quarter.

For a second period running, Dunnes’ till sales were up by over 6% — well ahead of the market average growth of 3.9%.

SuperValu’s over-the-counter sales grew by 2.9%, in the latest period, and Tesco was the only one of the traditional players to see a drop, till sales falling by 1.3%.

“The biggest factor driving growth for Dunnes, over the past year, has been an increase in the size of the average shopping trip, which has grown by €3 to €38.10.

"The retailer with the next largest trip size is Aldi, where shoppers part with €25.10 on average — €13 less than at Dunnes,” said Kantar Worldpanel director, David Berry.

“Since its introduction Dunnes’ ‘Shop and Save’ [voucher scheme] initiative has gone from strength-to-strength.

The campaign has been very successful in persuading shoppers to spend more, and we’ve seen a whopping 18% increase in shopping trips where consumers spend over €100 since last year,” Mr. Berry added.

While Tesco sales remained in decline, the latest dip was its lowest level of sales decline here since May.

Aldi and Lidl, meanwhile, have maintained their market shares of around 11.5%, but both saw improved sales growth last quarter.

“In what looks like a shift to an increasing reliance on its own brand lines, branded items accounted for just 10% of Lidl’s sales during the past 12 weeks compared to over 20% in 2012,” said Mr Berry.

“Lidl has increased its share of the market to 11.6%, with sales growth of 5.1%: the average Lidl shopper visited the retailer 11 times over the past quarter,” he added.

Meanwhile, Kantar said Irish grocery market inflation stood at 1.3% in the 12 weeks under review, down from 2.2% last month.