A lack of sunny weather saw shoppers spend €1.6 million less on chilled salads, burgers, grills and sausages this June compared to the same month last year, according to new report from Kantar.
Although the sun may not have been shining there was an improved outlook in relation to grocery inflation in Ireland, which in the 12 weeks to June 9, 2024 stood at 2.5%, this represented the lowest inflation level since March 2022, the report also detailed.
The latest figures show that take home grocery sales increased by 3.4% in the four weeks to June 9 but while the lack of warm, summer weather may have impacted on barbecue category sales, it also led to an increase in sales of other categories like “winter warmers”.
According to Emer Healy, business development director at Kantar, there was a bounce in bank holiday weekend spending at the start of the month as sales of savoury snacks, confectionary and beer and lager were up 16%,11.9% and 13.1% respectively.
But she also highlighted that there was an increase in soup sales and home baking “which added €1 million and €500,000 to the tills, respectively”.
Kantar
The latest research also suggests that “home grown” brands remain a firm favourite with Irish shoppers.
It also highlights that sales of own label performed strongly, growing ahead of the total market at 4.9% year-on-year with shoppers spending an additional €73.5 million year-on-year.
However premium own label ranges also continued to perform well with shoppers spending an additional €16.8 million on these which was up 11.4% compared to this time last year.
Sales of brands also remain popular and were also up by 3.9% over the 12 weeks reviewed by Kantar with shoppers spending an additional €57.9m on branded items.
Retailers
According to Kantar Dunnes holds 23.4% market share with growth of 6.2% year-on-year.
It attributed this growth ” to more frequent trips but also larger trips”, which it said contributed a combined €20.8 million to their overall performance.
Meanwhile Tesco holds 23.1% of the market which is up 6.2% year-on-year.
“Tesco saw a strong increase in trips to stores up 7.2% year-on-year, which contributed an additional €51.1 million to their overall performance,” Kantar detailed.
Following these two retailers is SuperValu which holds 20.5% of the market with 2.8% growth.
” SuperValu shoppers make the most trips in store when compared to all retailers, an average of 21.6 trips, and the retailer also saw the strongest growth in volume per trip amongst all retailers, up 8.3%.
SuperValu was the only retailer to attract new shoppers into its stores in the latest 12-week period under review, contributing a combined €66.3 million additional to their overall performance,” Kantar added.
But it was Lidl, which holds 13.9% share of the market with growth of 5.6% year-on-year, that recorded the most frequent trips amongst all retailers, and this contributed an additional €38.5 million to overall performance.
The latest report also showed that Aldi holds 11.8% market share, with more frequent trips contributing an additional €12.2 million to their overall performance.