Grocery price inflation falls for 10th month in a row
Grocery price inflation fell for the tenth month in a row in February, new figures show today, with the decline expected to continue during the rest of the year.
The latest figures from global retail market analyst Kantar show that grocery price inflation fell to 4.7% in the 12 weeks to February 18 from a rate of 5.9% in January.
Today’s figures also show that takehome grocery sales rose by 5.4% in the four weeks to February 18 despite volumes per trip easing by 3.1%.
Frequency of trips continued to be main contributer of growth to the sector, with trips increaseing by 3% on an annual basis, Kantar added.
Emer Healy, Business Development Director at Kantar, said that as consumers continue to closely manage their household budgets and look for the best value, own label goods continued to perform strongly.
She said that own label goods now hold a 46% market share as sales of own label ranges grow ahead of the total market at 7.5% year-on-year, with shoppers spending an additional €112m on an annual basis.
Premium own-label ranges are performing strongly with shoppers spending an additional €19m on these lines, a 12.5% increase compared to this time last year, she noted.
Sales of brand goods were also up 4.7% over the 12 weeks, growing slightly behind the total market, she added.
Ms Healy also said that promotional levels increased after the post-Christmas slowdown as retailers looked for ways to encourage shoppers through their doors.
Over 27% of all spend in the 12 weeks to 18 February was made on items with some promotional offer, up 3.9% on last year.
Today’s figures show that 58% of Irish households bought boxed and gifting chocolates over the 12 weeks to 18 February 2024,
Volumes of boxed and gifting chocolates were up 3.7%, with shoppers spending an extra €1.7m compared to the same time last year.
Kantar noted that shoppers spent an additional €4.3m on chilled ready meals, €1.8m on chilled desserts and €916,000 on sparkling wine on Valentine’s Day.
Meanwhile, shoppers also spent a combined additional €2m on flour, eggs and chocolate spread for Pancake Tuesday, today’s figures show.
Irish retailer performance update
Today’s figures from Kantar show that Dunnes has a 24.3% share of the grocery market with growth of 8.9% year-on-year on the back of more frequent trips, which rose by 5.9% and which contributed an additional €46.7m to the overall performance.
Tesco holds 23.5% of the market, up 8.8% year-on-year. Tesco saw the strongest frequency growth
amongst all retailers for another month in a row, up 12.4% year-on-year, which combined contributed
an additional €91.8m to the overall performance.
SuperValu holds 20.6% of the market and saw growth of 4.2% in the latest period under review. SuperValu shoppers make the most trips instore when compared to all retailers – with an average of 20.9 trips.
Meanwhile, Lidl has a 12.8% market share with growth of 7.2% year-on-year. More frequent trips contributed an additional €34.7m to the retailer’s overall performance.
And Aldi holds a 10.9% market share with more frequent trips and new shopper arrivals contributing an additional €5.2m to the overall performance.
Article Source – Grocery price inflation falls for 10th month in a row – RTE
