Grocery prices continue to rise faster than overall inflation
Grocery sales increased during the four weeks leading up to September 1 as households prepared for school resuming.
Despite headline inflation dipping below 2% for the first time in over three years, grocery price inflation still remains higher at 2.8%, the latest data from market research firm Kantar shows.
In the 12 weeks to September 1, grocery prices increased by 2.8% compared to last year. This is the same level of increase recorded in August. During last month, the Consumer Price Index rose by 1.7% — down from 2.2% in July.
According to Kantar, grocery sales increased by 5.4% in the four weeks to September 1 as Irish households prepared for the new school year. This led to an increased spending on biscuits, an increase of €2.1m, cheese, up €1.3m, and bread, up €460,000.
Shoppers also spent an additional €2.6m on chilled convenience foods compared to August.
Retailers' own-brand options continue to grow in popularity with shoppers with sales up 4.5% year-on-year holding a market share of 47%. Shoppers spent an additional €66.8m year-on-year on these ranges.
Premium ranges also continued to do well, with shoppers spending an additional €14.2 million on these lines, up 10.2% compared to this time last year.
However, with major retailers heavily promoting brands in recent ad campaigns, branded goods outpaced total market growth, increasing by 8.4%, with shoppers spending an additional €121m compared to last year.
Over 60% of branded products were purchased on some form of promotion, a 9.8% rise from the same period last year.
Dunnes Stores held the largest share of consumer spend during September after losing it to Tesco last month. Dunnes’ market share stood at 23.6% market share while Tesco held 23.5%.
SuperValu holds 19.9% of the market while Lidl and Aldi hold 13.7% and 11.8% respectively.
