Growth in The Irish Grocery Market

According to the latest Kantar World Panel figures, the Irish grocery market continues to grow, up around 0.7% for the 12 week period ending October 12th. Sales have increased in volume and value terms, by 1.9% and 0.9% respectively.

Fresh food continues to comprise the largest proportion of the grocery market comprising a 46% share. Ambient food and healthcare products have shown some decline, while alcohol and frozen food have recorded growth. Consumers are trading down and buying more on promotion to manage their budgets. Shopper frequency has increased again this period, however, spend per trip is down. Overall spend per household was €1,215, which showed some decline. However, the challenge remains increasing basket size, as the average shopper spend per trip declined by 4% to €21.40 per trip.

Focusing on the fresh food sector, fresh meat continues to drive sales in this category with consumers spending over €1.2 billion in the fresh meat retail market. This represents a growth of 4.8% in value terms and 4.9% in volume terms in the last year, driven by increased frequency and increased volume per trip. Each of these measures added over €20m to the market, with growing volume per trip and, more recently, frequency per trip also adding value.

For the latest quarterly period the total meat market grew by 7.4% in value and 6.7% in volume. This increase has been driven by growth in beef, lamb, sausages and chicken. Pork and value added meat have both declined in this period, hampering market growth. Lamb lost some shoppers, but grew on all other measures. Pork's decline is driven by reduced shopping frequency and switching losses to chicken. Similarly, bacon has shown a decline as consumers showed less shopping frequency and switched spend to chicken and beef. Value added meat has declined over this period as a result of lost shoppers, with reduced volumes sold and shopper frequency down.

Source: BordBia - Growth in The Irish Grocery Market