GROCERY market figures from Kantar Worldpanel in Ireland, published for the 12 weeks ending August 13, show that despite strong sales growth of 3.4% by Tesco, SuperValu has retained the position of Ireland’s largest grocery retailer.

David Berry, director at Kantar Worldpanel, comments: “A year-on-year sales growth of 0.4% was enough for SuperValu to hold onto the top spot in the face of a strong challenge from Tesco. SuperValu has improved the number of items sold per trip but has done so at a lower price point and now holds a 22.2% share of the grocery market, down 0.3 percentage points on last year.

“This is the fourth consecutive period of growth for Tesco, which is a clear indication that it’s achieved a turnaround in performance. This is also only the second time since July 2014 that Tesco has posted a year-on-year increase in market share.”

The overall grocery market has seen growth of 2.2% despite deflation holding steady at 0.5% for the second month in a row.

In third place behind SuperValu and Tesco, Dunnes Stores has maintained its market share at 21.1%, with sales increasing by 2.0% in comparison with last year.

David Berry continues: “There are some interesting dynamics boosting Dunnes’ performance this period. The number of households shopping with the retailer has fallen from 64% to 59% — that’s a reduction of 68,000 in absolute terms. However, this decline in footfall is cancelled out by a healthy improvement in how much shoppers are spending. The average Dunnes basket now includes an additional item and is worth an extra €2, suggesting that it’s performing well in the larger ‘main’ shop of the week and less so among smaller top-up trips. If Dunnes can encourage some of its lapsed shoppers to return to the store then it could be seeing a healthy increase in sales growth and market share.”

Lidl continues to perform ahead of the market, with sales growth of 2.7% ensuring the retailer could achieve a market share ahead of 12.0% for a second period.

Meanwhile, Aldi has tied with Tesco for the title of fastest growing retailer this period. Its sales growth of 3.4% has improved its market share to 11.5%.