The latest supermarket share figures from Kantar Worldpanel in Ireland, published today for the 12 weeks ending 5 January, show SuperValu and the discounters as the big winners this Christmas.

David Berry, commercial director at Kantar Worldpanel, explained: “Christmas was a bumper season for SuperValu as it attracted 43,000 more households to come and shop over the holidays. This helped the retailer post market-beating sales growth of 1.3 per cent and edged its market share above 20 per cent for the first time since October 2009. Alcoholic drinks are an important part of the Christmas shop and SuperValu has grown its take home sales by 10 per cent in this category, which has helped it perform ahead of the market.”

The discount retailers Aldi and Lidl were the other big winners, with both enjoying double-digit growth in the final 12 weeks of the year. The German retailers’ December voucher campaigns in the Sunday newspapers look to have had a positive impact, with the average shop growing by more than €2 in each store.

Berry continued: “While Tesco still maintains a clear lead at the top it has lost ground, with its market share falling from 27.8 per cent last year to 26.2 per cent now. The sales decline is beginning to show signs of slowing, which is welcome news for Tesco, with a slight improvement from minus 6.5 per cent in October to minus 6.2 per cent. Dunnes’ sales dropped by 0.9 per cent compared with last year, resulting in a slight dip in market share to 23.9 per cent following four months of positive sales growth for the retailer.”

Price inflation has dropped from 3.4 per cent last month to 2.9 per cent, helped by the pre-Christmas ‘vegetable wars’ seen in a number of retailers. The price of vegetables dropped considerably, with shoppers buying four per cent more compared with last Christmas, despite spending 10 per cent less.