Dunnes Stores is now Ireland’s largest supermarket, overtaking Supervalu in the rankings, the latest figures from Kantar Worldpanel show.

The supermarket share figures for the 12 weeks ending November 6, 2016, show that Dunnes Stores increased its market share to 22.6%, up from 22% this time last year.

Meanwhile, Supervalu lies in second place, 0.2% behind Dunnes, and Tesco takes third position with a market share of 21.4%.

Dunnes’ strong performance is largely down to its continued success in encouraging larger shopping trips via its ‘Shop and Save’ promotional campaign, according to David Berry, Director at Kantar Worldpanel.

Persuading shoppers to add one extra item to every basket, worth €3.20 on average, may not sound like much, but across the country this adds up to an additional €2.8m each week.

“Growth across a wide range of categories has contributed to the retailer’s overall sales increase of 6.7% year on year, with toiletries, alcohol, frozen food and confectionery performing particularly well,” he said.

Now capturing 22.4% of grocery spending, Supervalu continues to enjoy a positive performance with an increase in sales of 2.3% year-on-year.

More shoppers have chosen to visit the retailer this year and they have also spent more, parting with an additional 80c/trip on average, figures from Kantar Worldpanel show.

Compared to last year, Tesco has dropped 1% of the market share, now holding 21.4% while value sales for the past 12 weeks fell by 0.6%.

According to Kantar Worldpanel, Tesco remains on an upward trajectory thanks to volume sales increasing compared with last year’s figures.

Source: Kantar

Source: Kantar

German retailers, Aldi and Lidl, also reported a strong performance over the past 12 weeks with Aldi’s sales growing by 6.6% year-on-year, Berry said.

“Lidl’s share of the market has increased slightly to 11.4%, with sales growth of 5.3%.

Aldi’s strong performance continues with sales growing by 6.6% year-on-year, leading to a healthy increase in market share from 11.1% last year to 11.3% in the past 12 weeks.

“Aldi has seen the biggest boost to its shopper numbers during the latest quarter with an extra 40,000 households visiting the retailer and also returning more often,” he said.