Grocery price inflation has fallen to its lowest level in Ireland since last September, according to latest figures from Kantar.
Over the 12 weeks to September 3, grocery price inflation fell to 11.5% Kantar said today (Monday, September 18).
Emer Healy, business development director at Kantar, said the slowdown was “welcome news” for consumers.
“This is the fourth month in a row that there has been a drop, down 1.3 percentage points compared to last month, which is encouraging for both shoppers and retailers.
“Although the rate of inflation is still relatively high, it is the lowest level we have seen in the last 12 months, and we expect it to continue to fall over the coming months,” Healy added.
According to Kantar’s latest research there was a major surge in back to school grocery sales in the four weeks leading up to September 3.
School shopping
Healy said: “Regardless of rising costs, parents had to prepare for the end of summer and schools reopening at the start of the month.
“This is an important time for many consumers with parents stocking up and getting ready for the return of the packed lunch.
“As a result, shoppers spent an additional €7.4 million on biscuits, €1 million on breakfast cereals, €2.2 million on cheese and €947,000 on bread.”
The latest research shows that take-home grocery sales in Ireland increased by 7.9% in the four weeks to September 3, and the average price per pack increased by 8.8%.
Kantar said shoppers visited stores more often this month, making one additional trip versus last month, but on average they bought one item less per month.
Sales of own-label products were up 11.9% in the 12 weeks running up to September 3 – more than double the sales growth of brands at 5%.
Meanwhile, value own-label ranges had the strongest growth – up 17.8%, with shoppers spending an additional €10.3 million year-on-year “as they look to save money at the tills” according to Kantar .
The breakdown of grocery sales in Ireland show own-label value share was 47.9%, while brands had a value share of 46.6%.
Online sales were also strong over the 12-week period under review, increasing by 18.5% year-on-year as shoppers spent an additional €27 million online.
It also shows that the biggest supermarket retailers – Dunnes, Tesco and Supervalu – continued to dominate the grocery market in Ireland.
Dunnes now holds 23% of the market with growth of 11.1% year-on-year and saw strong boost in new shoppers – up 3 percentage points year-on-year.
Tesco has 22.6% of the market with growth of 11.5% year-on-year and recorded the strongest frequency growth among all retailers.
SuperValu holds 20.6% of the market and had the smallest growth of 4% but its customers visited their sstores most frequently compared to other retailers, making according to Kantar, 21.3 trips on average.