The National Consumer Agency (NCA) says its latest survey of grocery prices shows intense competition in the 'own brand' area of the market.
The latest survey, the third carried out by the NCA, covered a range of products at Dunnes Stores, Superquinn, Tesco, Supervalu, Spar, Centra, Eurospar, Aldi and Lidl.
Chief executive Ann Fitzgerald said competition was concentrated on the 'own brand', with the difference in prices between the multiples and discount stores Aldi and Lidl narrowing.
'We believe that this is the result of the multiples now directly competing with Aldi and Lidl on own brand goods due to increased publicity around lower prices offered by the discounters,' she said.
Comparing Aldi, Lidl, Tesco and Dunnes Stores, there was a price differential of 59.3% between the cheapest and dearest outlets on a basket of 19 items in December 2007. This had dropped to 33.9% in August on a basket of 34 items.
But the gap between the multiples on a basket of 72 branded goods was smaller, with just 0.3% difference between Tesco, Dunnes and Superquinn in August compared with 1.02% in December 2007.
'This reinforces our view that consumers need more competition in the branded sector of the retail grocery market,' said Ms Fitzgerald.
The NCA has also reviewed price trends since December 2007 for each of the retailers. For Tesco, Dunnes Stores, Aldi and Lidl the basket of their own brand goods increased from December 2007 to August 2008. But all of the retailers showed a decrease from June to August. The largest decrease was at Tesco, with a drop of almost 4.5% from June to August 2008.
In general, for Dunnes, Tesco and Superquinn the basket of branded goods has increased from December 2007 to August 2008. But from June to August the level of the increase has slowed or in some cases decreased. Tesco recorded an increase of 0.7% for its basket of 54 items. Superquinn and Dunnes Stores decreased - Dunnes Stores down 0.6% on a basket of 57 items, Superquinn down 0.3% on 56 items.
'While the multiples have increased the number of special offers and promotions over recent months, we are not seeing a long term drop in the prices of the staple branded goods in our basket across any of the retailers,' said Ms Fitzgerald.
Full details of the survey can be found on www.consumerconnect.ie
RTÉ is not responsible for the content of external websites
