New figures from Kantar show that grocery inflation continued its slowdown last month, as it fell to 5.9% in the 12 weeks to 21 January from 7.1% in December.
Today's figures show that after a record-breaking Christmas, take-home grocery sales are starting to slow with a more moderate 2.2% increase in the four weeks to 21 January 2024.
But although sales have slowed compared to the previous 7.8% increase, Kantar said that shoppers still spent an additional €21.4m compared to the same time last year.
Emer Healy, Business Development Director at Kantar, said that consumers are keeping a very close eye on their purse strings after indulging over Christmas.
She said that to help manage household budgets, many are trading down to supermarket's own label products and looking for deals.
"The amount of sales on promotion has grown by 9.9% year-on-year with shoppers spending €92.6m more than last year, meaning that 28.9% of all value sales this period were on promotion," she said.
She noted that sales of own label lines are performing strongly and growing ahead of the total market at 8% year-on-year, holding value share of 44.9% and with shoppers spending an additional €117m year-on-year.
Meanwhile, premium own label ranges also performed well with shoppers spending an additional €157m on these lines with growth of 10.3% when compared to this time last year.
Today's figures show that alcohol sales fell by 8.6% in the latest 12 week period under review, while shoppers spent €7.4m less on drink in January compared to last year.
But sales of non-alcoholic beverages jumped 8.9% with shoppers spending €125,000 more year-on-year.
Kantar also said that despite nearly 38% of households buying chilled or frozen plant-based products, sales fell 2.6% with shoppers spending €200,000 less compared to last year.
"With many shoppers returning to normality after the festive break, they opted for ease when adjusting to routines and, as a result, spent an additional €3.3m on chilled convenience," Ms Healy said.
Kantar said that online sales remained strong. During the 12 weeks ending 21 January, sales were up 17.7% year-on-year with shoppers spending an additional €28.2m.
Irish retailer performance update
Today's figures from Kantar show that Dunnes hit a new record share of 24.6% with growth of 9.9% year-on-year.
The retailer's growth came from an increase in new shoppers, while more frequent trips also contributed a combined additional €38.1m to overall performance.
Tesco holds 23.8% of the market, also a new record for the retailer, with growth of 9.4% year-on-year. Tesco had the strongest frequency of trips growth amongst all the retailers again, up 11.8% year-on-year, which contributed an additional €88.4m to overall performance.
SuperValu holds 20.6% of the market with growth of 4%. Its customers make the most trips in store when compared to all retailers, an average of 21.1 trips, which contributed an extra €9.4m to overall performance.
Meanwhile, Lidl holds a 12.5% market share with growth of 8.2% on an annual basis. More frequent trips contributed an additional €30.9m to its overall performance.
Aldi holds a 10.8% market share, with more frequent trips and new shopper arrivals contributing an additional €5.9m to its overall performance, Kantar concluded.
