Euro 2016 boosts sales in Irish grocery retailers

By Jo Gilbert

Published: 05 August, 2016

Irish grocery retailers saw an uplift in sales thanks to Euro 2016, with sales rising by 3.3% compared with last year.

Last month's championship saw consumers in Ireland rushing to major retailers to stock up on alcohol and snacks.

The latest supermarket share figures from Kantar Worldpanel in Ireland for the 12 weeks ending 17 July 2016, showed that Irish chain SuperValu and Tesco benefitted most Ireland's involvement in the sporting event.

David Berry, director at Kantar Worldpanel, explained: "Ireland's involvement in the Euro 2016 certainly looks to have had a positive impact for the major supermarkets. Alcohol sales over the past 12 weeks are 11% higher than the same time last year, as consumers stocked up more often and bought more each time they shopped.

"Soft drinks, confectionery, crisps and snacks all also saw positive sales growth as football fans made the most of the opportunity to treat themselves."

Among the majors retailers, SuperValu grew sales slightly ahead of the market, maintaining its position as the number one retailer in Ireland with a 22.5% market share.

The grocer was closely followed in second place by Tesco, which currently holds 21.9% of the Irish grocery market.

This represents a fall in share compared with last year - largely the result of a 1.9% dip in sales.

Dunnes Stores continued to experience strong growth, with larger shopping trips helping to boost sales by 6.5%, while Lidl remains the fourth largest supermarket with an 11.9% share of the market.

In the past year, an extra 38,000 households visited Aldi, contributing to a 3.7% sales growth in the most recent 12 week period - a clear improvement from March of this year when growth stood at just 0.8% and the discounter was losing shoppers.

"The strongest growth we've seen this period has actually been from the smaller retailers, which together increased sales by 6.8%. This has been boosted in particular by bargain stores such as Dealz, a strong period for Iceland and an increase in cross-border shopping." Berry continued.

"Iceland and bargain stores have both felt the benefit of expanding their store estates, while the drop in the value of sterling has made cross-border shopping more appealing. While all three of these phenomena remain small, they have contributed to an impressive combined €14 million sales increase."

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