Irish consumers are shopping at the German discount supermarkets in greater numbers than ever before, according to research published this morning by a leading retail research company.

The supermarket share figures from Kantar Worldpanel for the 12 weeks up to St Patrick’s Day also show Superquinn performing well and growing faster than the market average for the first time in five years.

Superquinn posted growth of 1.9 per cent compared with growth across the market of 1.5 per cent, said the commercial director at Kantar Worldpanel, David Berry.

“This growth has been driven by people buying more items each time they shop at Superquinn, with fresh and chilled foods proving particularly popular,” he said.

The best performing supermarket in the last quarter was Aldi, which increased its market share by just under 31 per cent. The retailer now has 6.2 per cent of the total grocery market compared with 4.8 per cent this time last year.

Lidl also reported strong growth and grew its market share by just under 6 per cent which takes its total share to 6.4 per cent. Combined the two retailers have 12.6 per cent of the market.

Stalled growth
Meanwhile, growth at Dunnes and Tesco have both continued to stall. Dunnes posted growth of 1.4 while Tesco has performed behind the market for the third consecutive month and now sees its sales declining by 1.3 per cent.

The grocery market continues to grow although it is largely driven by a high rate of inflation. Shoppers are buying fewer items compared with last year but are spending on average €18.20 more.

Kantar put grocery inflation at 5.7 per cent for the 12-week period ending on March 17th, down slightly from the 5.8 per cent seen in the previous quarter.