Aldi grow market share by 35% in two years

Grocery market leader Tesco has lost 10% of its Irish market share over the past two years, according to Irish Farmers Journal analysis of the latest supermarket share figures from Kantar Worldpanel in Ireland.

Meanwhile, Aldi and Lidl continue to make huge inroads into the Irish market.

The combined market share of Tesco, Dunnes, SuperValu and the two German “discounters” is now 89.2%, showing the massive concentration of power in the hands of a small number of retailer operations.

The latest Kantar figures were published on Tuesday for the 12-week period ending 7 December. Tesco, at 25%, continues to have the largest market share, marginally ahead of SuperValu at 24.5%.

The Cork-based operation has grown market share by 26% over the past two years, mainly driven by the February rebranding of Superquinn stores (acquired in 2011).

The market share held by Dunnes in the 12 weeks under review was just 1% less than its market share two years ago.

The main story in the market over the two-year period is the strong growth of Aldi (+35%) and Lidl (+28%). In that time, the combined market share of Aldi and Lidl has grown from 12.3% to 16.2%, an increase of almost one third. The pace of growth for Aldi in particular has slowed over the most recent 12-month period, Aldi grew its share by 13.1%, while it grew by 18.7% in the 12 months to December 2013. Growth at Lidl has accelerated, up from 8.4% in 2013 to 16.6% in the most recent 12-month period.

Kantar Worldpanel in Ireland reports grocery price inflation of 1.9% for the 12-week period ending 7 December 2014.