Author: Mintel Group Ltd.
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Grocery Retailing - Ireland - December 2014
Introduction
 
While improvements in consumer confidence have helped to boost the value of grocery sales for all-Ireland in 2014, increasingly discounters such as Aldi and Lidl have been making strong gains in terms of market share, highlighting the continued drive to stick to grocery budgets and maximise value. 

Indeed as part of this, own-label grocery sales now account for approximately 46% of the total value of grocery sales for all-Ireland, while attitudes towards discounters have improved greatly, with 67% of RoI and 63% of NI discounter users noting that they shop in them more regularly compared to 12 months ago. 

Key themes of the report
●	What impact have changes in consumer prices had on the groceries market? – How are the changing economic trends affecting the grocery retailing market in Ireland? Is market value increasing or decreasing?
●	How much do Irish consumers spend on average for groceries? – With sticking to a budget all the more important for consumers, what does the average shopper spend on groceries each week? 
●	Who are the key retailers that consumers use when shopping for groceries? – Do consumers use different retailers based on the type of shop they do, such as in-store or online, a main weekly shop or a top-up shop? 
●	What share of the market do own-brand goods account for? – How much are own-brand good sales worth? What types of own-brand goods are Irish consumers buying? 
●	How have Irish attitudes to discounters changed? – Do consumers shop at discounters more frequently than in the past? What are the most positive attitudes that consumers have to discounters?

Other Mintel reports of relevance include:

●	Free-from Foods and Allergies – Ireland, September 2014
●	Foodservice – Ireland, May 2014
●	Online and Mobile Retailing – Ireland, March 2014
●	Children’s Eating Habits – Ireland, March 2014
●	Grocery Retailing – Ireland, December 2013
●	Irish Lifestyles – Ireland, September 2013
●	Attitudes To Food – Ireland, August 2013

Definition
This report will examine the grocery retailing sector in Ireland through exploring the issues that are driving or inhibiting its growth on the island. Covered in this report is the sale of all grocery items, focusing on food sold via mainstream supermarkets, such as Tesco, Asda and Dunnes Stores. The sale of groceries through convenience format stores, such as Spar, and the hard discounters, Aldi and Lidl, is also discussed. Each store type is defined as follows:

●	Hypermarket/superstore – The hypermarket concept was developed by Carrefour in France. The label was coined by the press for a store which had a sales area of 2,500m2. In the UK, including NI, the term superstore is typically used rather than hypermarket.
●	Supermarket – A supermarket sells a wide variety of goods, both food and non-food items. A supermarket can range in size anywhere between 400m2 and 2,500m2.
●	Convenience store – A convenience store (also called a c-store or symbol group retailer) tends to be smaller in size, is traditionally open for longer hours and typically sells staple groceries and snacks, although it also stocks a range of non-food items. Many petrol stations also supplement their operations with the offer of convenience stores. Prices are typically higher than those in a larger supermarket. 
●	Discounters – Discounters (sometimes referred to as hard discounters) are retailers that subscribe to the ‘stack it high, sell it cheap’ mentality. Lidl and Aldi are the two leading examples in Ireland of these ‘no-frills’ retailers, which target price-conscious consumers.

Data sources
For the purpose of this report, Mintel commissioned exclusive online research into where Irish consumers are doing their main grocery shopping and how much they are spending, what type of non-grocery items they are purchasing and how Irish consumers’ shopping habits have changed. The research was carried out by Toluna on behalf of Mintel in October 2014.

A total of 750 internet users aged 16+ in NI and 1,250 internet users aged 16+ in RoI were asked the following questions:

“Which retailers have you used in the last month for your main grocery shopping?”

“Who in your household is responsible for grocery shopping?” 

“Do you mainly do your main grocery shop (ie your biggest weekly/monthly shop) in-store or online?” 

“Which of the following retailers do you use for your main grocery shop and/or your top-up grocery shops?” 

“On average, how much do you typically spend on household groceries each week?”

“Thinking about grocery shops own-brand/own-label goods (eg Tesco Finest, Asda Smart Price, Dunnes St. Bernard, etc), which of the following types of own-label products have you purchased in the last 12 months?” 

“Thinking more specifically about discounter supermarket brands (eg Aldi and Lidl), please select if you agree or disagree with each of the following statements.” 

The results from this survey are discussed in The Consumer sections of this report. 

Mintel also draws consumer insight from other sources:

●	Mintel’s Trends database and previous Mintel reports from the UK and Ireland.

In compiling this report, Mintel has gathered data from separate NI and RoI sources (eg NISRA and CSO). In some cases, therefore, it has not been possible to provide comparable data for each region.

For the purpose of this report:

●	IoI refers to the island of Ireland.
●	NI refers to Northern Ireland.
●	RoI refers to the Republic of Ireland.

Therefore, ‘Irish consumers’ refers to both NI and RoI consumers.

Abbreviations
ADM | Allied Distributive Merchants
BT | British Telecom
CPI | Consumer Price Index
CSO | Central Statistics Office
CSR | Corporate Social Responsibility
ILCU | Irish League of Credit Unions
IoI | Island of Ireland
M&S | Marks & Spencer
NI | Northern Ireland
NISRA | Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency
ONS | Office for National Statistics
P&H | Palmer & Harvey
RoI | Republic of Ireland

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