SHOPPERS FROM the Republic spend more in Sainsbury’s in Northern Ireland than they do in their local butchers and greengrocers, new figures show.
Cross-Border shopping is approaching record levels while the grocery market in the Republic is in collapse, the figures from market analysts TNS Worldpanel reveal. Northern retailers claimed 4.4 per cent of the grocery market in the Republic in early November, and 4.2 per cent at the end of the month. These were the highest figures seen throughout the year.
Sainsbury’s alone, which has no shops in the Republic but five in Northern Ireland, accounted for 1.7 per cent of sales, more than the 1.5 per cent share held by butchers and greengrocers.
Meanwhile, grocery sales in the Republic dropped 7.5 per cent in the year to the end of November, or 5.7 per cent when the amounts spent by Southern shoppers across the Border are factored in.
Research shows consumers are shopping more but spending less. Each household spent €42 less on groceries in November compared to the same month a year earlier, despite making one additional shopping trip. The average shop declined by €3.20 per trip.
SuperValu and Tesco are weathering the storm best, with declines of 3.3 per cent and 3.9 per cent. In contrast, the Irish-owned chains, Dunnes Stores and Superquinn, are down 12 and 13 per cent, respectively.
The German discounters, Lidl and Aldi, continue to buck the trend by showing growth, but this is slowing. Aldi saw its sales increase by 5 per cent and Lidl by 2.5 per cent.
The figures appear to show local shops are suffering worst: sales figures for greengrocers dropped almost 24 per cent while butchers were down 16 per cent.
The figures suggest Tesco’s “change for good” price-cutting strategy has had more success in taking market share from rivals than stemming cross-Border shopping. Tesco has opened up a clear gap over Dunnes as the Republic’s biggest retailer, with a market share of 26 per cent, up 0.5 per cent. Dunnes has 22.9 per cent of the market, a fall of 1.6 per cent, while SuperValu is up 0.5 per cent to 20.1 per cent. Superquinn is now smaller than the combined discounters with 6.9 per cent of the market, down from 7.5 per cent. Lidl has a 5.2 market share and Aldi 3 per cent.
Of the 4.2 per cent of business that went North, Sainsbury’s picked up a 1.7 per cent market share and Asda captured 1.3 per cent. In contrast, shoppers spent just 1.2 per cent of total sales in their local butchers and 0.3 per cent in greengrocers.