Spending on groceries in NI’s supermarkets reached a new high over the course of 2024, with over £4bn spent on transactions at the tills.
Retail information company Kantar’s latest survey of the NI grocery market reveals both the state of affairs in January, as well as how the market evolved over the course of 2024.
Tesco remained the most popular supermarket brand last year, and experienced the largest growth of the four biggest brands in Northern Ireland.
Grocery inflation in December fell from the previous month, going down from 3.5% to 2.76%.
The total spend rose by £75.8m, or 1.8%, to £4.3bn overall across the calendar year 2024. Almost £1bn of that was spent on promotional deals, 22.6% of all activity.
Beer, cider and wine remained big sellers in NI, shifting £320m of sales, while non-alcoholic drinks continued their rise in popularity by selling 13.4% more than in the prior year.
NI also displayed its sweet tooth at the check-out last year, with people spending £265m on biscuits and chocolate.
As the most popular grocery brand, Tesco held over a third of the market. And the overall number of trips to Tesco stores went up last year, and £92m more was spent in them than in 2023.
Sainsbury’s remains very slightly ahead of Asda in second place, on 16.7% compared to 16.4%. Asda, however, grew its revenue more, adding £32.5m to its takings compared to Sainsbury’s gaining £25.7m.
And Lidl continued to see growth in NI, as the number of locations expanded to 43 and renovations were carried out in existing stores. It has a 9.1% share of the market, and made £6.5m more than it did in 2023.
Tesco enjoyed the strongest market share growth of the ‘big four,’ adding 5.2%.
Sainsbury’s enjoyed 2.2% growth, while its closest rival Asda had 4.5% expansion. Lidl experienced market share growth of 1.9%.
News Catch Up – Tuesday 14 January