Tag: retail news

Supermarket sales

Sun, sports and Love Island boost supermarket sales

Posted on | by Aisling Rafferty

All major Irish supermarkets experience growth for the sixth period in a row according to the latest figures from Kantar Worldpanel.

The grocery market continues to be intensely competitive with just 1.5 percentage points separating the top three retailers. Tesco is the fastest growing retailer, a title it holds for the seventh consecutive period, with sales up 4.8% compared to this time last year. Tesco is the only one of the three major retailers to witness a further decline in the average price paid per item, but this has been counteracted by shoppers spending more. Customers spent an average of an extra €21 during the 12 weeks ending 12 August, through both visiting the supermarket more often and buying more items each time.

SuperValu continues to perform strongly with sales up by 2.4% and a market share of 22%, thanks in part to owner Musgraves prominent SuperValu of the GAA All-Ireland Hurling and Football Championships. The brand also performed well outside of its Munster stronghold seeing sales in Dublin up by 3.6% and the rest of Leinster growing by 6.2%.

Dunnes Stores’ saw overall growth of 1.9% during the period, thanks in part to the retailer’s ‘Mix and Match’ promotion on their barbeque meat range which was advertised in the lead up to the August Bank Holiday and boosted sales of chilled burgers and grills by a third.

The discounters also saw good growth with seeing sales growth of 2.9%. Aldi were also the only retailer to see a notable increase in shoppers, welcoming an extra 40,000 customer during the 12 weeks. Lidl achieved sales growth of 1.9% to hold market share at 11.9%.

Douglas Faughnan, consumer insight director at Kantar Worldpanel, comments: “Though the retailers continue to jostle for market share, the grocers have all benefited from the spike in consumer spending as shoppers’ splash out more during the warm weather.

“It’s been a summer of indulgence for customers. Alcohol is continuing to boom – overall sales of beer, wine and cider are up 10%. Ice cream is also up by a third compared to this time last year – equivalent to an extra €10 million – and soft drinks sales have jumped by 13%. The August bank holiday provided the retailers with another opportunity to cash in, with targeted advertisements and promotional activity directing customers towards specific categories such as fresh meat, fruit and vegetables and branded treats.”

Sporting events like the football World Cup and pop culture TV favourites such as Love Island have also had an impact on what shoppers are choosing to buy. Douglas Faughnan explains: “Men’s skincare products and shaving soaps grew at double the rate of the overall grocery market, while sales of razor blades rocketed by 15% as Love Island enthusiasts were potentially inspired by the contestants’ hairless look. Time spent in front of the TV meant shoppers spent less time on home cooking, to the benefit of frozen and chilled ready meals sales, which jumped by 16% and 6% respectively.”

Pope's Visit 2018

Pope’s visit ‘a disaster’ for Dublin retailers and restaurants

Posted on | by Aisling Rafferty

Dublin retailers and restaurateurs saw custom drop by up to 50% over the weekend of Pope Francis’ visit in what many are calling a ‘missed opportunity’. The weekend saw widespread traffic restrictions implemented across Dublin to accommodate the papal visit, with more than 50 road closures. Business groups representing both industries are blaming poor communication around the traffic restrictions for the dramatic fall in sales.

Retail Excellence chief executive Lorraine Higgins said: “There was a 35-40 per cent decline in sales as a consequence and when sales are lost to that extent they can never be made back up.” Ms Higgins said the closures could have been manageable with better information and there was a lack of regard for businesses in the planning of the event.

“Businesses suffered as a consequence of a lack of communication around the papal visit. The understanding among the general public was that Dublin city centre was closed for business,” she said. “ “While there were restrictions on private cars, public transport was still running and it is a great pity that message didn’t get through….I can appreciate the efforts the various authorities have to go through, but the fact of the matter is the Pope wasn’t going through the city centre until some time after 4pm on Saturday, so retailers could have had almost a full day’s trading.”

Restaurants Association of Ireland chief executive Adrian Cummins said the visit was a missed opportunity to highlight what Dublin city centre had to offer. “With so many international media in Ireland this could have been a great showcase for the city, but instead it was a monumental disaster for businesses with people seeing losses of 30 to 50% depending on their location.

” Business organisations had attended a meeting at the start of August with representatives of the Garda, the National Transport Authority (NTA) and the World Meeting of Families organisers, but Mr Cummins said no further information came until the information packs were sent out to businesses and residents last Thursday. By that stage it was too late.” There was no excuse for the lack of communication, Mr Cummins said. “It’s not as if the Pope announced at the beginning of August that he was coming in three weeks’ time, the logistics surrounding this and the communications and liaison with businesses, that should all have been squared off three months ago.”

Dublin Chamber of Commerce spokesman Graeme McQueen said it had been a “tough weekend” for businesses. “This should have been a bumper weekend for retailers with kids going back to school, but it will have been even harder for the non-retail sector – cafes and restaurants – because the loss of business over those two days can’t be recovered.” The level of traffic restriction was “a little bit over the top” but the lack of information made the situation worse.

“Businesses were a bit of an afterthought, and the lack of information for customers meant they either left Dublin, or stayed put in their houses. This could have been a real festival event, and hopefully lessons will be learned for future events.”

 

Good weather equals good news for many retailers, while others felt a chill

Posted on | by Aisling Rafferty

Retail sales grew 3.4% in the second quarter of the year according to the latest report by Retail Ireland

The arrival of June’s heatwave “a good news story” for certain retail categories, such as grocery, DIY and hardware. But, for some retailers, the heat led to a decline in footfall as consumers were more inclined to headed to the park or the beach rather than the shops.

Supermarkets and convenience stores were some of the biggest winners, with the volume of sales up 5.5% in the second quarter compared to the same period in 2017. The good weather boosted the purchase of treats and “little and often” shopping and increase demand for barbecues, garden furniture and ice-cream, but hot weather also put people off shopping,

The Fifa World Cup, while not as lucrative as it might have been if Ireland had qualified, also contributed to strong sales of alcohol, soft drinks and party food sales in June, said Retail Ireland, a Ibec representative group for the retail industry.

Strong demand for gardening products, outdoor furniture and barbecue products benefitted DIY and hardware stores, which saw sales volumes rocket 10.2% year-on-year in the second quarter.

According to Retail Ireland, it was a “solid” quarter for Irish pharmacies, with the weather driving strong demand for hay fever treatments and suncare products. However, beauty sales slowed for the same reason.

“While many retail categories have been boosted by the long dry spell, other sectors such as department stores, fashion, footwear and hairdressing have reported lower than normal footfall and declining sales in the period,” said Retail Ireland director Thomas Burke. Cinema tickets, homewares and sales of electrical items and computers were also negatively affected, he added.

Women’s clothing sales were hurt by both lower footfall in June and consistently cold weather in April and May, the industry group said. Despite this, department stores have still managed a 4.1% rise in the volume of sales year-on-year, while fashion, footwear and textiles saw the volume of sales rise 2.

Stores in the wider books, newspapers and stationery business recorded a 5.9 per cent lift in sales volumes in the second quarter compared to the same quarter in 2017, with the books market also performing well.

BBQ sales see Tesco soar to 1st place in grocery wars

Posted on | by Aisling Rafferty

Tesco have captured 22.5% of grocery retail market share thanks to their emphasis on their BBQ and chilled meat ranges during the recent heatwave.

Tesco were also the only retailer to increase their market share during the 12 weeks ending 15 July 2018. The supermarket brand’s extensive ‘Grillin’ and Chillin’ marketing campaign saw it make a big push on key barbecue items, with products like ice cream, chilled poultry and chilled burgers all performing strongly and resulting in shoppers putting, on average, 4.7% more items in their baskets on each trip.

SuperValu achieved overall sales growth of 2.6%, they’re biggest jump since October 2016. The retailer traditionally performs well in summer categories as its store network is convenient for shoppers making more frequent top-up shops during the key barbecue season. This year has been no exception, with chilled burgers, fresh fish, and fresh lamb all recording double-digit sales growth.

Dunnes Stores now accounts for 21.2% of grocery sales in Ireland, thanks to sales growth of 1.9% this period. The average Dunnes basket now features 20 items, a 5.7% increase compared to the previous 12 weeks and more than any other retailer.

Meanwhile, Lidl and Aldi have 11.9% and 11.5% market share respectively, with both posting sales growth in the most recent 12 weeks. Aldi was the only retailer to see a slight rise in shopper numbers this period, with the impact of its current Swap & Save campaign potentially contributing to increased shopper penetration.

Across the market, the recent rising temperatures and the World Cup saw sales soar by 3.1% with two of the biggest winners being lager and bottled water. Water sales rose by 27.3% while lager sales saw growth of 11.6% or the equivalent of an additional 7 million pints. This was as a result of both increased shopper numbers and shoppers buying larger quantities.

There’s a number of factors contributing to the spike in water sales according to Douglas Faughnan, consumer insight director at Kantar Worldpanel “A number of things may have influenced the surge of bottled water sales in Ireland – in particular the recent weather, speculation surrounding water shortages and this month’s hosepipe ban. Irish shoppers bought bottled water on 1.8 million more occasions in the latest 12 weeks compared to the same period last year, helping sales grow by over a quarter. Furthermore a Europe-wide shortage of CO2 may have stifled sales of carbonated water, which grew at a third of the rate of still water, with retailers and manufacturers shifting their focus to stills where necessary.”

International retailer The White Company open in Dublin

Posted on | by Aisling Rafferty

International retailer, The White Company, opened last week on Dublin’s Grafton Street.

The interiors and lifestyle brand began life as a 12-page mail-order brochure and has steadily become one of the UK’s fastest-growing multi-channel retailers. This will be the brand’s first Irish store. The global retail brand, which currently has a turnover in excess of £180m (€154m), said the decision to open on Grafton Street, Dublin, was based on very encouraging online sales here. They have leased 800sqm (8,527 sq ft) over three floors on a long-term lease.

The store will stock the brand’s full lifestyle offering across women’s lounge and sleepwear, products for the home and dining, bed and bath, fragrances, skincare as well as ‘The Little White Company’ clothing for children and nursery essentials.

The brand’s founder, Chrissie Rucker started The White Company in 1994 when she was unable to find well-designed, quality bed linen in her favourite colour, so decided to invest her £6,000 (€5,150) savings into producing everything in one colour – white.

Last year The White Company opened its first international flagship store in New York, followed by a second store in New Jersey. The Dublin store is their first European flagship outside the UK, where they have 57 stores. The White Company has a discount store at the Kildare Village Outlet Mall.

Ms Rucker, who left school at 16, has a passion for all things white and says “we are obsessive about the details, and believe beautiful things should be loved and used every day”.

The new Dublin home is located besides Boodles jewellers, close to the South Anne Street junction. The building was formerly home to the Karen Millen fashion label. It was a cinema from 1911 until the 1970s. It was acquired by Irish property investment group Iput PLC in 2014 for €12.5m and has been restored to highlighting the white curved-vaulted ceiling.

retaiil news

Q1 retail sales show full effects of the ‘Beast from the East’

Posted on | by Aisling Rafferty

New research into retail sales in the first part the year have revealed the full extent of the disruption caused by March’s ‘Beast from the East’ on the retail industry.

The latest figures from the retail representative group, Retail Excellence Ireland (REI), show that despite the improving economy, like-for-like sales were down 1.2 per cent in March, and a fifth of 1 per cent overall in the first quarter compared to the year previous. This decline comes despite the improving economy and a comparative boost to first-quarter sales by Easter falling in March, compared to April in 1017.

REI’s chief executive, David Fitzsimons, said the bad weather negatively impacted most on the 19 retail sectors examined in its first-quarter Productivity Review, which it produces in association with research firm GfK and Grant Thornton. It collates electronic sales data directly from the tills of retailers. “What is very clear is that the Irish retail industry is in a significant state of flux,” he said.

In terms of specific sectors, garden centres performed the worst, with sales down 15.8% in the first three months of the year when compared to 2017- for obvious weather-related reasons. IT and computing products saw a 17 per cent decline but were saved from a further fall by the early Easter period. IT sales, including computers and tablets, have dropped off hugely. In volume terms they were down 11% and 17 per cent in value terms Jewellery sales were down for all three months in the quarter, as were lingerie, ladieswear and menswear sales.

Among the best performing sectors were health stores (up 4%), small home appliances (up 6%) and furniture and flooring (up 3.6 % over the quarter). Grocery sales were up 1.1% which was “spurred on by Easter trading”, said Mr Fitzsimons. The rate of monthly growth in the sector actually increased in March, which may well have been partly due to bread sales.

Macy's

US department store Macy’s to introduce mobile checkout-free shopping

Posted on | by Aisling Rafferty

US department store Macy’s to introduce mobile checkout-free shopping

Major US department chain Macy’s have announced plans to introduce a new mobile checkout platform within their stores. The platform will allow customers to skip the checkout and pay using their smartphone. Customers will be able to by scan bar codes on items with their phone within the Macy’s mobile app.

The feature will be first introduced in the brand’s Bloomingdale’s store in New York’s Soho neighbourhood and is expected in all Macy’s stores by the end of this year. . To use the service, customers will need to download the free Macy’s app and join Macy’s free Wi-Fi network. As they browse the assortment, customers can scan the items they wish to purchase using their phone’s camera and the app’s built-in scanner. As part of Macy’s ongoing price simplification strategy, the app will easily allow customers to apply relevant offers and rewards to eligible purchases. Once they are ready to checkout, they can pay on the app with their pre-registered credit card to complete the transaction.

From there, customers will be directed to special Mobile Checkout counters set up in close proximity to store exits to have sales assistants verify the purchase, remove security tags, and bag their items.

“As part of our ‘test, iterate and scale’ model for innovation, we are excited to expand our launch of Mobile Checkout powered by the Macy’s app, providing our customers with the opportunity to self-serve and speed their transactions with us in-store,” said Jeff Gennette, Macy’s, Inc. chairman and chief executive officer. “We think of the Macy’s app as a key we hand to our customers, a key that allows them to unlock an enhanced shopping experience – a world of possibilities. With this powerful tool in hand, we give them the opportunity to engage with us on their terms. And we keep adding exciting new features to it based on what they tell us.”

Macy’s is one of America’s most iconic retailers. The company employs over 130,000 people and operates more than 690 department stores under it’s Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s brand long with 160 specialty stores that include Bloomingdale’s The Outlet, Bluemercury and Macy’s Backstage.

Dunnes stay top of growing grocery market as shoppers spend extra €96m

Posted on | by Aisling Rafferty

Dunnes remain top of growing grocery market as Irish shoppers grocery spend increased by €96 million compared to the same period last year.

The Irish grocery market continues to show positive momentum with the latest figures from Kantar Worldpanel, showing growth hit 3.9%. Dave Berry, director at Kantar Worldpanel, said: “Shoppers have spent an additional €96 million on groceries over the latest 12 weeks compared to last year and two factors have led to this growth. “First, shoppers are choosing to buy slightly more expensive items and this is reflected in continued sales growth for brands. Second, customers have picked up more items during their weekly shop, with the cost of the average trip 60c more than this time last year.”

Dunnes Stores remain in the top spot, despite growth falling slightly compared to the previous period, from 5.7% to 5%. Tesco sits in second place but top the charts in terms of growth in the three month period ending 25th February. Berry said: “Tesco tops the charts in terms of growth this month, with sales increasing by almost 7% and market share hitting 22.3%. This time last year the retailer was facing a number of store closures due to strike activity and its most recent performance is reflective of this. The strongest performance for Tesco has been among younger shoppers, with share among the young family demographic increasing from 26.5% last year to 29.3% this year.”

SuperValu sits in third position with market share of 22.0% placing it just 0.3 percentage points behind Tesco. SuperValu continues to build performance outside of its traditional base – with the areas are young families, where market share has increased by almost 2%, and Dublin, where sales have increased by 3.5% performing particularly strong for the retailer. Lidl is the second strongest growing retailer, with an uplift in sales of 5.9%. An increase in shopper loyalty is behind this, with shoppers returning to the store more frequently – resulting in an extra 780,000 trips for Lidl this period compared with last year.

Having previously reported a decline in sales, Aldi’s performance returned to form. Sales have increased by 1.3% and market share stands at 10.6% – just 0.2 percentage points behind Lidl.

Opening date for Krispy’s Kreme first Irish store announced

Posted on | by Aisling Rafferty

After months of anticipation, the opening date for Ireland’s first Krispy Kreme has been announced.

The US doughnut giant is opening in the Blanchardstown Shopping Centre after receiving planning permission from Fingal County Council yesterday. The news comes nearly two years after the possibility of an Irish Krispy Kreme hit the news.The planning permission granted to the retailer allows for a large ‘factory store’, a retail and production unit in the shopping centre, including a drive-thru. All going to plan, customers can expect an October opening date for the store. All 16 varieties of Krispy Kreme’s doughnuts will be available in share boxes or individually. The drive-through option will be available seven days per week. Kreme shakes, tea, coffee and other refreshments will also be available in-store and to take away.

According to the Irish Sun, Ireland Country Director Alex Drysdale said: “It is with great excitement that we today announce that the OG of doughnuts, Krispy Kreme Original Glazed, is coming to Ireland this October along with many other delicious flavours for Irish customers to enjoy.” He said “Our Blanchardstown build is underway and we will soon be announcing recruitment details for our Irish operation. We look forward to welcoming all our Irish fans, and those yet to have their first Krispy Kreme experience, through our doors and our drive-thru this October.”

Founded in 1937 by Vernon Rudolph in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, Krispy Kreme is a listed company with more than 1,300 stores in 31 countries

Retailers deal with aftermath of Storm Emma

Posted on | by Aisling Rafferty

As the thaw continues, retailers around the country are counting the cost of the last week’s weather disruption where heavy snowfall and the Red Weather Alerts saw many forced to close their doors from Wednesday. Some businesses have still not re-opened in the aftermath of the severe weather.

Lorraine Higgins, deputy chief executive of Retail Excellence Ireland, said different sectors experienced varying degrees of disruption. “The focus on grocery purchases meant that purchases in other sectors were postponed. Huge losses were incurred as a consequence of being closed for five days. It’s the loss of sales, employee costs and general clean-up costs that they are facing now,” she explained. Ms Higgins said retailers are now trying to encourage footfall back into their stores after several days of closures and some quiet days over the weekend. “Retailers who had an e-commerce capacity were advertising online quite heavily. It’s been a difficult time for many sectors so I’d be encouraging people to go out and support retailers with a physical store presence and divert some of the spend from businesses overseas to retailers here.”

According to Miss Higgins, the big winners from spending in the online sphere are overseas retailers that do not have a physical presence here, with an estimated two-thirds of spending online by Irish consumers leaving the country. “Many discerning retailers with an online capacity here had sales of 15-20% to encourage people to spend online over the past few days. But that comes at the expense of heavy advertising,” she said. “What this points to is the need for retailers to have ‘omnichannel strategies.’ They’re becoming increasingly important in light of the frequency of recent weather events,” Lorraine Higgins concluded.

The heavy snow presented numerous challenges for grocery stores, which saw huge demand for fresh food in supermarkets over the weekend. Retail group BWG Foods has revealed a Brennan’s Sliced Pan was the number one item in demand over the last few days, followed by litres of milk, 6 packs of eggs, firelighters and wine.