Grocery sales hit record €1.5bn over Christmas period
Irish grocery sales hit a record breaking €1.5 billion over the Christmas period.
Despite rising prices and inflation now standing at 6.25%, shoppers spent an additional €83.5 million on groceries in December.
Worldpanel by Numerator said take-home grocery sales rose by 6% in the four weeks to 28 December 2025.
The busiest day was Tuesday 23 December with grocery sales reaching more than €107 million, a record daily spend.
According to Emer Healy, Business Development Director at Worldpanel by Numerator, shoppers made an average of 23 trips in-store to pick up Christmas essentials.
"Irish shoppers spent on average €770 at supermarkets during the festive period, an additional €32 compared to 2024," she said."Irish shoppers certainly indulged this Christmas, an extra €6.6 million was spent on seasonal chocolates and biscuits, with over half of households picking up seasonal chocolate in December."
"On the Christmas lunch menu this year, Brussels sprouts remained a firm favourite with over 62% of households purchasing them," said Ms Healy. " But we saw a slight decline in fresh turkey sales, down 2.3%, while shoppers spent an additional €3 million on chicken, possibly due to cost."
Today's figures show that 80 % of shoppers bought alcohol, with champagne and sparkling wine sale jumping nearly 22%.
Low and no-alcohol drinks also saw a boost with an additional €1.9 million spent on these ranges compared to last year.
While the proportion of households choosing no- and low-alcohol drinks edged up from 9% to 15.3%.
Worldpanel by Numberator noted that for the first time sales of brands hit more than €2 billion, accounting for nearly 52.4% of value sales in the latest 12 weeks..
Shoppers spent an additional €131m versus last year, including an additional €9m on festive favourites such as branded cheese, antipasti, bread, home baking and savoury snacks.
Own-label grew over the 12-week period, just shy of 4%, as shoppers spent an additional €65.7 million on these ranges, with premium own-label benefitting the most in December, according to the figures.
A record €167.7 million was spent on these ranges with shoppers spending an additional €12 million on these ranges, up 8% versus last year, with premium own-label now holding nearly 3.5% value share.
In the latest 12 weeks, 20.3% of all value sales were bought through a promotional line, the lowest level since August 2024.
These latest figures show that online continued to grow, at a significantly faster rate compared to last month, up 9.8% year-on-year to take 6.1% value share of the market.
Shoppers spent an additional €21.7 million online during the period, helped by larger and more frequent trips which contributed a combined €6.9 million to their overall performance. Nearly 19% of Irish households bought their groceries online during this time.
Supermarkets' markets share
Dunnes holds 24.7% market share, up on the last 12-week period, with sales growth of 4.9% year-on-year. Larger trips contributed an additional €5.9 million to their overall performance.
Tesco holds 24.5% of the market, with value growth of 6.8% year-on-year. An influx of new shoppers contributed an additional €35.6 million to the grocer's overall performance.
SuperValu holds 19.7% of the market with growth of 1.4%. Consumers made the most shopping trips to this grocer, averaging 22.5 trips over the latest 12 weeks. SuperValu recruited new shoppers to store over the latest 12 weeks, which contributed an additional €31.7 million to their overall performance.
Lidl holds 13% of the market with growth of 11.5%, the fastest growth among all retailers once again. Lidl welcomed new shoppers and saw existing customers buy more per trip, contributing a combined additional €25.6 million to overall performance.
Aldi holds 10.3% market share, up 2.4%. Increased store visits and new shoppers drove an additional €21 million in sales.
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