In his 2024 Insights and 2025 Outlook, Bank of Ireland’s head of Retail Convenience Sector Owen Clifford says the sector continues to perform strongly and says a robust investment outlook is projected for 2025.
“Shopping patterns reflected cost of living concerns with increased frequency (shopping little and often) becoming a feature”
Grocery/Convenience sector continues to perform strongly. Retailers navigating an uncertain economic environment linked to geo-political events, access to personnel and fluctuating consumer sentiment.
Summary
- Robust performance: Robust performance delivered by the sector in 2024. A shift in consumer behaviour to increased frequency patterns coupled with increased engagement with own-brand range.
- Cost of Business: Store owners continue to address their overhead profile proactively to mitigate increases linked to personnel and supply-chain.
- Consolidation: Increased consolidation has become a feature of the market with larger grocery/fuel operators expanding their store network and diversifying their sales mix.
2024 Key Trends
- Strong performance in take-home grocery sales continued. Irish grocery inflation stood at 3.6% in November/December 2024 representing a normalisation of food prices in the market. The ever-increasing emphasis on “events” across the sector was further underlined with sales of €1.4bn across Christmas 2024 representing the largest 4-week period since pre-Covid lockdown rush in March 2020.1
- As consumers seek cheaper alternatives across some product lines, all leading operators recognise that a strong own-brand offering is now critical to maintain customer engagement.
- Dunnes Stores and Tesco continue to vie for the number 1 position in respect of grocery market share. This has been driven by a particularly strong performance by Dunnes in the wider Dublin region whilst Tesco’s increased market share reflects Joyce group integration/increased level of new store openings in recent times.
- Shopping patterns reflected cost of living concerns with increased frequency (shopping little and often) becoming a feature of the market. As expected, food inflation, linked to a significant decline in international food commodity prices in recent months retracted significantly in 2024.
To learn more and read about the 2025 trends to watch, download the latest Insight & Outlook 2025 report for the Grocery & Convenience retail sector below:
Bank of Ireland Retail Convenience 2024 Insight and 2025 Outlook report
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