DUNNES STORES HAS increased its market share to become the joint-second most popular supermarket.

The retailer increased sales by 6.3% to draw level with Tesco. The two stores now account for 21.6% each of the Irish grocery market, which continues to grow rapidly overall: sales were up 3.7% year on year during the past 12 weeks.

According to Kantar Worldpanel, Supervalu remains the most popular store in the country, holding 22.4% of the market, increasing sales by 3.1% year on year.

This is the third consecutive month where growth for the retailer has been above 3%, helped by shoppers adding more items to their baskets on average every time they shop.

While Tesco has seen value sales fall by 2.3% it continues to sell more items, with volume sales 1.9% higher than the same time last year. The performance gap between value and volume sales is a reflection of a lower average price point at Tesco.

David Berry of Kantar says that the boosts for Dunnes come from customers making bigger shops.

“Larger trips have boosted sales for Dunnes, with the average spend increasing by €2.50 to €37.20 in the latest quarter, compared with the same time last year.

“Dunnes has successfully tempted shoppers to add more expensive items to their baskets.”

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