HARD LUCK EVERYONE – the cost of your weekly food shop has likely soared again in recent weeks, as grocery price inflation has increased to 6.3%.

New figures from consumer insights group Worldpanel by Numerator show that grocery price inflation jumped over the last three months, up from 5.4% just 12 weeks ago.

The increasing cost of groceries comes on the back of a number of electricity price hikes in recent weeks – SSE Airtricity, Bord Gáis Energy and Pinergy (among others) all announced price hikes heading into the winter season.

The new figures also come as many families are forced to spend more to meet the demands of the return to school.

According to Emer Healy, business development director at Worldpanel by Numerator, back-to-school shopping boosted grocery sales by over 6% in the four weeks up to 7 September.

“As the new school term began in early September, we saw spending on typical lunchbox staples increase across many households with children,” Healy said.

She added that spending on sweet bakery items, fresh fruit, breakfast cereals, savoury snacks and yoghurt was up by €5.3 million as a result.

Overall, shoppers spent an additional €68.8 million on groceries compared with the same period last year, when grocery price inflation stood at just 2.8%.

The latest figures also showed that shoppers were on the lookout for promotions, spending €758 million on promotional lines during the last three months, an increase of 8.2% on the previous year.

Key categories driving the growth in promotions included laundry, water, squash and smoothies, all of which performed ahead of the total market for promotional lines.

Elsewhere, Worldpanel found that Dunnes holds 23.9% of the food market share, while Tesco holds 23.7% of the market.

SuperValu holds 19.5% of the market, and consumers made the most shopping trips to this grocer, averaging nearly 25 trips to Supervalu over the latest 12 weeks.

Lidl holds 14.2% of the market, and Aldi holds 11.6% market share.