Christmas 2016 Food Retail Review – Republic of Ireland
Background
Christmas week is a truly enormous trading period, with sales ramping up through December and peaking in the week up to Christmas eve. Sales jump significantly in this final week versus a regular week. Shoppers are well stocked-up and emerge from Christmas hibernation to top-up on bread and milk, preparation for New Year’s Eve parties and maybe even some early January sales shopping. It is important to observe the market closely in the weeks leading up to and after Christmas for three key reasons;
- It is a major logistical challenge for a business to deal with this sales uplift so it highlights the strengths and weaknesses of the end to end supply chain.
- The retail strategy at Christmas is a strong indicator of overall strategic direction.
- Christmas is a time for retailers to put their best foot forward and impress their customers.
Objectives
The retail survey is an assessment of the key activities taking place within the grocery retail sector during Christmas 2016. The report focuses on range, price and promotion activities but also comments on marketing, stock levels, currency impacts, money-off vouchers and the resulting market share performance.
Methodology
The research was carried out through a combination of store visits, on-line research, marketing materials review and an online survey. Research commenced on 15-Dec-16 and extended to 26-Jan-17.
Executive Summary
Premium Ranges
Christmas 2016 was highly competitive. With improving economy and purse strings loosening slightly, the retailers saw an opportunity to expand premium ranges. This was in line with their all year around strategies but much more overt since consumers want more options to trade up and spend more money at Christmas.
Competitive Core Ranges
This premiumisation was placed right alongside a very competitive core range. There is now minimal differentiation in the basic ranges and the prices are very keen across the market.
Currency Exchange Rates
There was an added reason for ROI retailers to be extra-competitive this Christmas. From mid-October to early November ’16 the £/€ exchange rate fluctuated around 1.10 to 1.12 with reports of strong alcohol sales in Northern Ireland thanks to cross-border shopping. The overall offer food was largely based on EDLP pricing with many seasonal products launching and staying at the same price. It was still a challenge for consumers to make sense of everything with quite widely varying prices depending on what quality tier they picked up whilst shopping.
Money Off Vouchers
Some retailers enjoyed good success with their vouchering activities in both holding and winning new business. The combination of high volume ‘value’ ranges and lower volume premium ranges is leading to a polarisation of volume and value where a relatively small cohort of products is being subjected to price deflation. At the same time, retailers have deployed new strategies to concurrently inject some value and profit back into their range mix. Opportunities remain for all the retailers and suppliers to grow their businesses.
The ROI market is interesting for several reasons:
- High discounter market share at +22% combined
- High private label penetration
- Consumers with strong knowledge of farming and the food retail market
- Money off voucher dynamics.
- Post-recession consumer sentiment dynamics
If your business is currently operating in the Republic of Ireland market, then you’ll know how competitive it is. However, you might be surprised to learn how much potential still exists to grow your business. If you’re thinking of getting into the ROI market or you’re interested in applying learnings in your market then you should read this review.
The report is based around a full product survey over all the key food and drink categories. 225 product lines were surveyed to create a detailed gap analysis and competitive comparison. Retailer advertising was studied as was the in-store experience. Finally, bespoke research was undertaken with an online panel to further explore some of the trends especially around, premium private label, money-off vouchering, cross-border shopping and the impact of advertising. The list below details the sub-sections of the report.
- Introduction
- Background
- Objectives
- Methodology
- Executive summary
- Detailed report
- Range convergence
- Price report
- Core needs shop
- Potential to spend study
- Promotional plan
- Range differentiation
- Free From
- Premium private label
- Exchange rates
- What happened this time versus 2008?
- Stock Levels, reduce to clear & clean exits
- Market share summary
- Vouchers and customer retention
- Advertising
- Opportunities for retailers and suppliers
Please contact me for more details.
malachy@foodfirstconsulting.ie
+353 87 9380216
MALACHY O’CONNOR
FOOD FIRST CONSULTING