Booze sales fall by €7.5m, but we’re still not vegging out...

WE stuck to at least one resolution last month, by giving up alcohol – but going meat-free was a harder sell, the latest analysis of supermarket shopping has shown.

Dry January certainly proved a hit this year with supermarket alcohol sales down a massive €7.4million compared to last year.

The drop of almost 9% was mirrored by a slight rise in the sales of non-alcoholic drinks... but by a much smaller amount of €125,000.

However, Veganuary – where people are encouraged to go vegan and not eat meat or animal produce in January – didn’t have the same impact.

Despite 38% of households buying chilled plant-based products, sales of these items fell 2.6%, with shoppers spending €200,000 less compared to the same period in 2023.

Emer Healy, director at Kantar, which monitors supermarket sales, said: ‘Shoppers cut back in more ways than one [last] month. Across Ireland, consumers took on Dry January with alcohol sales falling by 8.6% and shoppers spending €7.4million less in January compared to last year. Sales of non-alcoholic beverages jumped 8.9% with shoppers spending €125,000 more year-on-year. Almost 7% of households purchased in the category over January with a volume increase of 3.9%.’

However, she added: ‘Veganuary didn’t have the same impact [last] month.

‘With many shoppers returning to normality after the festive break, they opted for ease when adjusting to routines and, as a result, spent an additional €3.3million on chilled convenience.’

Online supermarket shopping has remained a habit into 2024. In the 12 weeks to January 21, sales were up 17.7% year-on-year with shoppers spending an additional €28.2million, Kantar reported.

The main contributor was more frequent trips, which contributed an extra €12.7million to its overall performance.

Online continues to attract new shoppers with 18.5% of households buying groceries on the web, with volume up 0.8 percentage points year-onyear. Dunnes hit a new record market share of 24.6% with growth of 9.9% year-on-year, while Tesco holds 23.8% of the market, also a new record for the retailer, with growth of 9.4%. Tesco also had the strongest growth in terms of frequency of trips amongst all the retailers, up 11.8% yearon-year, which helped deliver an additional €88.4million to overall performance.

SuperValu holds 20.6% of the market with growth of 4%. Its shoppers make the most trips in store when compared to the other retailers, an average of 21.1 over 12 weeks, contributing an additional €9.4million to overall performance.

Lidl holds a 12.5% share and had growth of 8.2% year-onyear. More frequent trips contributed an additional €30.9million to its overall performance. Aldi holds a 10.8% share, with more frequent trips and new shopper arrivals contributing an additional €5.9million overall.

The drop in booze consumption was welcomed yesterday by Alcohol Action Ireland, which campaigns to reduce harmful drinking.

Chief executive Dr Sheila Gilheany said: ‘This represents progress in achieving the Department of Health target of a 20% reduction in alcohol consumption across the whole population.’

However, she also warned: ‘This progress will be undone if Government proposals to extend licensing hours and venues are introduced.’

The Sale of Alcohol Bill will extend pub opening hours until 12.30am every day rather than the current different closing times for weekdays and Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. The fall in drink sales followed a record-breaking festive period in December, while take-home grocery sales are starting to slow with a moderate 2.2% rise in the four weeks to January 21.

At the same time, the figures revealed grocery inflation dropped to 5.9% in the 12 weeks to January 21, which is down 1.2 points on December’s inflation rate of 7.1%.

However, the figure is still way above the European Central Bank target of 2%.

‘Didn’t have the same impact’ ‘This represents progress’