Grocery sales in Ireland for December 2018 were just shy of €1bn, the highest ever monthly spend on groceries and food by Irish households.

Data from Kantar Worldpanel shows that the Irish grocery market grew by 3% in the 12-week period to the end of December 2018. In the busy runup to Christmas, Irish shoppers spent an average of €694 on groceries, bringing sales for the month to a record €995m.

UK supermarket giant Tesco reported like-for-like sales growth of just 0.3% in its Irish stores during the critical Christmas trading period, well behind the growth in the overall Irish grocery market.

In contrast, German discounter Aldi announced its Irish stores had enjoyed sales growth of more than 10% for the week commencing 17 December.

“The impact Aldi and Lidl have made on the ultra-competitive Irish grocery landscape is evidenced by the fact that more than 70% of households visited each retailer in the 12 weeks to 30 December,” said Douglas Faughnan, consumer insights director at Kantar Worldpanel.