This equates to a record spend of €1,532 per household, which is up €38 on last year.

This was largely driven by an increase in spending on everyday food items such as fruit, vegetables, meat and poultry, which saw a combined sales increase of €28m.

Dunnes Stores was best placed among retailers to capitalise from the increase in consumer spending, as it captured a market share of 23% – up 0.3 percentage points on this time last year. The chain achieved its strongest sales growth since May 2017, up 4.9%.

Tesco came a close second with a 5.8% increase in sales, bringing its overall market share to 22.8%, with Supervalu hot on their heels with 22.4% (up 2%).

Lidl saw a sales increase of 4.8%, bringing its market share to 10.4%, while Aldi saw sales rise by 0.9%, bringing its share of the market to 10.3%.

The increase in sales was also observed online. Director at Kantar Worldpanel David Berry said: “Online grocers experienced impressive sales growth of 24%, which boosted their share of the market to a record 2.3% over the Christmas period.

“Although grocery e-commerce shoppers haven’t increased in number, customers who already shop online have upped the frequency of their purchases, with, on average, one extra order placed over this period.”

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