Last month, the sale of plant-based drinks were 40% higher than in January 2018. The sale of vegetarian sausages and burgers also rose by 35%.

“Vegetable side dishes and vegetarian sausages and burgers collectively rose by 35% amid the rising popularity of Veganuary,” consumer insight director at Kantar Worldpanel Douglas Faughnan said.

Retail market share

Figures on the latest retail market share from Kantar Worldpanel show Irish households spent €120 less on groceries in January 2019 than December 2018.

January sales of fruit and vegetables also rose by €7m year on year, as Irish consumers started the year with good intentions.

Dry January

Along with Veganuary, dry January was another fad that appeared prominently in social media feeds.

Despite this, more than one third of Irish households bought either beer, cider or wine in January.

Faughnan said: “Wine proved to be the most popular – 25% of shoppers took home at least one bottle during the past four weeks.”

Supermarkets

Dunnes remains the most popular supermarket for Irish shoppers, retaining 23.1% of the market share, closely followed by Tesco (22.1%) and SuperValu (21.6%).

Aldi (10.9%) and Lidl (10.6%) were two major benefactors of both the Christmas splurge and the January tightening.

Faughnan said: “Aldi and Lidl have demonstrated their popularity at two distinctly different times of year – December and January – by providing shoppers with opportunities to both indulge and save.

“Both retailers achieved record market share over Christmas and that strong performance has continued into the new year – Aldi increased sales by 10% and Lidl by 5.2%.”

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