Tesco Ireland has today recovered from last month's beating to the Kantar Worldpanel supermarket share results top place by Supervalu by drawing level with last month's winner in results published today.

Today's results measure supermarket share for the twelve weeks ending 26 April, and find that both Tesco and Supervalu have each captured 25.0% of the grocery market.

David Berry, Director at Kantar Worldpanel, said that intense competition between the two supermarkets, one to hold on to its place, the other to recover it, has resulted in "more choice and better value for shoppers, highlighted by the low level of inflation and prices increasing by just 0.2%. Many staple grocery items are now cheaper than they were last year, with the price of meat and vegetables both dropping by 3% and bread by 2%," Berry said.

He added that although Tesco has managed to draw level with SuperValu in this month's results, the latter company's plan to open four new stores this year gives it the opportunity to grow sales further and out-perform the overall market.

Of the three big retailers, Dunnes has posted the strongest sales growth by lifting its market share by 3.6%, from 21.5% to 22.0%, an increase that comes despite the recent industrial action taken by staff in the build up to Easter.

One of the key positives for Dunnes has been its strength in Dublin, an area where grocery sales are growing and where Dunnes accounts for over a quarter of shopper spend.

One of the most interesting trends in Kantar's latest data is the slowing growth rate of both Aldi and Lidl. While the 8.8% growth posted by Aldi and 7.8% for Lidl remains impressive, this is the first time since 2010 that both Aldi and Lidl have grown their sales by less than 10%.