The rise of the discounters continues unabated with both Aldi and Lidl reporting strong growth in the latest supermarket share figures from Kantar Worldpanel which were published today.

There was also good news for Dunnes Stores which recorded the strongest sales performance of the big retail chains In the 12 weeks up to the May 25th as the the Irish grocery market continued its recent return to growth.

Tesco remains the largest supermarket, but the new figures covering the 12 weeks up to the end of May, show its market share falling from 28 per cent at the end of March last year to its current level of 26.3 per cent, a year on year decline of 4.7per cent.

Supervalu, which subsumed the Superquinn brand two months ago, also saw its combined market share fall from by 0.1 per cent to 24.8 per cent.

A gradual increase in the cost of food and drink has helped push price inflation to 2.6 per cent, a record for 2014. This has increased the amount shoppers are spending at the tills and has kept the grocery market in growth.

“Dunnes is the only one of the big three retailers to grow its sales this period, albeit by a relatively modest 0.7 per cent,” said commercial director at Kantar Worldpanel David Berry. “Its clear strategy of offering ‘round euro’ promotional offers is appealing strongly to price-conscious consumers. Some 30 per cent of Dunnes’ in-store sales are now sold on a round euro deal - up from just over 20 per cent a year ago.”

Aldi and Lidl have both maintained their impressive double digit growth at 21.6 per cent and 13.2 per cent respectively. Aldi’s record share of 8.0 per cent is held from last month while Lidl has reached a new record high of 7.9 per cent.