Latest figures show the Irish supermarket sector is continuing to grow, with consumer spend increasing 3.8% over the past 12 weeks.
The share figures from Kantar Worldpanel in Ireland show SuperValu remains the number one retailer, capturing 25% of the grocery market.
Kantar says good sales growth of 4.4% has seen the grocer perform ahead of the market, increasing its share from 24.8% last year.
Shoppers visited the retailer nearly 21 times on average in the latest period - more frequently than last year - spending an additional €27 with SuperValu as a result.
Georgieann Harrington, insight director at Kantar Worldpanel, explains: "The increased consumer confidence we saw over Christmas has continued, with little indication that shoppers are tightening their belts after the festive period".
"Combined with a 0.4 percentage point increase in price inflation over the past 12 weeks, this means that consumers have been spending more on their grocery shopping than this time last year".
Dunnes see strongest rate of growth
Tesco is still in second place, half a percentage point behind SuperValu, with a 24.5% share of the grocery market.
However, sales growth of 1.1% makes this the most positive performance Tesco has seen since November 2012.
Dunnes enjoyed the strongest rate of growth of the top three supermarkets - with sales up 5.1% compared with last year.
This is due in part to larger shopping trips - Dunnes has successfully encouraged shoppers to spend an additional €1.70 on average every time they visit the store.
Elsewhere, Lidl has now seen double digit growth for the fourth consecutive 12 weekly period.
The retailer is successfully driving growth across the board, with a higher number of shoppers visiting its stores more often and spending a larger amount each time.
Aldi also posted a positive performance, with sales 2.9% higher than in 2015.
Kantar says the main growth driver for Aldi has been an increase in customer numbers: almost 65% of all Irish households visited the retailer within the past 12 weeks, compared with just shy of 63% a year ago".
