Irish Shoppers regard health and nutrition as the most important factor affecting their food purchase decisions ahead of price in contrast to their Northern Ireland and British counterparts, according to research published for the first time at today's Bord Bia Food & Drink Industry Day. Titled Exploring Driver's of Growth, the seminar was attended by over 150 Irish companies.
When selecting which food store to shop in by far the most important consideration was the range of food products on offer with 70% of shoppers in the Republic, 68% in Northern Ireland and 66% in Britain citing this as a reason for their choice. This was followed by the quality of the fresh fruit and vegetables on offer by 63% of British shoppers, 57% of those in the Republic and 46% of those in Northern Ireland.
Buy-one-get-one-free was by far the most popular form of promotion among consumers ranging from 64% in Britain to 43% in the Republic while individual purchase decisions were primarily motivated by a combination of health and nutrition information and price. Price is the most important factor influencing Northern Ireland consumers (41%) while health and nutrition (37%) was the most influential reason in the Republic. The research went on to show that over two-fifths of respondents rarely or never read nutritional information on a product.
While costs rank as an important factor for most respondents, over a quarter of respondents in each region (from 27% in Great Britain to 33% in the Republic) "rarely or never" know the price of a product before purchasing it some 62% of ROI respondents do not check unit pricing, compared to 65% of NI respondents and 51% of GB respondents.
According to the research, Tesco is the most visited food retailer in all three markets with 46% of shoppers in Northern Ireland visiting one of its stores most often, 32% of British shoppers visiting it most often and 31% of shoppers in the Republic doing so. Dunnes Stores was the second most visited food retailer in the Republic with Sainsbury, Morrison and Asda tying for second place in Britain while Asda was marginally ahead of Sainsbury for second spot in Northern Ireland.
A significant difference between shoppers in the Republic and those in both Northern Ireland and Britain was the relatively high percentage of shoppers in the Republic who visited discounters Aldi and Lidl most often, 5% of shoppers in the Republic visited a branch of Lidl most often and 3% an Aldi outlet.
While almost 90% of shoppers in all three markets shopped for food at least once a week at least a quarter of shoppers in both the Republic (28%) and Northern Ireland (25%) also do a top-up food shop at least once a day. This compares with just 12% of British shoppers who did a daily top-up shop. However, British shoppers spent more on their top-up shop (€20.11) than either those in the Republic (€18.54) or Northern Ireland (€17.10).
The fresh fruit and vegetable department of the supermarket was the most popular with over 70% of shoppers in all three areas visiting it when shopping while over two-thirds of shoppers also regularly shopped for "general groceries". The least-visited store departments were alcohol, ready meals and babyfood.