Home grown brands top shopping list

In an era of growing consumer choice at the supermarket local Irish brands are still holding their own when it comes time to head to the checkout.

Diary specialist Avonmore has once again come out on top as the most bought item by the most consumers in a review of Ireland’s most chosen fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) and is one of five local brands making up the top 10 of consumer choices.

Avonmore was picked up from supermarket shelves over 35 million times in the last year, with over 75 per cent of the population choosing it on average 27.4 times a year.

The 2016 Brand Footprint is based on an analysis of measures of how many households purchased a brand once a year and the average number of times households bought that brand. Irish products make up half of the top 50 brands being bought in Ireland.

Of the 25 Irish brands making it into the top 50, the amount of households purchasing the product at least once, grew for 17. Six of the brands entered the top 50 ranking for the first time, including Charleville, MiWadi, Country Kitchen and Carroll Cuisine of Tullamore, Co Offaly, which increased its frequency of purchase by over 18 per cent following its £40 million management buyout.

Brennans sits second on the list having been bought an average of 25 times a year by 71.5 per cent of households, increasing its frequency of number of households. A rate of 16.3 times a year by 76.7 per cent of households ranks Denny in third. Jacob’s, which entered the highest number of households of any brand on the list this year, was bought by 84.4 per cent of Irish households placing it as fifth on the list behind German-born Knorr.

Despite being ranked first in the worldwide Brand Footprint ranking, Coca-Cola only ranked tenth on the list, making it into the top 10 for the first time in the surveys four year history. However, Irish brands have less of a presence outside of the country and only Coca-Cola out of the top 10 appears on the UK list or on the wider European top 10.

David Berry, Director of Kantar Worldpanel, who carried out the ranking said: “Irish brands continue to represent a strong contingent in our shopping baskets and its promising that they’re succeeding in the same space as pan-European and global businesses. This isn’t just true of food brands – sector specific rankings show brands like Lyons, MiWadi and Killeen all performing better than their international competition.”

Consumer reach points (%)

• Avonmore -3%

• Brennans +10%

• Denny 0%

• Knorr +2%

• Jacob’s +7%

• Muller +9%

• Birds Eye +7%

• Heinz +2%

• Batchelors +2%

• Coca-Cola +3%