The latest figures on the Irish grocery market show that SuperValu has become the second largest grocer here. It comes after its rebranding of 24 Superquinn stores to the fascia of SuperValu.

Kantar Worldpanel, who compiled the statistics, say Aldi and Lidl continue to perform ahead of the market, growing their market shares by 1.4 and 0.8 percentage points respectively.

The latest share figures run for the 12 weeks ending March 3nd.

David Berry, commercial director at Kantar Worldpanel, explains "Bringing 24 Superquinn stores under the SuperValu banner has enhanced the retailer's position as a major player in the grocery market".

SuperValu now accounts for 25.3% of Irish shoppers’ grocery market spend, just 1.1 percentage points behind Tesco.

"Its sales have remained broadly in line with the market, which shows that it has been able to retain its market share while acquiring assets" Berry added.

Meanwhile, Kantar says discount retailers Aldi and Lidl are delivering "double digit sales growth".

It says that over the past three years, the two have captured a combined 3.8 share points from the competition, and have grown sales by 37% in an overall grocery market which has grown by just 1%.

While Tesco and Dunnes have both experienced declines in market share and actual sales as a result.

February saw the weakest performance in the grocery market here since September 2011, with sales declining by 0.6%. But Kantar added that falling inflation has played a significant part in this as vegetables and bread are now cheaper than they were last year.