Despite Greeks saying that they are forced to cut back on basic food purchases due to budgeting, snacks, soft drinks, and alcoholic beverages, typically non-essential items, seem to dominate sales in terms of volume.

According to data from Circana (formerly IRI) for the ten-month period of January-October 2023, the largest sales volume increase was recorded in non-alcoholic beverages and snacks at +4.4%, and alcoholic beverages at +4.3%. This is more than double that of dairy products (+2.2%).

The habit of snacking which became ‘big’ during the pandemic, is here to stay with 49% of consumers snacking three or more times a day.

Product categories that also experienced sales volume increases were personal care and beauty products (+1.1%), personal hygiene items (+1.6%), and other household items (+0.1%). Conversely, sales volumes decreased in packaged foods (-0.1%), frozen foods (-0.9%), cooking materials (-2.5%), and detergents/cleaners (-0.5%).
The total sales value of the consumer goods market reached €7.446 billion in the ten-month period, up 9.5% from the €6.821 billion in the corresponding period last year, with food accounting for €5.689 billion.

During the same period, sales volume increased by 1.7% compared to the previous year. Packaged food sales value increased by 9.5%, personal hygiene and beauty product sales by 9.1%, and detergent/cleaner sales by 9.1%.

However, sales volume increased by 1.8% for packaged foods, 1.3% for personal hygiene and beauty products, and decreased by 0.2% for detergent/cleaner products.

The private label trend continues its upward route, registering an 11.9% increase in sales value and capturing a 26.2% market share, while branded products saw slower growth at 8.7%.
In the food category, private label products slightly increased their market share to 26.7% from 26.3% in 2022. In personal care items, it stands at 20.9%, and household items at 25.7%.

The trend of offers on supermarket shelves continues. In the food category, promotional sales contributed to a rise from 21.3% to 24.9%, and in household care products, it increased from 21.7% to 25.6%. Overall, the turnover of fast-moving consumer goods under an offer status increased from 21.9% in 2022 to 25.1% in the January-October 2023 period.