A clear indication of just how much of a washout our July was can be found in the drop of spend on ice cream by €2.5m for the month and a surge in soup sales.

Emer Healy, Business Development Director at Kantar, said hopes of a sunny July were dampened with widespread downpours across Ireland impacting sales of the usual summer favourites.

Kantar figures revealed that barbeques were kept under wraps as Irish shoppers spent €493k less on chilled burgers and grills and €1.3m less on chilled prepared salads year-on-year.

With no need for a summer cool down, shoppers also spent €2.5m less on ice cream and a combined €2.3m less on fruit squash and mineral water.

With Irish consumers spending more time indoors, sales of take-home confectionery and take-home savouries rose €4.7m and €2.6m respectively.

Unseasonal weather also meant consumers looked for ‘warmers’, spending an additional €2.8m on soup and hot beverages. Cooler temperatures and a wetter than average month may have also put people off from venturing the shops. Footfall was down for the fifth month in a row with people making 882,000 fewer trips than last month.

Online sales remained strong over the 12-week period, according to Kantar, up 11.2% year-on-year, with shoppers spending an additional €16.6m online, a significant boost when compared with last month’s 6% increase (€9m). More frequent trips online boosted performance by 12.6%.