Aldi and Lidl cash in as Brits clamoured for discounted Christmas
Discount German supermarkets Aldi and Lidl had bumper festive trading periods, as cash-strapped Brits looked to save the pennies during their Christmas splurge.
Aldi was the big winner as the retailer reported its “best ever” festive period, taking in £1.5bn in sales in the run-up to 25 December, across its 1,000-plus UK outlets.
The discounter said sales were up by eight per cent in the month leading up to Christmas compared to the previous year, which it said was due to the value it offered.
It said Friday 22 December was its busiest-ever trading day with 2.5m customers visiting its stores.
Brits were also helped by suppressed shop price inflation, which stayed flat at 4.3 per cent in December, according to the British Retail Consortium (BRC) and Nielsen IQ shop price index.
Lidl joined the party, saying it experienced a 12 per cent increase in sales in the run-up to Christmas, with 4.5m coming through its doors in the month leading up to the festive period.
Lidl’s ‘luxury’ lines attracted the most attention, with sparkling wines and Prosecco seeing the biggest jump in demand.
British turkeys also flew off the shelf, with one selling every two seconds in the week before Christmas day, while Lidl also sold 2,000 tonnes of potatoes and 1,600 tonnes of carrots.
Looking ahead to the next 12 months, the chief of Aldi UK and Ireland, Giles Hurley, said: “As we look ahead to 2024, our promise to customers is that they will always make significant savings on every shop with Aldi because we have the lowest grocery prices in Britain.”
Ryan McDonnell, Lidl GB boss, said: “I’m incredibly proud of our performance this Christmas in what was the busiest trading period in our history. As the fastest-growing supermarket in the country, we welcomed more customers through our doors than ever before and ensured that we delivered the quality and price promise they have come to expect from us.”
This comes as Lidl and Aldi have been eating into the market share of UK supermarkets, with Tesco still head-and-shoulders above the rest, as the UK’s biggest, with more than 27 per cent.
Tesco is followed by Sainsbury’s, Asda, Aldi, Morrisons and Lidl.