Aldi and Lidl reach record share of UK market

Discount retailers Aldi and Lidl now own a 10% combined share of the British grocery market, double their share of only three years ago, new figures have revealed.

The retailers, known for offering less popular or own-branded products at big discounts compared to the mainstream supermarkets, have attracted one million more shoppers in the last 12 weeks compared to the same period last year, researchers at Kantar Worldpanel said.

Sainsbury’s has also become the UK’s second biggest supermarket, overtaking Asda by growing its share by 0.2% in the three months to 8 November.

Average spend per customer in Aldi and Lidl has gone above the industry average for the first time. The typical customer now spends £18.85 per trip, 78p ahead of the retailer standard.

“The discounters show no sign of stopping and with plans to open hundreds of stores between them, they’ll noticeably widen their reach to the British population,” Fraser McKevitt of Kantar Worldpanel said.

Lidl’s market share reached a new high of 4.4%, increasing by 0.7% on last year thanks to a sales growth of 19%. Aldi grew sales by 16.5%, keeping its market share at 5.6% for the fifth consecutive month.

Saying that it was “no surprise” that Aldi and Lidl reached this milestone because of their successful wine offering, Tim Wilson of the Wilson Drinks Report told db: “New initiatives like the Aldi online wine by the case service launching next year will pile further pressure on the other grocers who will need to differentiate their own ranges and avoid a race to the bottom.”

He said that Lidl posed the greater long-term threat to the big supermarkets in terms of its wine offering, as it is aiming at the more premium end of the market.

Sainsbury’s recorded the only share gain of the so-called ‘big four’ supermarkets, as sales increased 1.5% despite the tough market conditions.

Sales fell at the rest of the major retailers. At Tesco they were down by 2.5% while Morrisons saw sales fall by 1.7% and Asda’s shrank by 3.5%.

Growing revenues this quarter were Waitrose and the Co-operative, where sales were up by 2.7% and 1.5% respectively.