Aldi and Lidl hit new milestone as big four slump continues

The figures, for the 12 weeks ending 8 November 2015, showed that Lidl’s market share increased by 0.7% on last year to reach a new record high of 4.4%, while its sales grew 19%. Aldi, meanwhile, grew sales by 16.5%, keeping its market share at 5.6% for the fifth consecutive month.

The news comes just a week after Aldi was named “Brand of the year” at the Masters of Marketing awards, where judges labelled the German discount retailer the “epitome of a challenger brand”. It was also hailed for redefining the entire supermarket sector and taking on the established grocery brands to become “part of the British psyche”.

“f you look back as recently as 2012 Aldi and Lidl only held a 5% share of the market, and it had previously taken them nine years to double their combined share from 2.5%,” said Kantat Worldpanel’s head of retail insight Fraser McKevitt.

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

Big four foes

However, sales continue to fall at the big four supermarkets, with each continuing to be squeezed by the growth of Aldi and Lidl.

Sainsbury’s was the only one of the “big four” supermarket chains to increase sales and market share, by 1.5% and 0.2 percentage points respectively, overtaking Asda to become the second-largest UK supermarket chain.

But sales fell at the rest of the major retailers. At Tesco they were down by 2.5% while Morrisons and Asda saw sales fall by 1.7% and 2.5% respectively.

McKevitt believes Sainsbury’s is best placed among the big four to succeed this Christmas.

“Sainsbury’s performance means it has once again regained its position as Britain’s second largest supermarket, pushing ahead of Asda in the latest 12 weeks,” he added. “The food-focused retailer traditionally increases its market share over Christmas, so we can expect to see it keep hold of second place for the time being.”