£1BN DECEMBER TO REMEMBER FOR ALDI
ALDI enjoyed its best ever festive trading with sales of nearly £1billion in December to pile more pressure on Britain’s big four supermarkets.
The German-owned chain, the UK’s fifth biggest grocer with a 7.6 per cent market share, grew turnover by 10 per cent in the week before Christmas and by a similar amount for the month.
Store expansion boosted its performance, but the company said sales at stores open at least a year were positive. No data was provided on profits.
Aldi said its performance was driven by a surge in demand for its premium products, which include hand-prepared beef chateaubriand and root vegetable nut roast with a camembert sauce centre.
It sold more than 17 million bottles of wine, champagne and prosecco during December. Aldi UK chief executive Giles Hurley said: “Our Christmas range was the largest and most innovative yet and caught the imagination of our customers, who visited our stores in record numbers.”
It opened 65 shops last year to take its total to 827 and is aiming to have 1,200 by the end of 2025.
Morrisons, the UK’s fourth biggest player with a 10.5 per cent share, stepped up the competition by announcing average 20 per cent price cuts on 935 products such as cereal, tinned tomatoes and ready meals.
Morrisons said: “We’re listening to customers who are telling us that their budgets will be stretched in January, so we are cutting every penny we can on the essentials that will help them feed their families.”
Tesco is also cutting prices on hundreds of branded groceries.