Every Lidl helps as discounter hits record
Discount supermarket Lidl booked record total festive sales up 16 per cent in December as the group said yesterday that it experienced its highest ever footfall.
However, the German company again did not give a breakdown of like-for-like sales, a benchmark that strips out new stores opened and which is used by its main UK food retailing rivals and is seen as a key yardstick of performance by the City.
Lidl, which with fellow discounter Aldi has made market share gains against the UK’S major supermarkets in recent years, said 22 December marked a record trading day in the group’s, with the week before Christmas its “strongest ever”.
Among the supermarket’s best-selling products was its Birchwood Farm whole fresh turkey, which contributed to a 10 per cent increase in sales of the bird.
Total fresh meat and poultry sales grew 17 per cent.
Roughly 600 tonnes of Brussels sprouts, 17 million mince pies and over 800,000 litres of Champagne and Prosecco were also snapped up by shoppers.
Lidl boss Christian Hartnagel said: “Lidl UK has had a fantastic 2017 and this was capped by our strongest Christmas trading period to date.”
The company opened nine new stores last month, taking its UK total to nearly 700.
Earlier this week, Lidl said it will open five new London stores and build its largest UK warehouse to date in a move that it says underlines the scale of its expansion plans in the English capital.