Aldi and Lidl to join rush for small stores

ALDI and Lidl are to carpet Britain with dozens of smaller convenience outlets, threatening the dominance of big established stores.

The move marks another blow for Tesco and Sainsbury’s, which are already under pressure from the discounters as their supermarkets lure customers with cheap food and special offers.

Hundreds of smaller Tesco Metro, Tesco Express and Sainsbury’s Local stores have been opened to capitalise on the fastest growing area of fiercely competitive grocery retailing.

Many shoppers have dumped the traditional weekly supermarket shop, preferring to top up with more frequent visits to smaller local stores.

Lidl and Aldi will up the ante in the lucrative London battleground where convenience stores are the big growth area.

Aldi has been trialling a smaller shop in Kilburn, North London, and is opening one in Tooting, South London.

Both discounters are snapping up sites in London ahead of a national expansion, according to Property Week magazine.

Aldi is hunting for two new types of convenience store across London as part of a £600million development drive. Cormac McNabb, managing director of Aldi’s property advisors Stripe Street, told Property

‘Will costs pass to shoppers?’

Week: ‘Aldi has a huge appetite to expand in London where affluent middle- class shoppers are flocking to their stores. We expect to exchange on four new stores this side of Christmas.’

Lidl has its own plans for a new town centre brand and is transforming a 7,500- square- f oot former Co- operative store in Kentish Town, North London, into the first outlet.

Property Week said Asda, Britain’s second-biggest supermarket, is also opening its first high street convenience stores.

Asda chief executive Andy Clarke questioned whether Aldi and Lidl’s move into a small convenience format would force them to put prices up. ‘This would mean a move into higher rental sites and more expensive operating costs,’ he said. ‘The big question is whether they would have to pass these costs on to shoppers and start charging more in the smaller stores.’

Aldi and Lidl have turned up the pressure on the big supermarkets with their low prices and award-winning products.

The latest figures from consumer analyst Kantar Worldpanel for the 12 weeks ending on September 14 showed Tesco sales were down 4.5 per cent, leaving its market share at 28.8 per cent. Sainsbury’s share slipped from 16.6 per cent to 16.2 per cent.

Aldi recorded a sales increase of 29.1 per cent on the same period last year, while Lidl sales rose by 17.7 per cent.