Discounter supermarkets Aldi and Lidl on Tuesday revealed record Christmas trading in the UK, as cash-strapped shoppers looked to cut the costs of their festive celebrations.
Aldi hailed its ‘best ever’ Christmas performance, with UK sales of more than £1.5 billion for the first time in the month leading up to Christmas.
The chain, which has more than 1,010 stores across the UK, said sales rose by 8% on a year before in the four weeks to December 24.
Its fellow German-owned rival Lidl also claimed its best Christmas yet, reporting annual UK sales growth of 12% in the four weeks to December 24.
The supermarket, which has more than 960 stores in the UK, said it saw around 4.5 million more shoppers come through its doors and cheered its busiest ever trading day on Friday, December 22.
But inflation accounted for some of the two firms’ sales growth, with recent official figures showing food prices rose by 9.2% in November, though this was slower than 10.1% in October.
And despite the record trading, Aldi and Lidl’s sales growth was slower than in Christmas 2022, when inflation was running at a 45-year high.
A year ago, Aldi posted a 26% jump in sales over December, while Lidl saw sales rise by 25% in the four weeks to December 25, 2022.
The groups are the first out of the stalls with their Christmas trading figures, with the Big Four supermarkets yet to report.
Tesco PLC and J Sainsbury PLC will reveal their sales performance next week, on January 11 and January 10 respectively, while Marks & Spencer Group PLC will post its festive trading update on January 11.
Aldi said the performance ‘capped a remarkable year’ for the group, which now has a 9.6% share of Britain’s supermarket sector according to recent Kantar data, and it pledged to cut prices further this year.
Lidl also claimed it saw its ‘best Christmas yet’, with shoppers increasingly trading up to its premium own-label products over the season, as sales across its Deluxe range jumped 11% year on year between September 10 and December 24.
The latest data from Kantar showed that Lidl was the fastest-growing grocery firm in the 12 weeks to November 26, with its market share leaping to 7.8% from 7.4% a year ago.
Lidl said it sold a British turkey every two seconds in the week before Christmas, with 2,000 tonnes of potatoes and 1,600 tonnes of carrots also snapped up by customers.
Tesco shares were up 0.9% to 293.20 pence early Tuesday in London. Sainsbury’s was up 0.5% to 304.00p, and M&S was up 1.8% to 277.20p.
By Holly Williams, PA Business Editor
source: PA
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