Lidl gained 1.3m shoppers over Christmas, expects more in 2023

Supermarket Lidl gained 1.3 million British shoppers in the Christmas period compared with a year earlier as the supermarket benefited from people cutting back on spending, the German-owned chain said on Friday (6).

Shoppers switched 62.8 million pounds of spending to the group from other supermarkets over the festive period, the group said with Christmas reportedly being the busiest ever day as sales rose by a quarter compared with the previous year.

The British arm of German discounter Lidl said it expected more shoppers to switch in 2023 after its sales rose 24.5 per cent in the four weeks to Dec 25 compared to the previous year.

The rise came from opening of new stores as well as the consumers’ search for savings as people favour cheaper items amid high inflation and a squeeze on household finances from energy bills.

According to data published last week by Kantar, which tracks grocery market share, customers switched £63 million in spending to Lidl from other supermarkets in the month up to Christmas Day, triple the rate of the year before. The same data showed that Lidl’s sales were up by 24.5 per cent year on year in the four weeks to 25 December.

Lidl’s market share increased from 6.2 per cent in January 2022 to 7.2 per cent in the three months up to Christmas Day, according to Kantar, putting it just behind its rival German discounter Aldi as Britain’s sixth biggest supermarket chain. The market shares of spending for Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda and Morrisons all fell during that period.

It comes as annual food price inflation in the UK reached 13.3 per cent in December, according to the British Retail Consortium – the highest since at least 2005 when those records began.

Lidl GB has 28,000 employees and 950 stores in England, Scotland and Wales. The company is owned by the Schwarz Group, which has 360,000 employees and 12,000 stores across 31 countries.

Ryan McDonnell, the Lidl GB chief executive, said, “Every week of the year we are seeing more customers coming through our doors, switching spend to Lidl from the traditional supermarkets.”

The discount strategy was “as relevant now as it ever has been”, he added.

“We only see this momentum continuing in 2023,” said McDonnell.

Lidl is expanding warehouses in Belvedere, Kent, and Bridgend, south Wales, as well as opening a new facility in Luton, Hertfordshire, as it looks to keep growing its share of the market.

Lidl and rival discounter Aldi, Britain’s sixth and fourth largest grocers by market share, were hurt during the pandemic by the lack of significant online businesses, but have drawn customers from traditional grocers as living costs have accelerated.