Over the four weeks to 29 December 2019, overall sales at Lidl increased 11% compared to the same period in 2018. The discounter was the fastest growing bricks and mortar supermarket over the Christmas trading period, and had its busiest trading day ever on 23 December, with customers stocking up ahead of Christmas Eve.
More customers than ever before chose to shop at Lidl during the festive period, after the discounter was crowned Christmas Retailer of the Year at the Quality Food Awards. Shoppers also continued to switch spend away from all other supermarkets, including Aldi, with £110m spent at Lidl instead in the lead up to Christmas.
Lidl experienced strong sales in BWS, with record growth of 13%. Wine was the real winner from the range as it became the fastest growing in the sector over Christmas, with 20% growth over the last year. The best-selling wines were both under £5.00; at £4.99 each Lidl’s Rioja Joven DOC and its Argentinian Malbec collectively sold the equivalent of 16,000 glasses an hour over the Christmas period.
The vinous victory comes after Lidl was awarded best Own Brand Range at the IWSC (International Wine and Spirits Competition), as well as the launch of its national consumer wine experience Chateaux Noir, which toured three UK cities, challenging perceptions on taste, value and quality by giving consumers the opportunity to blind taste Lidl wines in the dark.
Cheese was a successful accompaniment, as customers consumed over 1,000 tonnes from Lidl’s festive range – the equivalent of 87 Routemaster Buses – leading to a 55% uplift in sales.
The discounter also bucked the trend for the sector general merchandise sales, with the ‘Middle of Lidl’ recording an overall sales increase of 9%.
True to form, Lidl kept its promise never to be beaten on price, working hard over the Christmas period to deliver the best possible value to customers. This included an investment from Lidl in the price of its festive veg offer, enabling customers to get their Christmas dinner essentials for just 15p, resulting in a 44% increase in units sold of its Pick of the Week offer, compared to the previous year.
Christian Härtnagel, Lidl GB CEO, said, “This was our 25th Christmas since first opening our doors in Britain, and what a Christmas it’s been, with more customers shopping at Lidl than ever before. We continued to open our doors to more communities across the country, which has no doubt contributed to our success. However, the number of customers switching to us in the lead up to Christmas shows the continued appeal of the Lidl offer.”
For the second year in a row, the discounter also ran its Christmas food donation scheme. Lidl worked with Neighbourly to link its stores to local communities and donated 250,000 meals to 1,500 local charities, food banks and community groups across the country so they could host a Christmas meal.
Lidl also continued to invest in its store portfolio during the festive period, creating jobs across the country in time for Christmas. This forms part of the supermarket’s £1.45bn investment in its expansion across Great Britain in 2019 and 2020 and its target of 1,000 shops by the end of 2023.
Christian Härtnagel, Lidl GB CEO, added, “Our incredible workforce have worked tirelessly throughout this extremely busy trading period. It is thanks to them that households up and down the country were able to feast on a fantastic array of festive food, whilst still saving on their shopping.
“After more than doubling our market share over the past ten years, we’re excited to be entering a new decade and all the potential it brings for us. Our promise to customers will always be to provide the best quality at the lowest prices and we look forward to delivering this to even more households across the country in 2020 and beyond.”