News and Trends

S ource: Aldi Updated bakery fixture at the Aldi supermarket store in Bristol Aldi is giving an aesthetic upgrade to its bakery fixtures as part of a £67m investment throughout 2025 to deliver an “even better shopping experience” at its UK stores. The discounter said that layout changes and refreshed signage of its existing bakery fixtures will help accommodate expanding categories, without going into more detail. Other improvements being made through Aldi’s £67m investment include to its health and beauty fixtures as well as its in-store CO2 refrigeration systems which, once completed, will provide carbon emissions reductions equivalent to heating over 6,500 homes. “Aldi’s £67m investment is a major step forward in our commitment to delivering an even better shopping experience for our customers across Britain,” commented Aldi UK managing director of national real estate Jonathan Neale. “Building on the success of our previous upgrades, we’re enhancing store layouts as part of our ded...

© Aldi Aldi UK  has unveiled its biggest ever vegan Christmas range, featuring a variety of new products alongside old favourites. The range includes what is claimed to be a “supermarket first”, the Plant Menu Ultimate Footlong Vegan Pig in Blanket. The product is made with Aldi’s Ultimate No Pork Sausage and wrapped in smoky vegan bacon. The chain’s regular-sized Plant Menu Vegan Pigs in Blankets will also return this year. As a starter, customers can opt for the Let’s Party Vegan Bites, featuring no duck spring rolls, cauliflower popcorn bites with buffalo dip, and sweet potato bites with katsu sauce. Several new plant-based mains are also on offer: Specially Selected Nut Roast —  A vegan melting centre roast with a cranberry sauce filling. Plant Menu Stuffed No Turkey Crown —  A plant-based joint with a caramelised onion, sage, and herb stuffing, finished with umami basting stock melts. © Aldi Specially Selected No Beef Wellington —  Features a plant-based beef ce...

 Source: The Grocer,  By   Steve Farrell No comment Source: The Grocer Aldi  has been ramping up its rollout of in-store bakeries, selling rolls & buns, wraps & bagels, sweet treats and bake-at-home items. It comes as  Lidl  – with bakeries across its estate – continues to outpace Aldi in sales growth. Aldi has been trialling bakeries for a number of years, having brought them to its first Aldi Local stores in London in 2019. However, the pace of the rollout has been slow, with only 16 stores having gained them by March this year, and their presence still mostly limited to the capital. The number has now risen to 25, with stores gaining them in recent weeks in the south-east and east of England. Aldi has also been changing layouts, including bringing  fruit  & veg to the front of the store, in its ongoing ‘Project Fresh’ refurbishment programme, while also redesigning its  health  &  beauty  section. Lidl’s bake...

Lidl is making a major play for in-store bakery and it’s not afraid to shout about it. The discounter – which is currently the sixth largest grocer in the UK by market share [Statista] – recently overtook Tesco to secure the biggest slice of in-store bakery (ISB). Data from Kantar showed that Lidl, which was crowned  Bakery Retailer of the Year  at the 2023 Baking Industry Awards, had pipped the UK’s largest supermarket  with 18.2% of the ISB market compared to Tesco’s 18%. Speaking at the British Society of Baking conference earlier this year, Holly Bleach, head of buying at Lidl, described bakery as “critical” to Lidl as it’s one of the categories that drives overall customer satisfaction. “We’re set up to be really successful in bakery in the UK due to the prominence of our bakeries in store. More often than not, they’re right by the front door so every customer that walks in has to pass the bakery and not many can resist stopping and obviously picking up an item,” she...

August 06, 2024 6:46 AM,  By Steve Wynne-Jones Some 65% of UK shoppers have switched either 'some' or 'all' of their shopping to Aldi and Lidl, a new study has found. The study, by Pricer, found that despite aggressive discounting and enhanced loyalty offers from mainstream supermarkets, shoppers continue to switch to the discounters in search of deals. Switching To Aldi And Lidl It surveyed 1,000 people, and found that the percentage of those switching to Aldi and Lidl was up by four percentage points compared to last year. In terms of specifics, 51% said that they had switched 'some' of their food spend to the discounters, while 13% have switched 'all' of their shopping to Aldi and Lidl. Younger demographics are the most likely to switch to the discounters, with 79% of Millennials and 78% of Gen Z making the switch, the data showed. On a rational basis, Londoners lead in changing from traditional grocers to Aldi or Lidl, at 81%, compared to 60% in th...

 Namnews,  11th January 2024 New data from Kantar shows that Lidl achieved over £116m in switching gains during the Christmas period, with it the only grocer to win spend from all the leading supermarkets. The discounter achieved switching gains of £51.6m from Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons and Asda. Meanwhile, Lidl secured £12.2m from key rival Aldi. The remaining switching spend came from the ‘premium’ supermarkets and other food outlets, amounting to £52.3m. The performance comes off the back of a  record Christmas for Lidl , with its sales up 12% and further  market share growth . NAM implications: Bad news for Aldi, added pressure on UK performance… Key for ‘premium’ supermarkets has to be the extent to which having discovered the quality closeness of the discounters vs premium… …how many will revert to upmarket shopping.

January 7, 2024   José Miguel Flavián Erlac   The two chains that seem to have had the worst Christmas, Morrisons and Asda, have already reacted with price initiatives. Morrisons' reaction is unoriginal: on Wednesday they announced a new wave of price cuts on essential products.  They invest £15 million in reducing an average of 20% of around 200 references.  In addition, 1,000 references will maintain the price for the next 8 weeks, regardless of how inflation behaves, so that their customers have confidence that buying at Morrisons will not be more expensive for them. Asda's is somewhat more original, although incremental rather than innovative, like many things in mass consumption.  If until now we had chains like Tesco and Sainsbury's that promised to have a series of essential references at the same price as Aldi, Asda doubles the bet and says that it will have about 300 references at a lower price than the cheapest of the two discounters, Aldi or Lidl. ....

  Namnews,  3rd November 2023 Lidl has been named the UK’s cheapest supermarket for a basket of groceries, ending a 16-month run by its key rival Aldi. Meanwhile, the research by consumer watchdog Which? found that for a larger trolley of items, Asda remained the cheapest retailer and Waitrose was the most expensive. The monthly analysis involves comparing the average prices of a shop consisting of everyday groceries at eight of the country’s biggest supermarkets. It also looks at a larger trolley of groceries at six supermarkets, which excludes the discounters as they do not always stock major brands. The cheapest supermarket for a smaller basket of goods in October was Lidl, where the cost averaged £74.58 across the month. However, Aldi was just 17p behind on £74.75. Meanwhile, the basket of groceries at Waitrose totalled £91.15, which is 22% more than Lidl. Full table of basket results (based on 44 items):  Retailer Average basket price Lidl £74.58 Aldi £74.75 Asda £82...