Aldi and Lidl report record Christmas sales amid cost of living crisis

Grocery discounters Aldi and Lidl both rang up their best ever Christmas sales performance in the UK as shoppers sought ways to save cash during the cost of living crisis. Lidl’s sales rose 12% in the four weeks to Christmas, helped by an 11% rise in sales of the chain’s premium Deluxe own label foods, while sales of its Montaudon brut champagne doubled.

The German owned chain said 4.5 million people visited its tills in the run up to Christmas. Popular products included its own brand Christmas jumper – sales of which were up 40%. UK grocery inflation sticks at 4.3% despite lower food price rises Read more The supermarket is likely to have grown faster than all of its rival grocers over Christmas, continuing its run from November.

At Aldi , sales rose by 8% to top more than £1.5bn in the four weeks to Christmas for the first time. The grocer said the strong figures topped a year in which it had attracted half a million more shoppers as they switched away from mainstream supermarkets including Tesco and Sainsbury’s. Lidl and Aldi had their busiest ever day of trading on Friday 22 December.

Stock marketlisted supermarkets Tesco and Sainsbury’s are due to report how they fared in the run up to Christmas next week as part of the annual flood of festive retail figures, which escalates on Thursday when the fashion and homewares chain Next reports. Giles Hurley, the chief executive of Aldi UK and Ireland, promised to continue lowering the cost of groceries as he said the retailer was “really grateful that so many customers chose Aldi for their main Christmas shop this year”.

Ryan McDonnell, the chief executive of Lidl in Great Britain, said: “I’m incredibly proud of our performance this Christmas in what was the busiest trading period in our history. As the fastest growing supermarket in the country, we welcomed more customers through our doors than ever before. skip past newsletter promotion Sign up to Business Today Free daily newsletter Get set for the working day – we'll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morning Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties.

For more information see our Privacy Policy . We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. after newsletter promotion “Deluxe proved to be a standout winner this Christmas, with record breaking sales, as we saw customers not only start their festive celebrations early but trade up to premium lines across all categories.” The strong trading figures come after industry data showed that Aldi and Lidl gained market share in November while Asda, Morrisons, Waitrose and the Co op lost out.

Tesco and Sainsbury’s, the UK’s two biggest supermarkets, gained share as they offered loyalty card holders additional discounts. Shoppers have been switching to the discounters, as well as buying more own label goods, to offset hefty food price inflation which was 6.7% in December , according to the latest figures from the British Retail Consortium..