The German discounter has capitalised on the relentless household hunt for value, plotting a further 50 stores and a £600 million expansion that piles fresh pressure on the traditional big four.
When Lidl quietly opened its first British shop in the Leicestershire market town of Lutterworth in 1994, its competition came in the shape of names now consigned to retail history — Safeway, Somerfield and the original pile-it-high pioneer, Kwik Save. Three decades on, the German-owned chain has not only outlived those rivals but has now overtaken one of the original “big four” itself.
Lidl has surpassed Morrisons to become Britain’s fifth-biggest supermarket, capping a long run of market-share gains built on a stubbornly simple recipe of high volumes, lean ranges and aggressive everyday pricing. The discounter now commands a record 8.6 per cent of the UK grocery market, with sales rising 8.8 per cent to £3.2 billion over the 12 weeks to 17 May, according to the latest figures from consumer analyst Worldpanel by Numerator.
To put the trajectory into context, Lidl held just 1.4 per cent of the market at the turn of the millennium. It now sits ahead of Co-op (5.1 per cent), Waitrose (4.5 per cent), Iceland (2.2 per cent) and, in a milestone moment, Morrisons itself on 8.3 per cent. Sales growth at the chain has outpaced every other bricks-and-mortar grocer for almost three years on the trot.
Owned by Germany’s €167.3 billion-turnover Schwarz Group, Lidl GB now employs more than 35,000 people across 1,000 stores and 13 distribution centres. It has earmarked another 50 outlets for the year ahead as part of a wider £600 million investment in its British infrastructure, a programme that follows its £4 billion pledge to invest in British food suppliers as it tightens grip on its UK supply chain.
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