The discount supermarket toasted a 33 percent increase in year-on-year sale for its Deluxe range over the six weeks to December 30. It also tempted shoppers to transfer £58million worth of spending from Waitrose, M&S and the “big four” – Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury’s and Morrisons. Among the best sellers in its Deluxe range were brioche burger buns and luxury mince pies. Growth was also boosted by alcoholic drinks, with sales of beers, wines and spirits shooting up by 18 percent.
Meanwhile, sales of Deluxe turkeys, which won a Quality Food Award, more than doubled.
Sales across the estate in the 6 weeks to 30th December were up 8 percent on the same period in 2017.
Christian Hartnagel, Lidl UK chief executive, said: “We have continued to expand our footprint across the UK over the past year, and it is no surprise that this contributed to more customers than ever before shopping with us in December and over the Christmas period.
“In the context of a tough trading environment facing all grocery retailers, we are particularly pleased with the performance of our Deluxe premium range of products, which registered strong sales increases and proved a major draw for new and existing customers.”
“We understand that shoppers are increasingly conscious of cost and for that reason, we not only continued to invest in our low prices but also innovation across our premium range, all to enable our customers to have the best possible seasonal celebrations.”
Christian Härtnagel, Lidl UK CEO, added: “All of our colleagues across the country play such a critical role during this busy period and I’m really proud of and grateful for their commitment and dedication to our customers.
“Going into the new year we remain committed to helping Lidl customers save on their shopping, and continue to focus on providing our unbeatable high-quality-low-price combination.”
Shoppers are thought to have splashed a whopping £29.3 billion on groceries in the UK across the festive season.
According to Kantar Worldpanel, two in three households shopped with either Lidl or its direct rival Aldi during the holidays, putting greater pressure on other supermarkets to maintain market share.
Lidl was just pipped to the Christmas supermarket crown by Aldi which took home a record-breaking £1billion in December.
Year-on-year growth for Aldi was recorded at 10.1 percent.
Tesco enjoyed its best Christmas sales growth since 2009, with a 2.2 percent increase over the six weeks to 5 January.