Aldi saw its sales growth slow slightly over the festive period compared with recent years, although its revenues in the four weeks to 24 December still topped £1bn for the first time.
The chain’s sales rose 7.9% year-on-year, driven by strong demand for its alcohol and premium ‘Specially Selected’ food ranges.
Aldi revealed that total sales in the beers, wine and spirits category increased by 9.2%, with sales of sparkling wine up by more than 14% as customers toasted the festive period with its range of Champagne and Prosecco. Other stand out categories included Specially Selected and fresh meat, with year-on-year sales growth of almost 8% in both areas.
During the run up to Christmas, the supermarket also sold 55m mince pies, 22m pigs in blankets and more than 2m Christmas puddings.
Giles Hurley, CEO of Aldi UK, commented: “More customers than ever before shopped with us this Christmas because they knew Aldi offered unbeatable value on premium products and the lowest prices on festive essentials.”
However, the total sales growth figure was less than the 10% and 15% recorded over the same periods in 2018 and 2017 respectively. Aldi also doesn’t provide like-for-like sales figures with most of the growth likely to have been driven by 47 new store openings during the year.
The group currently has 874 stores in the UK and is on target to achieve its long-term aim of 1,200 stores by 2025.
Aldi’s figures kick off a raft of trading updates due to be released by the leading grocers this week. Morrisons is due to post an update tomorrow, followed by Sainsbury’s on Wednesday and Tesco on Thursday.
Analysts are expecting subdued results from most chains as consumers held back on their spending amid the political and economic uncertainty caused by the general election and Brexit.
