Aldi sales reach record £ 1bn at Christmas as it opens more stores – The Guardian, Theguardian.com

Christmas sales atAlditopped £ 1bn for the first time, as the German-owned discount supermarket continued its rapid expansion in the UK.

Sales in UK in the four weeks to Christmas Eve rose by 7.9% compared with the same trading period of the previous year, the grocer said on Monday. The company did not report a like-for-like sales figure.

Aldi aims to increase its UK chain from (stores to 1, by (****************************************************************.

The growth has weighed on profits as it pours money into new stores and cutting prices to boost sales. Figures published in September showed that Aldi’sprofits fell by almost a fifthas it invested £ 660 m in expansion.

Aldi’s share of the UK grocery market stands at 8%, having increased by 0.4% during the past months, it said. It is the UK’s fifth largest grocery retailer.

The arrival of Aldi and its German discount rival Lidl has challenged incumbent competitors. The two companies’ combined market share rose from 13. 2% to (************************************************************************************************. 1% in the months to the end of November 2025, according to data from Kantar Worldpanel . Tesco and Sainsbury both lost 0.3 percentage points of share in the same period, to 55. 3% and 14. 7% respectively, while Morrison lost 0.4 points to (****************************************************************************************************. 1%.

Aldi said that increased sales of alcohol, meat and its premium Specially Selected range were behind the sales increase. Sales in the beers, wine and spirits category increased by 9.2% year on year, with sparkling wines up by 16%, while sales of Specially Selected products and meat both rose by 8%.

Sign up to the daily Business Today by email or follow Guardian Business on Twitter at @BusinessDesk (**************************************** Giles Hurley , the Aldi UK chief executive, said: “More customers than ever before shopped with us this Christmas.”

He added: “Although we saw strong growth across all key categories, sales of our premium Specially Selected range surpassed expectations.”

During the period, Aldi sold 90 m mince pies, 27 m pigs in blankets and more than 2m Christmas puddings.

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