Lidl named Grocer of the Year for the first time

German supermarket now has 3.9% market share

A Lidl bit of money: budget costs could force a price war with local stores

Lidl has been named Grocer of the Year for the first time at the Grocer Gold Awards, following year in which it shook up the supermarket industry, sparking a price war among the more established big four brands.

Lidl and its rival Aldi have prompted broad changes to the way that the UK’s biggest supermarkets do business by forcing them to compete with lower prices.

Lidl, which originated in Germany and launched in the UK in 1994, still has a relatively small market share of 3.9 per cent, according to Kantar World Panel.

However Tesco, Asda, Morrisons and Sainsbury’s have all lost customers to Lidl. Sainsbury’s recorded its sixth consecutive quarterly slide in sales in the first quarter of 2015.

In May, Sainsbury’s chief executive Mike Coupe predicted that discounters will make up 15 per cent of the market by 2022.

Morrisons has also announced that it will cut the price of 200 basics, absorbing £1 billion in costs.

Lidl now has 620 stores across the UK. It invested £5.1 million on TV and press advertising in the four weeks to May 23, 320 per cent more than the same period last year, outstripping its nearest rival Asda with a £4.8 million spend.

Accepting the award, Lidl’s UK CEO Ronny Gottschlich said that more people than ever were coming to Lidl for their full supermarket shop. “We are committed to investing in our own brand ranges so that we can offer our customers premium products and ingredients at the lowest possible prices,” Gottschlich said.