Lidl Christmas sales jump as shoppers spend on brioche, beer and luxury mince pies

Premium ranges drove much of the uplift, Lidl said, with 33 per cent higher sales of its Deluxe-branded products

If you're abstaining for the month, or throughout pregnancy, you can still join in (iStock)

Discounter Lidl’s Christmas sales jumped 8 per cent on last year as it took business away from larger, more expensive chains.

Lidl said £58m of spending had switched from rivals including Waitrose, Marks & Spencer and the big four of Tesco, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s and Asda.

Premium ranges drove much of the uplift, Lidl said, with 33 per cent higher sales of its Deluxe-branded products in the six weeks to 30 December.

Brioche burger buns and luxury mince pies were among bestsellers along with beer, wines and spirits. Sales of Deluxe turkeys which won a Quality Food Award more than doubled.

Rival Aldi also had a strong festive period, with UK revenue jumping more than 10 per cent to almost £1bn while more upmarket chains had a tougher time.

Like-for-like food sales fell 2.1 per cent at Marks & Spencer and edged up 0.3 per cent at Waitrose.

According to retail analysts at Kantar Worldpanel, two in three households shopped in either Lidl or Aldi in the run-up to Christmas.

At the luxury end of the market, Fortnum & Mason on Friday revealed record Christmas sales growth of 12 per cent in the last five weeks of the year compared to last year.

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.”

The retailer is the latest to update on a busy Christmas period in which shoppers spent £29.3bn on groceries in the UK.

Tesco has so far emerged as a winner among the largest supermarket chains with 2.2 per cent growth in comparable sales - its best figures in a decade.