Aldi doubles down on price promise as growth slows
The discounter has pledged to cut more prices in 2024 than ever before.
Aldi has committed to cutting more prices in 2024 than ever before as competition among supermarkets to offer the best value heats up.
Aldi says it has already invested around £125m this year to enable price reductions, leading to lower prices on around 500 products. This represents around a quarter of its entire range and a third of its fresh fruit and vegetable offer, it says.
The discounter has pledged to ramp up investment this year, with plans to top the £380m it invested in price reductions in 2023.
It comes at a time when Aldi’s growth is slowing. Over the past few years, it has frequently been the fastest-growing supermarket among competitors, leading to it usurping Morrisons to claim a coveted spot as one of the UK’s ‘big four’ grocers in 2022.
We are investing more than ever before in lowering prices.
Giles Hurley, Aldi
But in the 12 weeks to 17 March, Aldi increased sales by just 3.1%, according to Kantar, well behind that of discounter rival Lidl, which grew sales by 8.8%. Meanwhile, Tesco grew sales by 5.8%, Sainsbury’s (6.7%) and Morrisons (3.6%), while Ocado was the fastest-growing supermarket last month at 9.5%.
“We know that shoppers remain under pressure from the cost of living, which is why we remain laser-focused on offering the lowest possible prices,” Aldi UK chief executive Giles Hurley says.
“We are investing more than ever before in lowering prices, and we will continue to do whatever it takes to keep grocery prices as low as possible for the millions of customers that shop with us.”
Indeed, Aldi is often used as a benchmark for low prices, with rival supermarkets increasingly matching their prices to those offered by the discounter.
Both Sainsbury’s and Tesco have credited their Aldi Price Match initiatives for bolstering sales.
Sainsbury’s recorded its largest market share increase in more than a decade in December, thanks to its dual focus on product and price, while Tesco attributed a strong performance over the Christmas period in part to the “unrivalled value proposition” of its Aldi Price Match.
Meanwhile, Morrisons became the latest supermarket to launch a price match in February, pledging to match prices against both Aldi and Lidl. It followed the introduction of a similar initiative by Asda a month earlier.
Aldi also plans to open 35 new UK stores this year.
