Lidl Christmas sales soar as non-food bucks sector trend

Over the four weeks to December 29, 2019, overall sales at the discounter grew 11% year on year, making it the fastest-growing bricks-and-mortar retailer over the Christmas period.

The retailer trumpeted its “busiest trading day ever” on December 23 and said over the festive period customers switched £110m of spend across to Lidl from other supermarkets including Aldi.

Lidl also hailed the success of its general merchandise categories, which saw a 9% sales increase in its ‘Middle of Lidl’ range, which it said bucked the wider downward trend in the sector.

The discounter also experienced 13% sales growth across beers, wine and spirits. Customers bought over 1,000 tonnes of Lidl’s festive range, leading to a 55% uplift in sales. 

Lidl chief executive Christian Härtnagel said: “This was our 25th Christmas since first opening our doors in Britain, and what a Christmas it’s been, with more customers shopping at Lidl than ever before. We continued to open our doors to more communities across the country, which has no doubt contributed to our success. However, the number of customers switching to us in the lead up to Christmas shows the continued appeal of the Lidl offer.

“Our incredible workforce have worked tirelessly throughout this extremely busy trading period. It is thanks to them that households up and down the country were able to feast on a fantastic array of festive food, whilst still saving on their shopping.

“After more than doubling our market share over the past ten years, we’re excited to be entering a new decade and all the potential it brings for us. Our promise to customers will always be to provide the best quality at the lowest prices and we look forward to delivering this to even more households across the country in 2020 and beyond.”