Tesco to take on Aldi/Lidl with discount chain

Tesco is planning to launch a series of cut-price stores to counter the rise of Aldi and Lidl, the Sunday Times newspaper reports. According to the paper, Tesco is working on a separate brand that will match the discounters on price with a more limited range than in its main stores.

Lidl was recently crowned the UK’s fastest-growing grocery retailer by Kantar Worldpanel. For the 12 weeks to 28th January, it experienced a market share increase of 0.5 percentage points and saw sales climb by 16.3% compared to the same period last year. Fraser McKevitt, Head of Retail and Consumer Insight at Kantar Worldpanel, comments: “Traditionally focused on own-label lines, Lidl has actually seen fastest growth among its branded products, which are up by 28% and now account for 12% of all sales.”

Not to be outdone, Aldi increased sales by 16.2% to hold a market share of 6.9% – up 0.7 percentage points.