London:

The UK arm of Aldi generated record sales of almost £7 billion last year, and said it would move online in 2016, further stepping up the pressure on Britain’s big supermarkets. Cash-strapped middle-class shoppers flocking to the German no-frills stores helped Aldi UK increase sales from £5.27 billion to £6.89 billion in the year to December 31, 2014.

Aldi said it would launch a new online shopping site next year, selling wine and its non-food special offers. Matthew Barnes, chief executive of Aldi UK, said: “Our launch online is another exciting chapter in our story. This will enable us to introduce the Aldi brand and some of our best-selling, best-quality and best-value products to thousands more customers across the UK.”

Although almost £7 billion of sales represents a record for Aldi, at a 31 per cent increase year on year, it represents a slight slowdown in growth from that seen in 2013, when sales expanded by 35.7 per cent year on year. Operating profit also fell from £271.4 million to £260.3 million in 2014, as investment, and the supermarket price war took their toll. Aldi did not disclose its pre-tax profit. Investment rose from £274.3 million to £438 million in 2014.

Aldi is facing increased competition from rival Lidl, which is employing the kind of canny marketing that has helped Aldi to grow over the past few years, and is also opening stores in upmarket areas.

According to the latest industry figures from Kantar Worldpanel, the consumer research group, Lidl’s growth overtook that of Aldi over the past month. Lidl’s sales rose 19 per cent in the four weeks to September 13, outpacing Aldi’s growth of 14.9 per cent.

The big supermarkets have also retaliated against the march of Aldi and Lidl by spending hundreds of millions of pounds each slashing prices in an effort to retain customers.

Barnes said: “We refuse to be beaten on price by anyone. We’re maintaining a significant price gap of at least 15 per cent on an average basket of goods — people are seeing that value at the checkout, tasting the quality at home and coming back to do a full weekly shop, time and time again.”

Aldi plans to open 65 stores in 2015, up from 54 in 2014, and remains on track to increase its estate from just under 600 stores at present, to 1,000 stores by 2022.

— Financial Times