Aldi is taking millions in spend not just from supermarkets, but also from variety discounters such as B&M, Home Bargains and Poundland.
Aldi took £19.7m of spend from bargain stores in the 12 weeks to 2 October, according to Kantar data.
That’s despite Poundland gunning for spend in the cost of living crisis, doubling the number of lines costing £1 in September and claiming the store “has never been a stronger alternative” to supermarkets.
Shore Capital analyst Clive Black said although the variety discounters offered value, shoppers struggling to pay energy bills would see visiting one as non-essential compared with a discounter supermarket. “People are becoming more precise in their shopping and thinking about how many shopping missions they are doing, and going to fewer outlets,” he said.
B&M, for example, had a “large grocery business but also quite a large discretionary non-food assortment, and I can understand why a [dedicated] grocer will pick up that trade”, Black added.
Sentinel Management Consultants CEO David Sables said Aldi had become widely perceived as catering for a “credible weekly shop” while the variety discounters were not.
For the second month in a row, Kantar’s data showed Aldi was also taking spend from Lidl. It took £12.4m in the 12 weeks to 2 October, up from the £8.1m that shifted in the 12 weeks to 4 September.
Read more: Aldi winning share from supermarket online operations
Catherine Shuttleworth, CEO of marketing agency Savvy, said Aldi was doing better at winning publicity.
“They are the headline retailer,” she said. “They’ve been on BBC news at six and the front page of every paper. Everyone is talking about them.”
A total of £257.8m switched from other supermarkets to Aldi in Kantar’s latest 12 week data, as it attracted 1.65 million new customers.
Tesco lost £56.7m to Aldi, the most in absolute terms. However, Morrisons was a bigger casualty in proportional terms, seeing £45.5m move to the discounter.
Asda lost £37.2m to Aldi and Sainsbury’s lost £24.7m.
Lidl and Aldi were the only two supermarkets to see sales growth above grocery price inflation, which Kantar put at new record high of 13.9%. Lidl’s sales were up 20.9% and Aldi’s 20.7%, leaving their market shares at 7.1% and 9.3% respectively.
Aldi also widened the gap on Morrisons, whose share now stands at 9%, down from 9.1% last month, when Aldi overtook it to become the UK’s fourth-biggest supermarket.
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