City snapshot: Aldi to invest £800m in new stores as it reveals profits boost

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Aldi rebrand

Aldi plan to open 23 more stores before the end of the year

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Aldi has unveiled its biggest ever store investment programme after boosting profits on the back of record sales in 2023.

The discounter, which has shown weak growth in recent Kantar and Nielsen data, will plough £800m into its expansion in Britain, with plans to open another 23 shops before the end of this year.

It is also refurbishing 100 existing stores, expanding its network of distribution centres and updating technology infrastructure.

Aldi, which currently operates more than 1,000 sites, previously announced ambitions to scale to 1,500 UK stores.

It comes as the retailer revealed pre-tax profits in the year to 31 December 2023 more than tripled to £536.7m – compared with £152.6m in 2022 – on the back of a 16% hike in sales to £17.9bn.

Aldi said it had invested almost £100m in more than 300 price cuts in the past three months.

UK and Ireland CEO Giles Hurley said: “British shoppers are voting with their feet and choosing Aldi as their first-choice supermarket. We’re responding with our biggest ever annual investment in Britain.

“For every £1 of profit generated last year, we’re investing £2 this year - opening more stores and building the supply infrastructure to bring high-quality, affordable groceries to millions more families the length and breadth of Britain.

“We’re also investing at record levels to cut prices, reward our amazing colleagues and support more causes in our local communities. All while creating thousands more jobs and even more opportunities for our growing base of British suppliers and farmers.”

He added: “As we head towards the Christmas trading period, we’re all set to launch our biggest and best-ever seasonal range, including hundreds of premium range products at unbeatable prices for our customers.”

Morning update

Under pressure brewer C&C Group has maintained profit expectations for the year as it kicks off a search for a new CEO.

Underlying operating profits for the first half to 31 August were also in line with forecasts of between €39m and €41m, the group said in a trading update this morning.

Net revenues slipped 3% on softer cider volumes and lower contract brewing volumes, with growth at the Matthew Clark and Bibendum wholesale businesses.

C&C said Tennents achieved volume and value share growth over the latest 12-weeks, supported by targeted marketing campaigns around the Euro 2024 tournament and, despite mixed summer weather, Bulmers outperformed the cider market in Ireland.

The Magners owner has suffered a difficult period, with large losses and the departure of CEO Patrick McMahon over historic accounting errors.

Activist investor Engine Capital is also agitating for change at the group.

C&C added in the updat that it has commenced the recruitment process for the new CEO with the support of executive search firm Russell Reynolds Associates.

It said it remained confident in achieving the operating profit target for the current financial year and making progress towards the goal of €100m by FY2027.

Separately, C&C announced the start of a share buyback programme as part of its plans to return up to €150m to shareholders over the next three years.

Grocery tech firm Eagle Eye has signed a one-year contract with French retailer E.Leclerc for its new AI ‘Personalised Flyer’ offering, as well as a two-year renewal of another product.

E.Leclerc is a French cooperative and hypermarket chain, operating in more than 720 locations in France and a further 85 locations internationally.

The retailer currently uses EagleAI’s ‘Personalised Challenges’ and has renewed its contract.

E.Leclerc’s use of the new digital ‘Personalised Flyer’ offering will enable the retailer to strengthen its engagement with customers by offering a fully personalised experience to any of its 15 million loyalty program members who have given consent to profiling.

The Personalised Flyer will be further developed in conjunction with E.Leclerc, before launch by the retailer by early 2025.

Eagle Eye CEO Tim Mason said: “We are delighted to deepen our relationship with E.Leclerc, the first customer to utilise our newly developed digital Personalised Flyer offering, following its success with Personalised Challenges.

“Our latest AI-powered product is targeted at the significant and growing digital flyer market, opening up new addressable opportunities for Eagle Eye within the enterprise loyalty market. We are confident that with a strong reference customer in E.Leclerc the offering will garner significant interest once fully launched, particularly in the US and French markets.”

The FTSE 100 is up 0.6% to 8,228.28pts as a new week gets under way.

Shares in C&C reacted well to the trading update, climbing 0.8% to 152.2p as markets opened.

And Eagle Eye slipped 0.8% to 441.4p despite its new contract win.

Elsewhere, PZ Cussons is up 2.2% to 102.6p, Just Eat Takeaway is up 1.9% to 1,066p, Fever-Tree Drinks is up 1.8% to 843p, Deliveroo is up 1.7% to 152.8p and Bakkavor is up 1.6% to 155.5p.

Early fallers include Virgin Wines, down 2.3% to 42p.