A battle royal is raging among the discounters as they fight for the best sites in the lucrative south east of London. The two German discounters have been going toe-to-toe when it comes to UK store expansion programmes. Aldi opened 43 stores in 2022, while Lidl opened 51, according to data from location analytics firm Maximise UK. But the numbers in the south east were even closer: nearly one in three stores opened by each discounter in 2022 was in the south east of England, according to Maximise UK. Aldi opened 14 stores in the south east and Lidl 15. Within the south east, London was a priority, with Aldi opening 6 stores in the capital and Lidl 4. According to Aldi’s own numbers, it now has 58 London stores. Lidl has been on a similar push as part of a five-year, £500m investment in London announced in 2019. As well as indicating where supermarket rivals are likely losing share, Maximise UK’s data also reveals how discounter stores are overlapping and competing as the store estates grow. Of Aldi’s new stores last year, about half (23) were within a mile of an existing Aldi or Lidl store. The same applied to 25 of Lidl’s 51 new stores. “Trading overlap between Aldi and Lidl sites was the standout statistic,” said Maximise UK CEO David Haywood. The store estates are almost identical in size, too. With Lidl’s UK estate standing at about 950 stores and Aldi’s at over 990, both need to open 50 or more a year to hit their end-of 2025 targets of 1,100 and 1,200 sites respectively. Both have also been beset by planning delays thanks to raw material shortages since the pandemic, but also rival supermarkets regularly raising objections and legal challenges to new stores. Aldi is already behind on a target of 1,000 stores by 2022 amid increasing difficulty in getting planning permission over the line, and expects to hit the landmark this year instead. “Intense competition for prime sites” meant neither was likely to hit its 2025 target, Haywood added. A drive to focus resources on estate growth, as well as low prices, is behind Aldi’s gradual winding down from this week of home delivery of general merchandise ‘Specialbuys’ and wines and spirits. It will leave grocery click & collect as its only online service. Source: The Grocer, Maximise UK #uk #aldi #lidl #discounters #expansion #rivalry #marketshare #growth #smartdiscount #discountfoodretail #discounter #discount #foodretail #retail #drc #discountretailconsulting #retailconsulting #consulting #consultancy

Worldpanel by Kantar Irish grocery data for 12wks to 25/12//22 sees Dunnes top @ 23.7% market share ahead of Tesco @ 23.0%. SuperValu are 3rd on 21.0% with Lidl 4th on 12.2% and Aldi 5th on 11.6%. Sales grew +6.7% in the period but inflation hit 15.4% so volumes were down -4.0%. privatelabel grew +11.1% versus brands at +4.2% indicating growing price sensitivity as inflation hits spending power. Lidl gained 0.5ppts share YOY during the 12wks to Christmas with a solid seasonal product range and a sharper price position versus competitors. They also benefitted from 6 new store openings and 8 completely refitted & reopened stores. With the new generation stores being larger than Aldi's, Lidl are better positioned to sell the kind of volumes that are required to maximise sales in the big Christmas shopping week. And their post-Christmas recovery is much improved too. Aldi achieved 11.6% share for the 12wks to Christmas ’22, exactly the same as 2021. It is curious that they have not made any share gains through 2022, when inflation is making shoppers more price sensitive. And if their sales grew +7.1% with market-level inflation at +15.4%, and with 6 new stores YOY, then their volume decline at an individual store level must be a concern. #ireland #lidl #growth #expansion #smartdiscount #discountfoodretail #discounter #discount #foodretail #retail #drc #discountretailconsulting #retailconsulting #consulting #consultancy Source: Kantar

Aldi Espana has announced the opening of around 50 new stores in Spain in 2023, which represents an acceleration of its expansion drive in the country, following the opening of over 40 stores in 2020 and 2021 respectively. Growth will focus in the regions Galicia, Balearics, Canaries and Asturias and will include the opening of Aldi´s first store in the autonomous city of Melilla in North Africa. Aldi ended 2022 operating 394 stores in Spain with a total sales area of over 440,000 square metres, 11% more than a year earlier. #spain #aldi #growth #expansion #smartdiscount #discountfoodretail #discounter #discount #foodretail #retail #drc #discountretailconsulting #retailconsulting #consulting #consultancy

Aldi is set to stop home delivery of its Specialbuys, as well as wine and spirits to work on keeping prices low and extending its grocery click and collect offering. While wine and spirits delivery, which first launched in 2015 will no longer be available as of later this month, Specialbuys can still be purchased online until autumn. However, the amount of these items available online has already been reduced, according to reporting by The Grocer. Once the delivery of these items has been stopped, its only online service will be its grocery click and collect, available from over 200 stores. “We keep our prices low by being the most efficient retailer in Britain and we have therefore taken the decision to stop selling wine and spirits online for home delivery from later this month,” an Aldi spokesperson told The Grocer. “We will also stop selling our Specialbuys online for home delivery later this year. We are working with our colleagues to understand the impact of this change for our people. This will involve exploring different options for our colleagues across Aldi.” This comes as Aldi’s CEO Giles Hurley revealed last month that the discount grocer has ‘big plans’ to extend its existing click and collect initiative in 2023. Speaking to The Sun, Hurley said “watch this space”, adding “online grocery spending might have slowed, but it’s still 11% of the food market, it’s still going to be important.” #uk #aldi #specialbuys #homedelivery #expansion #smartdiscount #discountfoodretail #discounter #discount #foodretail #retail #drc #discountretailconsulting #retailconsulting #consulting #consultancy

Five Below has laid out ambitious store plans for 2023. The tween and teen discounter said it plans to open the most stores in its history — more than 200 locations — in fiscal 2023. It also plans to convert more than 400 stores to its new “Five Beyond” format, which contains an in-store shop featuring higher-priced items. The concept, now in place in some 250 locations, evolved from the chain's "Ten Below" pilot, which featured a section of merchandise priced above the retailer's signature $5 price threshold. Five Below continues to have one of the most aggressive expansion programs in specialty retail. In March, the company said it was increasing its store potential in the U.S. from 2,500-plus to 3,500-plus locations, citing momentum as it enters fiscal 2023, Five Below revealed its expansion plans in a release on its sales for the holiday period (October 30, 2022 through January 7, 2023). The company said its holiday sales rose 11.2% to $1.003.7 billion from $902.3 million in the comparable year-ago period. Comparable sales increased by 0.9%. “We are pleased with our holiday performance, with results in the upper end of our fourth quarter sales guidance range,” stated president and CEO Joel Anderson. “We believe our diverse eight worlds and WOW merchandise offering along with increased and more targeted marketing effectively highlighted the tremendous value for our customers." Given its holiday performance, Five Below said it now expects to finish the fourth quarter and full-year fiscal 2022 (ends January 28) near the high end of our previously provided guidance ranges. For the fourth quarter, the company expects net sales of $1.085 billion to $1.110 billion, with a 1% decrease to 1% increase in comparable sales. For the full year, Five Below expects net sales of $3.038 billion to $3.063 billion, with an approximate 2% to 3% decrease in comparable sales. Five Below will report its full-year results and outlook for fiscal 2023 on its fourth quarter earnings call in March. Headquartered in Philadelphia, Five Below has over 1,300 stores in 42 states. Source: CSA #usa #fivebelow #growth #expansion #smartdiscount #discountfoodretail #discounter #discount #foodretail #retail #drc #discountretailconsulting #retailconsulting #consulting #consultancy

Discount Retail Chain Biedronka (owned by Portuguese Jeronimo Martins) recorded sales of EUR 17.58 billion, which means an increase in this currency by 20.9% compared to 2021. It also means that the discounter has crossed the barrier of over PLN 80 billion in revenues in Poland. As for the sales of Biedronka expressed in PLN, it was higher by 24.1% in 2022, while comparable sales (LfL) increased by 20.6%. The discounter's results for the fourth quarter look even better, because sales expressed in PLN increased by 27.1%, with LfL at the level of 23.4% (for comparison, let's say that sales in this respect in the previous three quarters increased by 23.3%, 22.5% and 12.2%). Sales for the period amounted to €4.9 billion, an increase of 24.1 percent compared to the fourth quarter of 2021. Last year, the discounter launched 157 new stores (145 net growth). Thus, it managed to more than fulfill the originally planned opening plan. At the same time, the disco modernized the previously existing facilities and renovated a total of 367 stores last year. To sum up, the operator ended the year with 3,395 outlets on the account. Pedro Soares Dos Santos, president of Jeronimo Martins, commenting on the results of Biedronka stated that it has strengthened its position as a price leader. He also stressed the immediate and generous assistance provided by the network team to the large number of Ukrainian refugees who appeared in our country after the outbreak of the war. The entire Jeronimo Martins Group generated EUR 25.39 billion in sales in 2022, an increase of 21.5%. The increase in comparable sales (LfL) was slightly lower, it amounted to 19.6 percent. As for the results for the fourth quarter of last year, Jeronimo Martins had sales of 6.99 billion euros, i.e. the group recorded an increase of 23 percent, with LfL sales increasing by 21.4 percent compared to the fourth quarter of 2021. See here for more: EUR 17.6 billion of Biedronka's revenues in 2022. The chain opened more stores than expected (dlahandlu.pl) #smartdiscount #poland #biedronka #jeronimomartins #expansion #growth #stores #drc #discount #retail #consulting #discountretail #discountretailconsulting

Discount Retail Chain Aldi UK (German family owned) is winding down its home delivery service of general merchandise ‘Specialbuys’ and wines & spirits to focus on low prices and estate expansion. It will leave click & collect of groceries, which Aldi launched in 2020 and is available from over 200 stores, as its only online service. Aldi launched home delivery of wines and spirits in 2015, helping broaden its appeal to middle-class shoppers. It now offers many non-food Specialbuys exclusively online. Delivery of wines and spirits is to end later this month and Specialbuys will no longer be available online by autumn. The service has begun winding down gradually, with the number of items available already reduced. Aldi has drawn swathes of new shoppers from traditional supermarkets in the cost of living crisis. Its market share stood at 9.1% in the 12 weeks to 25 December, up from 7.7% a year earlier, according to Kantar. Traditional supermarkets are fighting back by investing in lower prices, including Tesco’s and Sainsbury’s Aldi Price Match campaigns. Tesco currently offers 625 Aldi priced-matched products and Sainsbury’s has extended its campaign since Christmas from 233 products to 310. “We keep our prices low by being the most efficient retailer in Britain and we have therefore taken the decision to stop selling wine and spirits online for home delivery from later this month,” said an Aldi spokesman. “We will also stop selling our Specialbuys online for home delivery later this year.” He said Aldi was “working with our colleagues to understand the impact of this change”, which was first reported by the Sun newspaper. “This will involve exploring different options for our colleagues across Aldi,” the spokesman added. Aldi has been struggling to keep up with its own estate growth targets, falling short of an ambition to have 1,000 stores by 2022. It currently has over 950 stores and expects to opens its 1,000th this year. Aldi UK & Ireland CEO Giles Hurley told The Grocer in November that securing planning permission had become more challenging in the past two to three years, as had finding suitable sites. The discounter’s planning applications are regularly held up by objections and legal challenges from rival supermarkets. The Grocer revealed in December that nearly 40 proposed new Aldi stores across the country were being held up by competitor objections. Aldi also has also dabbled with delivering groceries via Deliveroo, launching the service in 2020 and rolling it out to over 100 stores. The Grocer revealed in 2022 that the service had been axed. See here for more: Aldi axing home delivery of Specialbuys and booze | News | The Grocer #smartdiscount #aldi #uk #specialbuys #growth #ecommerce #drc #discount #retail #consulting #discountretailconsulting #discountretail

Largest Russian retail chain Magnit (more than 27,000 stores), plans to launch a new discount format, while the relative new My Price discount format is already a success. The success of discount chains has been one of the major trends in the Russian market last year, with consumers' interest in discount shopping intensifying amid the economic fallout. "We consider discounters one of the most promising formats for further development, so we will actively increase our presence in this segment," Magnit's press service said. The development of the new discount concept began in 2022. Stores of the new discount format are planned to open at Q1-2023. Magnit have recruited a dedicated team for this new discount project, including managers from some main competitors. Testing of the new discount concept can begin in the region, where the company already has developed logistics and enjoys a loyal audience, says a Magnit spokesman. Launching a new separate format of a hard discounter under a new brand with its own pricing and assortment may be advisable, says Mikhail Burmistrov, general director of Infoline-Analytics. He noted that the already existing network of discounter "My Price" is just one of the formats of Magnit. Apparently, Magnit wants to manage different discount formats. Source: ESM magazine and Retail RU. #russia #newdiscountformat #magnit #myprice #growth #discounters #marketshare #smartdiscount #discountfoodretail #discounter #discount #foodretail #retail #drc #discountretailconsulting #retailconsulting #consulting #consultancy

Food stores of the size favoured by Lidl and Aldi are set to pay more in business rates while large supermarkets save nearly £700m following a government revaluation. As reported by The Grocer earlier this week, supermarkets over 27,000 sq ft in England and Wales will save £687m over the next three years as a result of the revaluation, say real estate advisors Altus Group, as their rateable value – which is set to form the basis of the tax from 1 April – falls 15%, from £2.86bn to £2.43bn in total. Meanwhile, additional data has revealed the business rates bill for stores between 8,000 sq ft and 27,000 sq ft – the category into which Lidl and Aldi sites fall – will rise by £88m over three years, including an inflationary forecast. It’s the result of the rateable value of those stores increasing by 8.4%, from £651.01m to £705.5m. They are set to pay £28m extra tax in the first year alone, taking the annual bill to £362.1m. According to Altus Group, which provided the additional data for The Grocer, 2,950 stores fall into the category in England and Wales, the majority of which will be Lidl or Aldi stores. Separate analysis by property consultancy Colliers, exclusively for The Grocer, found supermarkets over 35,000 sq ft would pay significantly less tax, with hypermarkets over 70,000 sq ft on course for the biggest saving, at 19%. Meanwhile, “the rates payable on stores of a size suitable for the discounters, Aldi and Lidl, of between 15,000 and 22,000 sq ft, will increase significantly, up 6% to 7%”, Colliers said. The revaluation is based on open market rent values on 1 April 2021. The last revaluation came into effect in 2017 and was based on 2015 rents, meaning the new rates reflect falling property values over six years. Matthew Hobbs, Colliers head of retail lease advisory, said changes in rental values were a “direct reflection of shopping patterns since the previous rating list came into effect”. “The sweet spot in property terms remains the discount sector, and stores suitable for their occupation continue to go from strength to strength, a trend we are expecting to continue in 2023 and beyond.” Meanwhile, “the growth in online shopping has reduced demand for the weekly trolley shop and shaved margins on non-food items, making large areas of the largest supermarkets surplus to requirements". Examples include an 111,000 sq ft Asda in Great Barr, Birmingham, which is set to have its annual bill cut by 20% to £1.03m. In contrast, the 16,000 sq ft Aldi on Bristol Road South in Birmingham will see its annual bill rise 6.4% to £121,000, said Colliers. Both analyses also found convenience stores would pay more, with their rateable value rising 12.4%, according to Altus Group. Hobbs added: “Little and often shopping has increased demand for convenience stores.” Altus Group puts the net saving across all grocery retailers at £546m over three years. Source: The Grocer

Discount Warehouse Retail Chain GO! (owned by the Thai Central Group) opened store number 3 in Nakorn city in the south of Thailand after a short test period. The GO! store format is one of the many grocery retail formats from Central Food Retail, which operates banners like Tops, Family Mart, Food Hall, Tops Daily, Tops Fine Food, Central Food Hall and more. GO! is a brand new grocery large box retail concept with a modern and fancy discount-like look & feel. DRC was connected to the development of the GO! format by advising Central Food Retail Group about the features of discounting, concept development, assortment and private label development, product design, etc. A part of the GO! assortment carries new developed private label products. The next GO! store has been planned for Q1-2023 in Pak Panang, ..... and more to go! #thailand #go #centralgroup #cg #cfr #format #centralfooodretail #tops #familymart #valueformoney #smartdiscount #privatelabel #expansion #growth #startup #drc #discount #retail #consulting #discountretail #discountretailconsulting

Report projects 10% growth of the discounters in 2022, and ongoing gains amid inflationary pressures. Sales growth at discount grocers such as Aldi, Lidl and Grocery Outlet likely outpaced overall grocery sales growth in 2022, and the discount segment will continue to gain market share and pressure traditional supermarkets in the year ahead, according to a new report from Coresight Research. “As a result of frugal shopping behaviors instigated by inflation, we believe discount channel growth will continue to outpace total [grocery] growth in 2023 and beyond,” Coresight’s U.S. Grocery Discounters report concluded. Another recent report from Colliers shows that value grocers have been increasingly attracting shoppers across all income brackets, including not only 86.3% of low-income shoppers, but also 48.2% of middle-income and 17.6% of high-income shoppers. The Colliers report found that 34.7% of consumers said they would shop more in value stores if inflation persists. The Coresight report notes that while the discount sector has been aggressive in growing its store base in recent years, it has faced challenges in growing its e-commerce business. This weakness was exposed during the height of the pandemic, when the pace of discount channel growth slowed below that of the total market, according to the Coresight report. Although growth slowed in 2020, the discount channel is expected to see sales growth of about 10% this year, vs. total grocery growth of an estimated 8.2%, Coresight predicted, and discount growth will exceed the total grocery market by several percentage points in each of the next four years. The discount grocery segment — which for this report did not include dollar stores and mass merchants such as Walmart and Target — is expected to continue to pressure traditional supermarket operators going forward in part because of these chains’ aggressive new-unit growth plans. Aldi, for example, planned to open 150 new stores in 2022, and recently said it was on track to become the third-largest grocer in the U.S. by the end of this year. Grocery Outlet, which operates primarily on the West Coast, and Lidl, which operates along the East Coast, are both also expanding at a rapid pace. Save-A-Lot, another limited-assortment retailer in the discount sector, has struggled with its large debt load and has actually contracted in size, bucking the discount-grocery trend, according to the Coresight report. Traditional grocery retailers that compete directly with discounters could face growing margin pressures in the future, the report concluded. These traditional supermarkets should look to focus on their own value positioning, including areas such as private label and loyalty discounts. Ecommerce capabilities could also help differentiate traditional grocers. The report follows another recent report from Colliers showing that value grocers have been increasingly attracting shoppers across all income brackets, including not only 86.3% of low-income shoppers, but also 48.2% of middle-income and 17.6% of high-income shoppers. The Colliers report found that 34.7% of consumers said they would shop more in value stores if inflation persists. In addition to the ongoing growth of discount grocery chains, dollar stores are also expanding aggressively and increasingly focusing on their grocery offerings. Dollar General, for example, said it plans to open 1050 new stores in 2023, while also expanding its grocery assortments, including perishables. Dollar Tree, meanwhile, added added more than 200 net new stores through the third quarter of this year. Source: Supermarket News #usa #discounters #growth #aldi #lidl #groceryoutlet #savealot #coresight #colliers #sales #expansion #smartdiscount #discountfoodretail #discounter #discount #foodretail #retail #drc #discountretailconsulting #retailconsulting #consulting #consultancy

Aldi supermarket chain is continuing its expansion across the Gulf South - including the greater New Orleans area - with the opening Thursday of its first location in the city of Metairie. The new store is the latest of several Aldi locations to open in south Louisiana. In 2022, the company opened three stores in the Acadiana area. “We have big plans across the entire Gulf Coast, which we define as Lafayette to Tallahassee, Florida,” said Heather Moore, Aldi’s Loxley division vice president. “We opened 20 stores in that area in 2022 and will open 13 more this year.” The company kicked off its regional expansion last summer with the opening of a 564,000-square-foot distribution facility in Loxley, Alabama that services the entire Gulf Coast. Moore said the expansion will continue beyond 2023, with the company adding about 10 new stores a year until it has 100 in the Gulf Coast market. Aldi has more than 2,200 stores across 38 states and is already the third-largest U.S. grocery retailer by store count. "We look for locations with a high population density," Moore said. "There are a lot of people in this area and this particular road is incredibly busy and also easy to access." Aldi was launched in Essen, Germany, in 1961 and came to the U.S. in 1976. Its stores are smaller than traditional grocery stores, at about 12,000 square feet, with a layout designed for simplicity and efficiency, the company said. Nearly all the products Aldi offers are its own brands. Source: Nola.com #usa #gulfsouth #aldi #growth #expansion #smartdiscount #discountfoodretail #discounter #discount #foodretail #retail #drc #discountretailconsulting #retailconsulting #consulting #consultancy