Aldi sales boosted by cost-of-living crisis
Aldi has announced that its sales rose by almost £2 billion to a record £15.5 billion in the year to December 2022.
The supermarket said rising living costs have changed shopping habits for good and meant it attracted a million more customers to its stores. It also grew its operating profit to £178.7 million from £60.2 million in the previous year.
After opening its first store in 1990, Aldi overtook Morrisons last year to become the UK’s fourth biggest supermarket. The retailer has invested over £350 million in price reductions so far this year and is expecting to make more in the run-up to Christmas.
Giles Hurley, chief executive of Aldi UK and Ireland, said: “Although inflation is easing, households are still under real pressure from higher living costs. As a result, Britain is shopping very differently to how it did 18 months ago – fewer trips, more own-label products, and switching supermarkets in search of better value.
“What we’re seeing is a new generation of savvy shoppers who’ve turned their back on traditional, full-price supermarkets in favour of transparent, low prices, which is what we’re famous for. That’s why we’re still welcoming more and more customers through our doors – people who come to us for our low prices but stay for the award-winning quality of our exclusive brands.”
Currently operating more than 1,000 UK stores, Aldi is planning to launch in 18 new locations before the end of the year and has recently committed to opening up to 500 more stores across the UK. Its expansion will have created a total of 6,000 new jobs this year.
Hurley added: “There are still communities across the UK that don’t have easy access to quality, low price groceries and that’s something we want to address through our expansion, with plans to increase our investment even further over the next two years to £1.4 billion in new and improved stores and distribution centres, creating thousands of jobs for our colleagues and more opportunities for our 5,000 British suppliers.”
