Lidl GB is preparing for a record-breaking Christmas, with an 11% uptick in customers over the past six weeks1.
The update comes as Lidl GB’s CEO reveals that shoppers started planning and preparing for the festive season early this year, with two mince pies selling every second since September, and seven packs of its famous stollen bites selling every minute in September alone2. In fact, one in five Panettones purchased in the country this year will be bought from Lidl. In the Middle of Lidl, gifts and decorations have also been flying off the shelf, with a mini snowglobe sold every two seconds on the first day of sale earlier this month.3
The discounter chief revealed Kantar data showing that shoppers switched over £685million of spending to Lidl GB over the course of the year, as shoppers look to manage their budgets. Of this, £58million was switched to the discounter from premium supermarkets Waitrose, M&S and Ocado, with more and more households being won over by Lidl’s products4.
Other products already flying off the shelf include Lidl’s Deluxe Lobster tails which went on sale at the end of September and have almost entirely sold out. Sales of its red wines are also up 17% over the past few months5, and in a recent independent blind taste test, Lidl’s £14.49 Montaudon Champagne beat high end rival Moet which can retail at almost three times the price (£43) of the discounter’s own label offering6.
Despite stocking up earlier, Lidl is predicting that its busiest day will be Friday 22nd December, with over 2 million shoppers expected to come through the doors of its stores. This would overtake its busiest day so far this year – Easter Saturday (8th April) – which saw a 13% increase in customers year-on-year7.
Lidl GB CEO Ryan McDonnell commented: “Christmas is an exciting time to work in retail and particularly at Lidl, where our colleagues and suppliers contribute enormously to ensuring that our customers can access the best quality seasonal products.
“It goes without saying that the past year has been challenging for so many people but, despite this, we can see that shoppers have been in the Christmas spirit since as early as September when the first Christmas lines went on sale. Over the past six weeks alone we’ve seen a massive surge in the number of customers coming through our doors and it’s clear that households are getting prepared well ahead of celebrations.
We’re expecting this to continue so our teams are already donning their Christmas jumpers, ready to welcome a record number of customers over the busiest trading period of the year.”
Over the course of December, Lidl is also giving back to local communities, donating approximately 700,000 meals to local charities and food banks in the Lidl Feed It Back food surplus network. It will bring the total number of meals donated in 2023 to around 8 million.
Lidl is the fastest-growing supermarket in the UK8 and last month overtook Asda to become the third-largest supermarket in London9.
