Discounters Aldi and Lidl were the 'most dynamic and attractive stores' in Portugal last year, according to the latest edition of the the Brands + Consumers Barometer, published by the Portuguese brands association Centromarca in partnership with Kantar Worldpanel.
While much of Lidl's investment was focused on its private label brands, Aldi has brought more mainstream brands into its offering, the study found,
While the overall FMCG market posted a 2.7% decline last year, Lidl and Aldi bucked the trend, with a 8.9% and 28.5% growth in sales, respectively.
Lidl currently boasts a 77.4% penetration rate in the Portuguese market, compared to 24.6% for Aldi.
Category Growth
At Lidl, the top five product categories that posted the highest growth last year were Hygiene & Beauty; Bottled Water; Yoghurts; Fruits and Fresh Bread. At Aldi, they were Bottled Water; Vegetables; Fruit; Yoghurts; Beverages and Vegetable Drinks
Aldi operates 59 stores in Portugal, having recently opened its biggest store in the country (1,200 square metres) in the municipality of Maia. Aldi focused much of its capex investment in northern Portugal at the latter end of last year.
Its 60th store is due to open later this week (23 May), in Vila Franca de Xira, in the Greater Lisbon area.
The retailer has ambitious expansion plan for 2018 which, will be focused on developing stores in large urban centres, including cities where it is not yet present.
Lidl reached the threshold of 250 stores last month in Portugal, while it also operates four distribution centres in the country. The retailer has been increasingly focusing on the remodeling of its store network.
© 2018 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Branislav Pekic. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine
