German discounters Lidl and Aldi plan to open five times more supermarkets than their 'Big Four' competition, according to reports.
The telegraph.co.uk has revealed that Aldi has made 93 planning applications to open new stores this year and Lidl has made 78, which represents more than double the number that they had originally planned.
According to figures compiled for the Sunday Telegraph, the UK's largest supermarket chains pale in comparison to the German discounters with just 29 applications.
Michael Dall, lead economist at Barbour ABI told the Sunday Telegraph, "Only five years ago these figures would have been dominated by the Big Four but Aldi and Lidl are now the major players in the construction of new food retail space. Of course, the likes of Tesco and Sainsbury’s still hold the greater market share, but their position of power continues to be challenged by the expansion plans of the discount stores."
As it stands, budget supermarkets have just a 9.9 per cent share of UK consumer spending however, this percentage is set to rise to 15 per cent as discounters appeal to more middle-class consumers by selling luxury foods such as lobster for £5.99 and cases of wine online.
© 2015 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Ciara Mooney. To subscribe to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine, click here.
