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(Alliance News) - Supermarket Aldi sold 55 million mince pies over a boozy Christmas which saw British shoppers spend record amounts at the German chain.
UK sales in the four weeks to December 24 topped GBP1 billion for the first time in the company's history, and marked a 7.9% rise on the same period in 2018, Aldi revealed.
As well as mince pies, Britons also bought 22 million pigs in blankets, and more than two million Christmas puddings.
Aldi UK Chief Executive Giles Hurley said: "More customers than ever before shopped with us this Christmas because they knew Aldi offered unbeatable value on premium products and the lowest prices on festive essentials."
Alcohol sales in particular helped boost the supermarket's top line. Shoppers bought 9.2% more beer compared with last Christmas, and sales of Aldi's Champagne and Prosecco rose by 14%.
Its Specially Selected range and British meats showed growth of almost 8% each. Unsurprisingly, turkeys and roasting beef were "particularly popular", according to the supermarket.
"Although we saw strong growth across all key categories, sales of our premium Specially Selected range surpassed expectations, as customers snapped up these products for a fraction of the price they would have paid elsewhere," Hurley said.
The supermarket is in a period of major expansion, planning to add more than 300 new stores to its portfolio of 874 by the middle of the next decade at it captures more of the market.
According to data from Kantar, Aldi's share of the grocery market has rise by 1.2 percentage points to 8% since March 2017, making it the biggest supermarket outside the big four of Tesco, Sainsbury's, Asda and Morrisons.
The Co-op has 6.3% of the market, while Lidl and Waitrose have captured 6.1% and 4.8% respectively, according to the latest data, from early December.
Supermarkets will hope to show they have cashed in from the all-important Christmas season this week, as most of the major players present their festive results.
Wm Morrisons Supermarkets PLC will publish its results on Tuesday, with J Sainsbury PLC, Tesco PLC and Marks & Spencer Group PLC following later in the week.
By August Graham, PA City Reporter
source: PA
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