Record gross sales of £1.6bn a Christmas reward for Aldi as price range grocery store hails its greatest ever festive season

Aldi hailed its best ever festive season as sales hit £1.6billion in the run up to Christmas.

Premium own-label products and seasonal items helped to push the German discount supermarket chain’s sales up 3.4 per cent in the four weeks to December 25.

But analysts noted that Aldi increased store space by between 3 per cent and 4 per cent during the year, meaning each individual shop did not necessarily sell more.

And festive shopping failed to save the High Street from a grim 2024, the latest figures from the British Retail Consortium (BRC) showed. 

Total sales for the whole year were up just 0.7 per cent and non-food sales, which include items such as clothes and homeware, fell 1.5 per cent compared to the year before. 

Retailers are bracing for more pain this year as Chancellor Rachel Reeves’s tax raid and an inflation-busting minimum wage increase will force them to hike prices, cut jobs and slash investment in stores.

Christmas cheer: Premium own-label products and seasonal items helped to push Aldi’s sales up 3.4% in the four weeks to December 25

But Aldi said it would buck the trend as it pledged to offer better deals than its rivals.

Competitors have introduced Aldi price match schemes to tempt back shoppers who have switched to the budget grocer.

Morrisons – which Aldi replaced as the UK’s fourth-biggest supermarket in 2022 – started the year by extending its price match scheme to 500 products.

Aldi UK chief executive Giles Hurley said: ‘As we look to the new year, which for many will mean the prospect of living costs rising again, many families will be nervous about what 2025 holds.

‘Against this background, our mission remains clear: we will not only remain the UK’s lowest-priced supermarket, but we will ensure the price gap between ourselves and the traditional full-priced supermarkets is as big as ever.’

Sales of its Christmas products rose by 10 per cent year-on-year as price-conscious consumers switched to the supermarket. 

Aldi’s premium range jumped 12 per cent compared to the same period in 2023 as shoppers treated themselves over Christmas.

Sales of locally-sourced goods also soared, with a record 350,000 fresh British turkeys and 25m pigs in blankets flying off the shelves.

However, BRC figures showed that in the so-called ‘golden quarter’ – the final three months of the year – sales rose by just 0.4 per cent. 

Non-food sales fell 1.1 per cent during the festive period. In a glimmer of hope, grocery sales were up 3.3 per cent over the year and 2.1 per cent in the golden quarter.

But BRC chief executive Helen Dickinson said: ‘The crucial golden quarter failed to give 2024 the send-off retailers were hoping for.’