These are Britain’s best companies for customer service: First Direct, Amazon and John Lewis July 15, 2015 Anyone who detests being taken for granted by a company will be pleased to know there's a list of firms offering shoppers the best customer service experience. Online bank First Direct scored 87 for the overall level of customer satisfaction, helping it overtake better-known brands such as Amazon and John Lewis in a ranking compiled [...]
Supermarket price wars prove a potent aid to popularity July 14, 2015 German discount supermarkets Aldi and Lidl hold on to their positions as the highest performing brands in YouGov BrandIndex’s mid-year Buzz Score Rankings, while we have positive news for the Co-Op group in the most improved brand list. The rankings are based on YouGov’s BrandIndex Buzz scores, which measures whether consumers have heard anything [...]
Tesco share price falls, sales slide as discounters march on ahead June 30, 2015 Tesco shares were dealt a blow yesterday, after industry figures revealed another slowdown in sales at the troubled supermarket chain – despite its recent efforts to turn itself around. Data from Kantar Worldpanel showed sales at Tesco fell by 1.3 per cent in the 12 weeks to 21 June, underperforming the overall grocery [...]
Aldi fined over price-fixing in Germany June 18, 2015 Aldi is among the retailers fined by Germany's competition authority over price fixing. Read more: Bargain Booze is playing Aldi at its own game The discounter is one of seven food retailers and four producers which have been fined €151.6m (£108.9m) over price fixing on "some products". Andreas Mundt, the president of Germany's cartel office, [...]
Waitrose PYOO (“pick your own offers”) ups game in supermarket price wars with Aldi, Lidl and big four June 17, 2015 Middle England favourite Waitrose has upped the stakes in the supermarket price wars with what it's calling "game-changing" discounts. The latest salvo in the battle with Aldi, Lidl and the big four – and adding a new acronym to our lingo almost as good as BOGOF – is "Pick Your Own Offers", or PYOO, which is [...]
City and Gild: Premium brands should beware the temptation to “be more Aldi” June 17, 2015 So the head of the Boarding Schools Association, Robin Fletcher, has apparently encouraged his members to be more like Aldi, and cut their prices to offer a budget version in an effort to appeal to a larger market. If filling spaces were the issue for boarding schools, then this could be an approach you [...]
Aldi Shmaldi: Conviviality Retail’s Bargain Booze is playing German discounter at its own game June 16, 2015 Last week it was teachers, this week it's rival retailers. Aldi has suddenly become the brand to beat. Conviviality Retail – which runs Bargain Booze – has this week launched a head-to-head campaign with budget grocer Aldi, pitting its prices for big-label brands such as Carlsberg Export and Smirnoff against the supermarket's own label [...]
Supermarket share: Rise of discounters Aldi and Lidl continues – although Sainsbury’s performs well May 6, 2015 Sales at discounters Aldi and Lidl grew 15 per cent and 10 per cent respectively in the past year, data published this morning shows. On the day Sainsbury's posted its first loss in 10 years, that's significant. More on this story: Sainsbury's reports its first loss in a decade The figures, published by Kantar Worldpanel, [...]
How Sainsbury’s, Tesco and even discounters Aldi and Lidl reined in property expansion plans and ended the supermarket turf wars May 6, 2015 In the never-ending quest for growth, for decades supermarkets held a major arsenal in their weaponry – land. But not any more. Sainsbury's today revealed it took a £682m writedown on its property portfolio in another sign the decades-long land grab by supermarkets has failed to pay off. Tesco's property writedowns run into the billions [...]
Aldi and Lidl expansion plans speed ahead of Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons and Asda in supermarket wars with five times as many planning applications May 5, 2015 Rival German discounters continue to outpace the UK's "big four" in the supermarket wars with ambitious plans for expansion five times the rate of Tesco, Sainsbury's, Morrisons, and Asda combined. While Tesco and Morrisons have been forced to shutter stores in the midst of declining sales and squeezed margins, Aldi and Lidl have submitted plans [...]