Aldi takes on Fortnum & Mason and Selfridges with luxury wine discounts this Christmas November 25, 2014 German discounter Aldi is going up against the likes of luxury retailers Fortnum & Mason and Selfridges this Christmas. It's offering a new range of "Super Premium" fine wines, in a bid to attract more luxury shoppers to its stores. The high-end drinks will retail for around 78 per cent less than their usual market [...]
Aldi gives us a Lidl bill of the week for Christmas #FestiveFeast with chef Jean-Christophe Novelli November 24, 2014 The Cotes du Rhone and Riesling were free-flowing at terribly trendy Home House members club last night, but it wasn’t serving its usual crowd. Discount supermarket warrior Aldi was hosting its #FestiveFeast, along with celeb chef Jean-Christophe Novelli – serving a five-course Christmas meal to a room full of customers who won their seats [...]
Christmas just got tougher for Tesco, Sainsbury and Morrisons: Lidl adds “discount” oysters to its deluxe range November 21, 2014 In a year dominated by the rise of the discount grocer, it's perhaps no surprise that Lidl and Aldi will be pulling out all the stops to bring consumers a bit of low-cost luxury. Lidl, which launched a £5 lobster in 2009, has a track record of doing exactly that but this year it's pulling [...]
Matthew Barnes takes the Aldi reins solo as Roman Heini returns to Germany November 21, 2014 Aldi is restructuring its top team in the UK and Ireland, with Matthew Barnes taking over as chief executive from April next year. Barnes has been joint group managing director for Aldi UK and Ireland, alongside Roman Heini, since 2010. Heini is stepping down from his, instead taking on the position of chairman [...]
Retail rebounds as shops shrug off growth fears November 20, 2014 SALES on the high street saw a rebound in October after a sharp September dip. Retail sales volumes were 0.8 per cent higher in October than in September, according to figures published yesterday by the Office for National Statistics. “Given recent concerns that the UK economy has been losing momentum and the importance of consumer [...]
Supermarket price war fails to save sector as it enters negative sales territory for first time on record November 18, 2014 The supermarket "price war" has failed to help kick-start sales, with the sector falling into negative territory for the first time since records began in 1994. Sales were down 0.2 per cent for the 12 weeks to November 9, according to Kantar Worldpanel. The average basket price of everyday goods such as milk, bread [...]
Supermarkets Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Morrisons told they must shrink to survive in war against discounters Aldi and Lidl November 17, 2014 Supermarkets need to dramatically scale down their store estates if they want to stop haemorrhaging sales and return to growth, according to analysts at Goldman Sachs who sent a stark warning to the retail industry. In a research note published yesterday, Goldman Sachs said Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Morrisons must cut space by around 20 per [...]
Are you a Waitrose Wendy or a Tesco Tracey: How do the UK’s supermarket shoppers look? November 17, 2014 What does a Waitrose shopper look like, and how would you tell them apart from a Sainsbury's regular? There's actually not much to choose between them, according to YouGov, which has just released the best visualisation tool we've seen for a while. What YouGov says is particular (as opposed to generally true) about [...]
Sainsbury’s Christmas advert 2014: Storm surrounding marketing seen by turn as epic or disrespectful November 16, 2014 The film had its world premier on Wednesday. Some 8m people have already tuned in to see it and it has split critics down the middle, being described as “a masterpiece”, “grim”, “epic”, and “disrespectful”. It’s not the latest blockbuster movie, but Sainsbury’s two-minute Christmas ad. There was a time, not so very long [...]
2014 City A.M. awards: It’s always good to toast the best of the City – Editor’s Letter November 13, 2014 In a matter of weeks, during the first few days of January, I will be calling people to invite them to next year’s City A.M. awards. The event, the latest of which was held last night, has become a fixture in the City calendar and has grown in stature since its inception. Last night, [...]