Lidl outlines British investments

Lidl has published new figures showing its range of investments in Britain during its last financial year, which it said proved its promise of providing customers with the highest-quality products at the lowest prices.

As more households sought to make savings during the period, the supermarket noted that it attracted an additional 1.4 million shoppers and saw its market share increase from 6.1 per cent to 7.1 per cent.

However despite seeing an 18.8 per cent increase in sales to £9.3bn, the retailer reported a full-year pre-tax loss of £75.9m as inflation made trading difficult. That’s down from profits of £41.1m the year before. 

Outlining its annual performance, Lidl listed some of its key achievements as having:

• Opened the largest Lidl warehouse globally, in Luton following an investment of £300m, leading to the creation of up to 1,500 jobs;
• Completed work on an extension to its Belvedere warehouse, while continuing construction on the expansion of its Bridgend RDC alongside submitting plans for a warehouse in Leeds;
• Opened 20 new stores in the first half of this year and published a list of priority locations for new stores alongside;
• Further increased market share, which is now approaching eight per cent;
• Announced an accelerated investment of over £4bn in British food businesses for FY23;
• Increased hourly pay rates for a third time in 12 months, with store and warehouse colleagues earning a minimum of £11.40 outside London and £12.85 within the M25, bringing its combined investment over the year to £60 million;
• Recruited over 6,000 new colleagues since the beginning of the year;
• Been named as cheapest basket in the Super Grocer 33, four out of six times since its launch last year.

Ryan McDonnell, chief executive of Lidl GB, said: “We’ve always had a clear commitment to offer the best value to our customers and that is a promise we will always keep, even in uncertain economic times. Alongside preserving this price promise, rewarding our people and maintaining long-term relationships with our suppliers will always be a priority. As a privately-owned business we have the ability to make decisions that we know will have immediate benefits for our people, customers and suppliers and long-term benefits for our business.

“The entire retail market has seen inflation, and we are no exception. However, for us, what is important is that our price gap to the traditional supermarkets is as strong as it has ever been. We’ve invested in keeping our prices low for customers in what has been a very challenging year for most and, with many more customers flooding through our doors each day, our ambition is to ensure that every single household has access to high quality, affordable food at their local Lidl store.”