Aldi and Lidl beat supermarket giants in taste tests

Updated
Supermarket market share
Supermarket market share



Discount supermarketsAldi and Lidl have continued their remarkable rise in the UK, beating most of their more established rivals in an own-brand taste test.

Results of The Grocer's annual Own Label Food & Drink Awards show the pair bagged 13 'gold medals' each – a feat matched only by Asda*.

The winners in each category were decided by a combination of shoppers' and expert tasters' opinions, with a total of 1,103 own-brand products tested.

Below is a selection of the winning products – to view the full list you can visit The Grocer's awards page.

* Note that Waitrose did not participate in the survey

A selection of winners
A selection of winners



The squeezed middle

Such success for the discount retailers gives further weight to their claims that they can beat the major supermarkets on price while at the same time matching them on quality.

Recent years have seen Aldi and Lidl chipping away at the dominance of established supermarkets, and they can now lay claim to almost 10% of the market, according to the latest Kantar Worldpanel data.

Combine this with the fact that Waitrose continues to prosper at the upmarket end of the market, and it's not hard to see why the major supermarkets are struggling: Tesco, Asda, Morrisons and Sainsbury's all reported a fall in sales compared to last year, Kantar data suggests.
%VIRTUAL-DealsCategoryWidget%
Discounter boom to continue?


The changing face of Britain's supermarkets looks set to continue: Lidl and Aldi are making plans for more stores, while the 'big four' sacrifice their expansion plans for price cuts.


A report for The Grocer found that the discounters are vastly outstripping the big four in their building plans, and at this rate Aldi could be the fifth largest grocer in the UK within a year.

The report, by Barbour ABI, looked into the number of planning applications in the pipeline for each of the retailers. Between them Aldi and Lidl have plans for 53 more store projects in 2015. Aldi is making the biggest strides in its expansion plans - with 33 new projects compared to Lidl's 20.

Meanwhile, the report found that Tesco, Sainsbury's, Morrisons and Asda are only planning nine building projects between them - four for Asda, three for Tesco, and two for Sainsbury's: Morrisons isn't planning any.

The figures include new stores as well as extensions, home delivery facilities and 'click and collect' areas.

Do you think the budget supermarkets offer a better deal, or do you still prefer the mainstream supermarkets? Share your thoughts in the comments section belowor on Facebook


More on AOL Money:

Aldi pledges bigger stores

Why is Aldi selling £3.99 pheasant?

Revealed: how the discounters have battered the supermarket giants

German Supermarket Workers Expect Bananas, Find Millions Worth Of Cocaine
German Supermarket Workers Expect Bananas, Find Millions Worth Of Cocaine

Advertisement