Lidl GB says more shoppers switching to it as profit rises

LONDON, Nov 17 (Reuters) – The British arm of German discount supermarket Lidl on Thursday said more shoppers were switching to it from traditional grocers during the cost-of-living crunch as it reported a rise in full-year profit.

Lidl GB, part of Germany’s Schwarz retail group, said revenue in the year to Feb. 28, 2022, rose 1.5% to 7.8 billion pounds ($9.28 billion) while pretax profit was 41.1 million pounds, up from 9.8 million pounds.

Citing industry data, it said shoppers switched 58 million pounds of spending from the traditional supermarkets – market leader Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda and Morrisons – to it in the last month as they sought bigger savings.

Lidl and rival discounter Aldi, Britain’s sixth and fourth largest grocers by market share, were hurt during the pandemic by the lack of significant online businesses, but have drawn customers from traditional grocers as living costs have accelerated.

The latest industry data shows Aldi and Lidl are currently Britain’s fastest growing grocers.

($1 = 0.8408 pounds)