CHALLENGERS Aldi and Lidl continued to put pressure on the "big four" supermarkets in Britain over Christmas, new market share data shows.
Two-thirds of households shopped at one of the discounters over the 12 weeks to December 30, according to Kantar Worldpanel, giving them a combined 12.8 per cent slice of the market.
It was the highest ever Christmas market share for the retailers, with Aldi's sales up 10.4 per cent and Lidl up 9.4 per cent.
German retailer Lidl revealed that it will open its 39th Northern Ireland store later this year when it opens a new concept food store in Dundonald on the site of the current B&M chain in an investment worth close to £7 million.
Ireland-specific figures - covering both the north and the Republic - will be released by Kantar next Monday.
Overall, supermarkets in Britain rang up another record Christmas, new data has shown, despite a slowdown in sector growth.
Shoppers spent a record £29.3 billion on groceries in the 12 weeks to December 30, which was £450 million more than this time last year.
But growth was slower as a lower level of inflation took its toll. The sector grew at 1.6 per cent, its slowest rate since March 2017.
Fraser McKevitt, head of retail and consumer insight at Kantar Worldpanel, said the overall spend was tempered by lower inflation of 1.3 per cent.
He said: "This slower inflation rate helped shoppers to manage their festive budgets, with 60% of customers looking to make savvier decisions to make their money go further over the holidays."
Meanwhile separate figures from Nielsen showed a similar trend, with overall grocery sales up 1.8% in the last four weeks, compared with 3.7% last year.
Mike Watkins, Nielsen's UK head of retailer insight, put this down to changing consumer grocery shopping habits.
"It was a reasonable but not spectacular Christmas, indicative of how shoppers will now spread their Christmas spending across more retailers and different channels," he said.
Retailers are now kicking off a January price war, with both Morrisons and Tesco slashing prices on core ranges and all of the big four cutting fuel prices.
