Lidl and often
Fionnuala Carolan highlights how Lidl no longer views itself as a discounter but one of the big five supermarkets
Print28 July 2014
ShelfLife took a trip to Cork this month to visit one of Lidl’s newest stores at the Cornmarket Centre in the city centre. Lidl is just on the cusp of reaching 8% share of the Irish grocery market and will celebrate its 15th anniversary of trading here next year. Despite this, Lidl and its counterparts Aldi are still considered the relative new kids on the block. While we have become accustomed to shopping in their stores and their brands are fast becoming as familiar as the Irish brands we know and love, ‘the Germans’ are only beginning to shed the shroud of mystery that surrounded their operations here for a long time.
Up to now, Lidl has kept its head down and worked hard to adapt to Irish consumers’ tastes and in turn forced other retailers to make price the foremost issue. When they entered the market, they would have only sourced a fraction of products from Irish suppliers but as they settled in and built relationships and tweaked their products to suit the Irish palate, shoppers came in their droves and have kept coming. The retailer now sources 45% of its produce here and this figure is growing.
Aoife Clarke, Lidl’s head of Communications spoke about how the brand is very comfortable in the Irish market and this is why they have ramped up their marketing and media relations in the past couple of years. They are now happy to be seen to engage in social media with the public, invite GAA players to open their stores and answer any press queries put to them. The addition of the tastefully decorated bakeries and the new wine displays in-store indicate that they have definitely made great strides in meeting the Irish consumer more than half way.
The blanket term of ‘discounter’ that has been applied to Lidl and Aldi is now null and void, according to Clarke. Is sees itself as one of the big five supermarkets and is happy to compete in that space. And while consumers are embracing Lidl, so too it would seem are its fellow retailers. Seamus Hogan, Lidl’s sales operations manager in Cork told us how local retailers have welcomed the new Cornmarket store to the area. Hogan said that the local Centra owner had wished him well and they had discussed how they can work together. It is a testament to the idea that different retail concepts can complement one another. While Lidl and Centra would sell a cross-section of similar products, there are some major differences. For example, Lidl don’t sell tobacco and they don’t prepare fresh food in store. On the other hand, Centra wouldn’t have the range of meat and non-food items that Lidl would hold so in these instances, they are not competing at all. For these retailers, bringing extra footfall to the area is beneficial to both.
In saying that, there are still plenty of retailers that would hate the thoughts of a Lidl opening up in their vicinity because the fact is that people are doing their full weekly shopping in these stores now and retailers do experience a drop in sales when they arrive in an area. That is because they have proven to be consistently cheap, clean, efficient and well-stocked. The competition in the Irish grocery market is fierce and if you think that the ‘discounters’ are going away with the end of the recession, you may want to think again. The stakes have been raised and if you don’t rise to the challenge, you might want to consider shutting up shop.
Fionnuala Carolan
Editor
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