Lidl to focus on Spain in next Wine Cellar promo

Lidl is to focus on Spanish and Portuguese wine in its next Wine Cellar promotion, with the addition of its largest range from the Iberian peninsular.

Lidl says its Wine Cellar offering needs to broaden its horizons and be more adventurous to avoid resting on its laurels (Photo: Wiki)

The new Spanish and Portuguese wines will go in store on 4 August alongside new parcels of French and Italian wines, it confirmed.

International head of wine buying Ben Hulme – who was the UK wine buyer until his promotion in March – previously told db that selling classic wines France had been a good place for the discounter to start building its reputation for wine, but in order not to rest on its laurels, it was necessary to broaden its horizons and add “more adventurous” wines.

In March it added eight Hungarian wines and started stocking English sparkling wines for the first time, as well as upping its focus on the New World, with three Australian, four South African and one new wine from New Zealand. Hulme described the New World as an “untapped” area for Lidl Wine Cellar, noting it accounted for some of its best selling standard lines.

The BWS sector has acted as a ‘halo category’ for the discounter, which boosted its core wine range by around 30% to 80 permanent skus this year.

Lidl has continued to grow its overall market share, and the latest figures from KantarWorldpanel show it was the fastest growing retailer in the 12 weeks ending 24 April 2016, with sales up by 15.4% in the period. This came off the back of an increase of shopper, with numbers up by around 648,000. Aldi and Lidl collectively maintained their record 10.4% share as the other major supermarkets posted a decline in their rate of growth – the first time all of the big four have simultaneously witnessed a drop in sales since April 2015, according to head of retail and consumer insight, Fraser McKevitt.