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Lidl takes aim at craft beer market
It has already taken a swipe at rival supermarket wine retailers, and now Lidl is taking aim at craft beer by launching a range of ales.
Former Blue bassist Alex James is fronting the launch
One year after launching a bargain-priced, premium wine range designed to pull in the middle class shopper, Lidl is hoping to repeat its success by pulling in beer aficionados.
All priced under £1.50 a bottle, the 48-strong range will roll out across the UK from 22 June, sourced from small-scale micro-breweries to large scale British breweries.
In addition to regional craft ales, the supermarket will also be stocking various world lagers and ciders featuring a mix of traditional and “new wave” craft ales.
The launch follows the recent success of the discount supermarket’s wine range, which included Châteauneuf-du-Pape and Chateau Latour, which has seen sales increase by almost 40% year on year.
While date from Kantar Worldpanel this week showed Lidl now has 3.9% share of the UK market for groceries, making it nearly two-thirds the size of the Co-op.
Lidl has brought former Blur bassist, food columnist and life-long beer drinker Alex James on board to front the launch.
He said: “The beer category is so vast and the demand for craft ales has increased by a huge amount in the past few years. Nowadays there are so many beer aficionados and great local breweries around the UK so it is tremendous to see a supermarket like Lidl supporting them.”
Ben Hulme, senior buying manager, added: “The quality and provenance of our new product range is key to us with this initiative. We have refined the current selection by going out and trying every single beer on the market and have handpicked a selection of regional ales that will showcase some of the best craft ales available in the UK, and will reflect the regions that they’re being stocked in.”
Lidl’s “in-store brewery concept” will be launched in two phases. The initial launch will go into stores on 11th June with the second rollout commencing on 1st September.