German owned discount supermarket Aldi is planning a change of image in Britain in an attempt to attract a more upmarket customer and double its market share, according to the Times newspaper.
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In a £6m (US$10.5m) television campaign, Aldi’s first for at least seven years, the chain is highlighting fashionable lines such as extra-virgin olive oil and pinot grigio wine to try to dispel its cheap and cheerless image with customers, the paper said.
The campaign is part of a £500m investment by the chain’s owners to expand the business in the UK.
Aldi, which opened its first shop in Britain in 1990, commands under 3% of the market, less than a tenth that of Tesco, the market leader. It now wants to increase its chain from 283 stores to 500 within the next five years in an attempt to gain a 5% share of the market.
The expansion strategy also includes plans to refurbish existing stores and to move about 20 units to more salubrious locations. Tony Baines, managing director of buying, admitted that Aldi had got things wrong for the first ten years by aiming too downmarket.
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By GlobalDataIn the past five years the company has completely overhauled its groceries lines and bolstered its non-food merchandising, offering clothing, plasma screen televisions and even concrete mixers.
Baines said that Aldi was looking to attract middle- income housewives. “We have already seen a change in the customer profile,” he said. “We now have four-wheel-drives in the car park.”
