Lidl customers have been shifting their grocery shopping to Aldi as £8.1 million of spend has switched over to the rival discount retailer in the 12 weeks to 4 September.
The figure from the latest Kantar data comes as price inflation continues to rise, hitting a new record of 12.4% last week.
The news follows Lidl’s Twitter responses to customer complaints which saw the retailer apologising to its shoppers over “unforeseen supply issues” and “delivery issues”, within the last few days.
As reported by The Grocer, earlier this month, Lidl also tweeted that it had been “experiencing some issues in our distribution centres”.
“As the UK’s fastest growing supermarket we are welcoming more customers through our doors than ever before,” a Lidl spokeswoman told The Grocer.
“We have an unwavering commitment to provide our customers with the best products at the best prices. That is why we continue to see shoppers switching to Lidl, and it’s why we remain laser focused on opening new stores across the country to meet this increased customer demand.
“This is particularly important in areas where households don’t already have access to good quality food at affordable prices.”
Combatting potential labour shortages and availability issues, Aldi increased the hourly pay rate for thousands of employees working in its distribution centres across the UK by as much as 9% in August, a move that benefitted around 4,200 employees.
As well as many shoppers having switched from Lidl to Aldi, according to Kantar data, in the last 12 weeks, Tesco lost £63.6m of spend to Aldi.
Morrisons also saw £42.6m worth of spend switched as it was officially overtaken by Aldi as the UK’s fourth largest supermarket last week.
