Aldi shoppers treat themselves as cost pressures ease

That has led some to wonder if Aldi has lost its mojo, having disrupted the grocery aisles for so long.

Sainsbury’s and Tesco have adopted “Aldi price match” campaigns and all supermarkets apart from Aldi now offer some form of loyalty card schemes.

“There’s always an ebb and flow,” Mr Hurley said, when asked if Aldi had lost customers.

Aldi’s main rival Lidl started its rewards app four years ago, linking it with offers for its in-store bakeries, but Mr Hurley said he was not planning on deploying a similar tactic at Aldi anytime soon.

“I would view loyalty as keeping your commitments around your promises and we offer simple, straightforward pricing and our customers know that,” he said.

He said the supermarket’s story was “about growth, whether that’s over the last 30 years, the last four years, or the last two years”.

“That growth is set to continue and I’m very confident about that because we have massive expansion plans here in the UK,” Mr Hurley added.

Finding the right space in the right location is not easy these days, but Aldi is opening 23 new stores in the next 16 weeks, as part of a major £800m investment plan.

But Mr Hurley warned the planning process needs to speed up, with one of the his top team holding talks with the new Labour government about reforms to the planning system.

The budget chain has a long-term target of 1,500 UK shops and another 100 stores are being refurbished.

But for Ged Futter, who runs a grocery retail consultancy, the question for Aldi is how it will look to grow further once it stops opening new stores.

“If they’re just talking about price, I don’t think that’s a message that cuts through enough now,” he said.

“The price gap isn’t as strong as it used to be. They’ve got to differentiate themselves a bit more.”