While 2020 will go down in history as one of the toughest years for retail in living memory, it could also be remembered as the time that Lidl stepped out from the shadows of fellow discounter Aldi in the fiercely competitive UK grocery market.

Grocery as a whole enjoyed a record year in 2020 as lockdowns and tiered restrictions designed to halt the spread of the coronavirus shuttered restaurants and pubs and forced all but essential retailers to close. 

Yet, while all food retailers saw sales growth during the year, only two grocers saw their overall market share fall: Asda and Aldi. Between January 26, 2020, and the most recent Kantar update up to December 27, Aldi’s market share slipped 0.5 percentage points from 7.9% to 7.4%.