Three years ago, the Retail Sector Council confidently predicted the discounters would open 1,000 stores in five years, to continue their “relentless growth”.

 Awkwardly, since that August 2023 prediction, the growth of the discount sector has slowed. Aldi’s market share has slipped from 10.9% to 10.6% [Worldpanel by Numerator 12 w/e 19 April 2026]. B&M and Poundland have suffered falling like-for-like sales since 2024. The latter has closed about 150 stores.

In fact, the growth of the discount sector has become almost exclusively the growth of one retailer: Lidl. This month is its 34th on the trot as the UK’s fastest-growing bricks & mortar supermarket, in which time its market share has grown by just over a percentage point to 8.4% – level with Morrisons as the UK’s joint-fifth biggest supermarket.