Lidl BWS

Lidl has become the latest retailer to give its BWS aisles a revamp, with a major focus on its wine offer and a shift towards craft beer.

Lidl’s beer range was about to get an update, a spokeswoman said, and would be “extending over some new categories in the lager section”, with a “big focus” on craft beer. This comes in the wake of the discounter having launched a 20-strong Craft Beer Festival range across its Scottish stores last week.

“It is extremely popular already, with impressive volumes sold over the bank holiday weekend and customer enquiries coming from as far as London asking us to replicate this on a national scale,” the spokeswoman said.

On the wine front, Lidl slashed 20 wine SKUs in March to make way for a spate of new lines, which it has introduced over the past three months, research by The Grocer shows. It looks to have de-listed 13 own-label wines as well as several branded SKUs to make room for 26 new bottles, including 19 new own-label SKUs [Brand View 52 w/e 30 May 2017].

Lidl did not comment on the delistings but the spokeswoman said it was “investing in this massively popular section of our store, while expecting it to remain a key driver of our fast growth”.

Lidl has also upped the number of refreshes for its Wine Cellar range from four to six times a year. Additionally, it has extended its RTD offering with new Bourbon & Coke, Rum & Coke and Peyton’s & Lemonade SKUs, and added a new range of Ben Bracken single malt whiskys.