Aldi wants to lure craft beer fans with… craft wine
You can see Aldi's thinking.
"Craft beer's still doing well: what next?" And it's landed on… craft wine.
The discount supermarket is cracking open a range of "craft-beer-style wines" this month which it says will turn traditional wines "on their head". It's betting on the "Whole Foods generation and millennial drinkers" toasting the new beverages as many are helping to drive sales of craft spirits and beer.
The new range comes in 50cl brown glass beer bottles and labels saying "designed for pleasure, enjoyment and no fuss drinking".
Read more: Brewing up a storm: Sales in craft beer soar 130 per cent
Aldi's teamed up with South African winemakers Origin to develop four different blends, including two sparkling Moscato variants that are £2.49 each, and two organic options for £2.99. They go on sale from next Sunday 13 November.
Tom Baines, joint managing director for corporate buying at Aldi UK, said: "Aldi's wine sales are growing ahead of the market and we anticipate that this new range will help us to continue this growth by appealing to drinkers who don't usually choose wine, but instead opt for something like beer or gin."
Read more: Aldi unveils £300m store investment plan as it reports record sales
Well, the discounter can afford to try something new. It's still gobbling up market share from some of the supermarket stalwarts alongside Lidl (sales up 11.4 per cent and 8.4 per cent respectively), though there has been a bit of a fightback taking off.
By 2022, Aldi has plans to have recruited an additional 35,000 employees and operate over 1,000 stores. By the end of this year it'll have opened 70 stores.