Aldi chief says some loyalty discounts ‘dupe’ shoppers as retailer reports £19bn sales

Aldi UK chief executive Giles Hurley has accused rival supermarkets of using some loyalty discounts that ‘dupe’ shoppers, saying the offers can start from unrealistically high prices. His criticism came as Aldi reported a 5% rise in annual turnover to £19bn. The published accounts of his remarks identify no individual products or price histories that establish shoppers were misled.

Hurley said promotions can help customers when reductions are real and realistic. But he argued that an offer starting from an unrealistically high price and falling to a price that remains uncompetitive does not help households plan their spending. The allegation concerns some discounts; it does not establish that rival supermarkets’ loyalty offers generally work this way.

What Aldi said about prices

The Grocer reported Hurley questioning how much value in rival loyalty schemes was ‘perceived rather than real’. It also reported Aldi research claiming that a basket of shopping at the discounter cost 24% less than at traditional supermarkets, compared with an 18% gap in January, even after accounting for rivals’ loyalty prices. The published report did not set out the products selected, the comparison method or the underlying basket data, so the figures remain Aldi’s claim.

Aldi says it has spent £340m so far this year cutting prices on more than 1,000 products. Hurley described the company’s approach as everyday low pricing instead of short-lived offers. Those statements explain Aldi’s position in the debate, but neither supplies an example of a rival loyalty promotion with an inflated starting price.

What the watchdog found

That measure is distinct from asking whether another shop sells the product for less. The CMA said its comparisons generally found savings against prices for the same products elsewhere when those products were not on promotion, but it also found some loyalty-priced items cost significantly more than the cheapest available alternative. It advised shoppers to compare prices rather than assume a loyalty price was the lowest in the market.

The CMA’s review was published nearly two years before Hurley’s latest remarks. Its historical sample does not test any particular offer he was referring to in 2026. Equally, the reports of his comments provide no named product, price sequence or independent test that would demonstrate the practice he described. The two accounts therefore answer different questions: one reports a retailer’s criticism, while the other records what the regulator found in its earlier sector review.

A former Asda buyer and retail consultant, Ged Futter, offered a different reading of Hurley’s comments to the BBC. He called them a distraction from competitive pressure on Aldi, saying the chain was growing more slowly than the main supermarket pack and that its price advantage was less clear than before. Those are Futter’s assessments; the reporting provided no independent current growth comparison to test them.

Results and expansion plans

Aldi’s annual figures cover the year to 31 December 2025. The company reported turnover of £19bn, up 5%, and said the increase reflected more customers buying more products in more stores. Operating profit was £432.9m, compared with £435.5m in 2024. Its operating margin slipped from 2.4% to 2.3%, which Aldi attributed to investment in prices, infrastructure and staff pay.

The retailer also announced plans to invest £900m in 2027, including 40 new stores and work on its distribution network. It said it had 1,092 UK stores and expected to open 30 more over the following ten weeks. Those plans show the scale of Aldi’s intended expansion, but their completion remains ahead of the company.

Aldi said it spent £14bn with British suppliers in 2025 and aims to source at least half its products through long-term supplier agreements by 2027. Hurley linked that plan to concerns about food supply and household costs. For shoppers weighing his loyalty-price criticism, the immediate unanswered question is narrower: which specific rival offers, if any, had the price pattern he alleged?