Lidl ramps up Wine Cellar promotions to capitalise on profitable footfall-driving initiative

By Andrew Catchpole

Published: 17 June, 2016

Against a backdrop of major grocers beginning to stem the flow of customers to discounters, Lidl is upping the ante on the wine front with plans to increase the frequency of its highly successful Wine Cellar Collection programme.

Speaking to Harpers at yesterday's (16 June) Summer Wine Cellar Collection tasting, which revealed a strong Iberian theme, UK wine manager Anna Krettmann revealed that the frequency of the Wine Cellar promotions is being increased to futher tap into its popularity with Lidl's customers.

"Because of the success of Wine Cellar, which has delivered huge sales uplifts, we have decided to change from four to six promotions a year, allowing us to keep our range fresh and exciting, while still offering customers our classics throughout the year," said Krettmann, who recently took on Lidl's UK buying manger role, following Ben Hulme's relocated to Germany to head up Lidl's international buying te

"There will be an Iberian theme to the second part of our Summer Wine Cellar from August, with a French Experience planned next," she continued. "The Wine Cellar platform works really well, encouraging customers to explore something new, and we've found that it has been very popular."

It's certainly been a successful strategy, as the sales figures show. Lidl recorded the fastest growth of any retailer last Christmas, with an uplift of 18% according to Kantar, with wine delivering 38% volume and 15% value growth throughout, accounting for just over 10% of all Lidl UK sales.

Meanwhile, Lidl has ambitious plans to double the number of its UK outlets to around 1,500, with wealthier neighbourhoods including London's Kensington and Mayfair firmly in its sites.

Lidl's core wine range sits at around 70 wines, with the Cellar Collections typically bringing around 40 new wines into play for the duration of the promotion, with three MWs also involved in the selection process, helping assess quality and providing notes for customers in-store.

"Our main role as the panel of MWs is to taste the wines, but also to give confidence to consumers to try something different," said Caroline Gilby MW.

"This has helped to sell all sorts of weird and wonderful things," she continued. "People don't necessarily think 'Lidl' and 'something new and different', but this is what we are doing, building confidence and introducing different things, which Wine Cellar allows us to do."

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