Aldi will open its first four stores in Western Australia at Mirrabooka Square, Kwinana, Belmont and Lakeside Joondalup on June 8.
Construction at the discount supermarket’s Jandakot Airport Distribution Centre is also complete and will begin receiving stock from next month. The first stores form part of Aldi’s long term expansion plans, which will see up to 70 stores developed across Western Australia and 1200 new permanent jobs. A total of 20 stores are expected to be open by the end of 2016.
Aldi will hire its 500th employee this week and there will be further rounds of recruitment for store, warehouse and logistics roles later in the year. Aldi’s first 45 store managers have returned to Western Australia after spending six weeks on the eastern seaboard. Aldi has also hired 342 trainee store manager and retail assistants, following a successful round of recruitment in January.
In 2015, Aldi sold more than $80 million worth of grocery products from Western Australian suppliers. More than 90 per cent of Aldi’s core grocery range is made up of its exclusive branded goods.
As Aldi’s Western Australian expansion continues to progress, other confirmed store locations include: Armadale, Australind, Butler, Camillo, Cannington, Ellenbrook, Halls Head, Harrisdale, Haynes, Lakelands, Maddington, Mandurah, Mundaring, Nedlands, Rockingham, Secret Harbour, South Lake, Southern River, Waikiki and Wattle Grove.
Aldi’s dominance continuing to rise
According to the latest data released by Roy Morgan Research, Aldi holds 12.1 per cent of Australia’s $89 billion supermarket grocery market, up slightly from March 2015, when it was 11.6 per cent.
Although Woolworths Group retains the largest market share of 37.3 per cent, this has declined from 38.5 per cent since Roy Morgan’s last report. Meanwhile, rival Coles Group is narrowing the gap, having increased its share from 31.8 per cent to 32.5 per cent over the same period. Metcash-owned IGA remains relatively stable with a 9.7 per cent share.
Market share over time (dollar value): Australian supermarket grocery market
Customer numbers
In an average four week period, 5.3 million Australian consumers shop at Aldi, 10.5 million shop at Woolworths, 10 million shop at Coles and a little more than 4 million shop at IGA, while almost 4 million frequent other supermarkets. Some 37.1 per cent of these shoppers visit at least one Coles, one Woolies and one other supermarket during this time.
“As they do with dollar market share, Woolworths and Coles have the largest customer bases by far, but with just one in five grocery buyers shopping exclusively at one supermarket, neither of these heavyweights should get too comfortable,” Michele Levine, CEO, Roy Morgan Research, said.
“Although Aldi has a much smaller dollar share of the market, it is already punching above its weight in term of customer volume and has more than doubled shopper numbers since January 2007.”
“With so much choice available to them, Australian supermarket shoppers are in a position of power. As Woolies learnt last year with its disastrous ANZAC campaign, and as Aldi is discovering now after refusing to heed the call to phase out caged eggs (as Woolworths and Coles are doing), the consequences of alienating consumers are very real – and very public,” Ms Levine said.
Supermarket customer penetration over time
