Aldi has announced record sales of £6.89bn in its last financial year, up 31% on the previous year.

The German discounter has almost doubled its sales in the past three years, becoming the UK’s sixth biggest grocer by market share.

It has also confirmed plans to launch an eCommerce operation early next year, starting with wine by the case and followed by non-food Specialbuys in the spring, offering customers home delivery and collection from third party locations.

Aldi now sources 69% of its products from British suppliers, including 100% of its milk and its entire core range of fresh meat and fresh bakery goods.

Matthew Barnes, CEO of Aldi UK & Ireland, said: “Our focus on offering the best-quality products and range at unbeatable, straightforward prices is bringing more and more shoppers through our doors, helping us to achieve consistent market-leading growth in sales.

“We refuse to be beaten on price by anyone. We’re maintaining a significant price gap of at least 15% on an average basket of goods – people are seeing that value at the checkout, tasting the quality at home and coming back to do a full weekly shop, time and time again.

“As the grocery market continues to evolve, our unique model, operational efficiency, private ownership and financial strength mean we’re able to keep investing in our business – from people and presence to products and prices.”