Aldi and Lidl now account for 10% of sales at the leading supermarkets, as the big four all suffered a sales dip in the 12 weeks to 31 January, according to Nielsen.

During the 12-week period Aldi’s and Lidl’s sales grew year-on-year 17.3% and 13.8% respectively, while total supermarket sales increased just 0.7%. Consequently, Aldi and Lidl hit a combined market share of 10.7%, up from 9.3% in the corresponding period last year.

“The 10% market share for discounters has not been seen since the heyday of Kwik Save some 15 years ago,” said Mike Watkins, Nielsen’s UK head of retailer and business insight.

“Initially built on the premise of saving money, the new wave of discounters are now a regular part of grocery shopping and have changed shopping habits forever. For instance, switching to cheaper grocery brands is again the number one household tactic for saving money. Furthermore, nearly half of those cutting costs will continue to buy cheaper grocery brands even when economic conditions do improve.

“However, what is different this time is that discounters are no longer solely associated with price. They’ve been very astute at promoting the quality of their offerings to appeal to a wider range of consumers.”

Aldi’s market share increased by 0.8% to 5.8% year on year, while Lidl’s increased by 0.6% to 4.9%. In contrast, Tesco’s market share declined from 28.2% to 27.7%.