German discounter Aldi announced this week that its sales for the important Christmas period broke £1bn (€1.2bn) for the first time. On Monday, Aldi UK said it recorded sales growth of 8% in the four-week period leading up to Christmas Eve as sales topped £1bn for the period.

However, sales growth for Aldi in the UK is clearly slowing compared with the double-digit growth the German discount supermarket has enjoyed in the UK over previous years. For the same period last year, Aldi recorded sales growth of 11% as it outpaced established rivals such as Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Morrisons.

Aldi now commands an 8% share of the £190bn (€225bn) UK grocery market, making it the fifth largest supermarket in the UK. The German supermarket said it plans to increase the number of stores it operates in the UK from just under 900 right now to 1,200 by 2025.

Meanwhile, the UK’s fourth largest supermarket, Morrisons, announced that like-for-like sales over Christmas fell almost 2%. Morrisons boss David Potts described Christmas 2019 as an “unusually challenging” period.