A Look at Lidl
All images on this page: Greek-style products under the specialty brand Eridanous, American products under Mcennedy, French products under Duc De Coeur, and Italian under Italiamo are not available permanently, but only temporarily as products change.
Building food competency with specialty brands – and the help of a Michelin-star chef.
In German grocery retailing, cutthroat price competition with discounters has been the defining characteristic for the last few decades. While arch rival Aldi remains the leading discounter and continues to be seen as the pricing benchmark by the whole industry, it was Lidl who in the last few years has seen faster growth and is becoming an ever more serious threat to Aldi’s leadership. While Aldi is currently seen as stuck in a rut, with innovation prevented by inflexible and over-aged management, Lidl is seen as more aggressive, dynamic and innovative. In contrast to Aldi, which offers almost only own-label products, Lidl offers a mix of own-label products and branded products, although own-label products clearly dominate. However, Lidl had to face problems of its own as, more than its competitors, it was the subject of a series of negative press articles about working conditions in Lidl outlets.
Private label products at Lidl are sold under a range of different brands rather than a store umbrella brand, while the Lidl fascia does not appear on any product as part of the brand. At the time of writing, the Lidl website listed 16 food brands, 10 cosmetics, toiletries and household care brands and 24 other non-food brands, although that list is not exhaustive as there are many more own-brands in the stores than profiled on the website.
As all discounters, Lidl issues a weekly flyer with products only available during that week. In fact, Lidl is the only retailer that issues two separate flyers – one brochure for non-food items such as clothing, electrical goods, furniture, gardening products and car accessories– and one for food and cosmetics, toiletries and household care. One batch of products is always available from Monday, and another one from Thursday. The food flyer contains a separate flyer with special discount offers that are only available during Thursday through Saturday.
In addition to the separate food flyer, one further activity to enhance its food competency is Lidl’s tie-up with celebrity chef Kolja Kleeberg (one Michelin star since 1997) which started in 2009. Under the slogan “Genuss mit Stars” (Indulgence with Stars), Lidl publishes a monthly brochure with Kolja Kleeberg recipes that are displayed in stores and use Lidl products as ingredients. The campaign has its own website (www.lidl-genuss.de) where, among other things, consumers can download the recipes and watch recipe videos with Kolja Kleeberg. The campaign also includes promotional tours and prize competitions.
In food, Lidl’s main brands include Bellarom for coffee, Cimarosa for wine, Crownfield for cereal, Crusti Croc (salty snacks), Dulano for charcuterie and sausage, Freeway for carbonated soft drinks, Grafenwalder for beer, Granarom for instant coffee, Kania for spices, dressings and sauces, Landjunker for fresh poultry, Lord Nelson for tea, Milbona for dairy products, Oldenländer for fresh meat, Sondey for biscuits, Vita D’Or for oil, Vitakrone for salad spreads and Vitatrend for fruit juices.
Key cosmetics, toiletries and household care brands include Cien and Cien Sun (body care, hair care, sun care and deodorants), Dentalux (oral care), Floralys (disposable paper products), Formil (laundry detergents), G. Bellini (men’s care products), Iseree (skin care), Orlando (pet food), toujours (diapers) and W5 (household care). Out of those, the Cien skin care crème came out as the best multi-purpose crème in a recent test by consumer watchdog Stiftung Warentest, while several Formil products also received good marks in product tests.
Vitafit is Lidl’s umbrella brand for fruit juices. These Vitatrend Premium choices are not from concentrate. Below: Fairglobe is Lidl’s unique brand of fairtrade products; many are organic.
These key brands pretty much cover the standard spectrum in all those segments. Depending on the product portfolio, some segments are more unique than others. Staples such as washing detergents or body care products, as well as carbonated soft drinks are pretty much interchangeable between discounters, while there is greater differentiation in biscuits, baked goods or cereals. An example of unique products in fruit juices is the Vitafit premium sub-brand of fruit juices not from concentrate – two varieties of which are unique to Lidl (4-Citrus Mix and Raspberry & Grapes). Aldi offers are similar range at the same price, but in different flavours. Meanwhile, in household care products Lidl is the private label player with the largest number of environmentally friendly products with its W5 Eco sub-brand. Products include environmentally friendly dishwashing tablets, a hand dishwashing liquid, a vinegar cleaner and a toilet cleaner.
Like all retailers, Lidl has an organic range – Biotrend – although it is less extensive, in particular compared with Aldi’s Bio. Products include apple juice, herbal and fruit tea, apple vinegar, some cheese varieties and some fresh vegetables. However - in contrast to Aldi - Lidl also has a fair-trade – Fairglobe – being the first German retailer to introduce such an own-label brand. The range is rather small, consisting of ground coffee (EUR5.49 for 500g), instant coffee, instant cappuccino, Darjeeling tea, orange juice, Malawi brown sugar and chocolate.
In terms of food products, the most interesting products are to be found outside the core brands under a number of specialty brands, mainly of country-specific specialties. These are not available permanently, but only temporary as part of the product offers that change every week. However, these promotions are repeated regularly, and some products also appear to be restocked after a country-specific campaign is over – but consumers can’t really rely on the availability of these products in their local branch at any time. Although Aldi and other discounters also offer country-themed promotions, it is perhaps Lidl who is a trend leader in this field as it offers these promotions with greater frequency and also greater variety than Aldi which has a particular strong focus on Italian specialties.
Lidl’s country specific brands are : Vitasia for are Asian-style products (including both Chinese and Indian-style products), Eridanous for Greek products, Alpengut for Swiss and Bavarian (Alpine) products, Duc De Coeur for French-style products, Hatherwood for British specialties, Sodegarden for Swedish specialities, El Tequito for Mexican specialities and Mcennedy for U.S. specialities. Italian-style products are offered under various brands: the standard range of products always available such as dry pasta is Combino, while baked goods such as biscuits are offered under the Ital d’Oro brand, meat and chacuterie specialties under the Salumeo brand and premium specialties such as pasta sauces under the Italiamo brand. Examples of products available during country-specific promotions include barbecue marshmallows, bagels, American-style cookies, pretzels and brownies (Mcennedy), Swedish biscuits and meatballs (Sodergarden), wok noodles, stir-fry sauces and Asian-style oils (Vitasia), packaged meat, dumplings and frozen roesti (Alpengut), packaged quiche, French sausage and cheese specialities (Duc de Coeur) and frozen spinach parcels, olive oil and Greek-style antipasti (Eridanous).
A new brand concept that has no equivalent at any other discounter which Lidl started to introduce in early 2010 is Ein Gutes Stück Heimat (A Good Piece of Home). The launch was initially limited to Bavaria, and the range consisted originally of eight dairy products with milk guaranteed to be sourced from Bavarian farms. According to press reports, Lidl also insisted that its suppliers feed their animals GM-free foods although Lidl never advertised the products as GM-free, apparently fearing consumers may ask questions about the other dairy products that don’t carry a GM-free label. While availability of dairy products remains restricted to Bavaria, some other products have started to appear in other regions. These are fruit juices not from concentrate, apple cakes, mashed potato powder and various vegetables in jars. The brand has its own website (www.ein-gutes-stueck-heimat.de).
Like all discounters, Lidl has a better-for-you range, Linessa Products include sugar-reduced cornflakes and jams, salt-reduced crisps and fat-reduced packaged and chilled sausage and charcuterie products as well as cheese. The range features in flyers and is extended by more products in particular during the time between Christmas and Easter.
