Budget supermarket chain Aldi slips into red with £54.2m loss

The German-owned chain blamed the 54.2 million loss in 2009 on heavy investment in revamping stores and buying new outlets as it tried to take on Britain's resurgent big four grocers.

Just two years ago, Aldi, along with fellow discount chains Lidl and Netto, was setting market-share records in the low-cost sector as hard-pressed consumers looked to cut spending.

In 2008, it made a 93m pre-tax profit, but last year, despite opening 45 new stores, sales only advanced 1.7 per cent to a little over 2 billion, figures released to Companies House showed.

Matthew Barnes and Roman Heini, joint managing directors at Aldi, said: "We have invested significantly in upgrading all our existing stores and this has had an impact on the 2009 result.

"In addition, we have initiated a disposal programme of older stores and assets surplus to requirements, which alone accounts for more than half the loss.

"We are confident that our continuing investment programme will lead to both increased turnover and profitability."

Aldi ramped up its market share in 2008, achieving year-on-year growth of 23.9 per cent, which prompted some to coin the term "The Aldi Effect" to describe companies thriving during the recession.

But in 2009, discount supermarkets started to see a decline in growth as the "big four" chains - Tesco, Sainsbury's, Asda and Morrisons - fought back with slashed prices.

Recent figures from market analyst Kantar revealed Aldi's market share in the three months to September had slipped to 2.9 per cent from 3 per cent last year.

Earlier this week, Tesco, Sainsbury's and Marks & Spencer posted robust results and trading updates.