“A year ago, customers flocked to supermarket shelves because of growing concerns and uncertainties resulting from the health situation and a looming lockdown,” the chain wrote in a press release on 30 March 2021. Looking back on the past year, it observed a decline in footfall but an increase in sales.

Customers bought 30% more fruit and vegetables with the star product being the banana--the company sold more than 790,000kg in 2020. Strongest sales per item were also reported for broccoli (+40%), avocado (+35%) and cucumber (+25%). Other products that rose in popularity were baked goods (+20%), vegetables (+29%), poultry (+30%) and fish (+32%).

“We realise that customers are spending more time at home during this period of confinement and this automatically influences their purchasing behaviour and the products they consume,” said Julien Wathieu, Lidl's spokesperson for Belgium and Luxembourg. “We are obviously very pleased with these results and hope that we can maintain this trend in 2021.”

Lidl saw a -15% evolution in visit numbers to stores, largely because of pandemic restrictions during the first lockdown.

It also recorded a decline in sales of meat, wine and beer (-1% and -6%, respectively), while spirits saw an increase of +5%.

During February 2020, the month before the official lockdown began in Luxembourg, sales of pasta, rice, wheat flour and yeast rose +18%, while toilet paper and kitchen paper jumped +6%. Meanwhile, laundry product sales rose +9% and cleaning products +20%.