Aldi enters fresh food battle
German supermarket chain Aldi continues to work on improving their service to customers, with a new fresh produce offering.
Until now, Aldi’s fresh fruit and vegetables have been fairly nondescript, and always outshined by Coles and Woolworths.
Now Aldi has signed up Aussie farmers to offer fresh fruit and veggies in their supermarkets nationally.
This will remove Coles and Woolworths’ hold over Aldi, and the big supermarkets are taking notice.
Greg McMahon, owner and executive chairman of citrus grower Seven Fields, was one of the first farmers that Aldi approached. Speaking to Fairfax, he said “It’s not good news if you’re Woolworths and Coles. I think they’re scared already.”
Mr McMahon said Aldi were keen to set up a distribution network to take produce straight from the farms to the stores.
According to an Aldi spokeswoman, a “direct-from-farm supply model provides efficiencies for our suppliers and value for our customers”.
“As such, Aldi will continue to explore a variety of supply chain models,” she said.
This model was successful in the UK where Aldi improved their fresh produce offering to compete with supermarket giant Tesco.
As Woolworths feels the pinch with falling profits and a recent resignation from the CEO, they’ll be paying close attention to Aldi’s movements. The fresh produce could turn Aldi into more of a one-stop shop for groceries, which is great news for customers but not so much for the supermarket giants.
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