Inside Aldi Nord’s ANIKo discounters in Germany

By: Rennack Sebastian Date: 2024. 11. 27. 09:20

The latest store concept of Aldi Nord in Germany enhances efficiency and spotlights fruit and vegetables, reflecting its commitment to price leadership in the market. By optimizing in-store processes and focusing on private labels, Aldi Nord aims to streamline operations while enhancing the shopping experience for its customers.

As part of its turnaround strategy, Aldi Nord introduced the then-new store concept under the name ANIKo (Aldi Nord Instore Konzept) in Germany in 2018. Since then, the new store model has been refreshed several times. The latest revamp places the main focus on the fresh ranges and solutions that increase in-store efficiencies.

Our reporter, Sebastian Rennack has visited the modernized discounters of Aldi Nord in Germany.

As one of the most visible changes in the latest iteration, rolled out nationwide since early 2022, the fruit and vegetable section has moved to the store entrance. In the previous model, the discount retailer placed its hallmark freshness section in a marketplace-style setup with cross-shelving at the back of the store.

Fruit and vegetables are a battle ground for Aldi Nord. In May this year, the company announced that it wanted to be the “clear price leader” in this category. At that time, the discounter had gained 1.5 percentage points of market share year-over-year in the product group. To achieve this, Aldi Nord had announced in the past that it would deliberately sacrifice margins.

From a commercial point-of view the new store layout places greater emphasis on the convenience, vegan and vegetarian ranges. In line with the return to a stronger focus on private labels in recent years, the packaging of private labels has been adapted to communicate quality even more strongly than in the past.

Doubling back on in-store process efficiency, Aldi Nord’s entire wine range now is available only in cartons, even the premium wine assortment. Explanatory product information previously manually added next to the price tag in the price tag strips now has been included on the product packaging to optimize staff hours. The only additional shelf information printed in the store are signs for organic and vegan products placed next to the respective shelf tag.

In order to make the in-store merchandising of promotional items easier, promotional placements on shelf ends are offered exclusively on quarter-pallet displays or half pallets.

Wide aisles and uniform shelf depth create a sense of clear structure for the customer, allow to store more stock on the shop floor and make work more efficient.

The spacious fruit and vegetable section at the store entrance aims to convey both freshness and value.

In direct vicinity to the fruit and vegetable section the newly designed wall refrigerator branded ‘Aldi To Go’ contains perishables as well as convenience products.

Beginning in summer 2023 both Aldis have started unifying their coffee own brands. Aldi Nord’s earlier category own brands ‘Markus’ and ‘Moreno’ have been relaunched under the privatel label ‘Barissimo’, which now also encompasses chilled convenience items.

With the bakery department at the beginning of the store Aldi Nord places a strong emphasis on its fresh ranges. The three-dimensional department signs used earlier have been built back.

As part of its Zero Waste initiative, the discounter offers bread baked on the previous day at a uniform price of 50 cents.

Here, Aldi Nord demonstrates its competence for chilled fresh produce. Fish items, vegetarian and vegan products, as well as meat products, are arranged in a block around the promotional shelf unit for meat.

Dedicated shelf lighting showcases the sausage and charcuterie range effectively. Red cardboard boxes dominates the category, with green color used to signal organic items. Just as for the convenience assortment, labeled packaging aims to help customer orientation in front of the shelf.

To emphasize the quality of its private label products, Aldi Nord on the front of the packaging communicates quality seals from neutral laboratories, the Nutri-Score value, animal welfare standards, and the Aldi Transparency Code (ATC), which allows for product traceability back to the manufacturer.

Premium cheese is displayed in a specially highlighted shelf unit. The design is kept minimalist in line with Aldi’s tradition.

In the back part of the store non-food promotions starting on Mondays and Thursdays are clearly separated from each other.

In the non-food section, Aldi promotes its online shop.

In the new concept, the entire wine range is displayed in cartons, including the premium wine assortment.

The country of origin and type of wine are now printed on the transport packaging. Previously, this information was printed in the store and inserted next to the price tag.

In the dry goods section, the promotional gondola end caps are either stocked with quarter-pallet displays or monopallets.

The Aldi Nord concept features wide aisles and uniform shelf depth. This is intended to help customers with navigation while also allowing for more stock to be accommodated on the sales floor.