Aldi's sales drop in Germany in 2007

According to a study by market research institute GfK and consultancy Accenture German discount retail chain posted a decline in sales in its German home market for the first time in its history.

Combined German sales at Aldi Nord and
Aldi Sued, owned by the brothers Theo and Karl Albrecht,
respectively, dropped 1.5 percent to 27 billion euros last year,
according to the researchers' estimates. Neither company publishes
financial results.

The two Aldi entities' combined share
of the German food retail market dropped 0.6 percentage points to
18.9 percent because Aldi refrained from adding further to its
network of about 4,200 German stores, the newspaper said. Rival Lidl
was the main beneficiary of Aldi's retreat in market share, it has
almost 10% increase in sales, it grow to 13.3 billion euros, the
number of stores also increased by 3.6% in Germany.