Aldi wins ‘Oscar’ for best grocer: Budget chain wins award for second year in a row after a 35% annual increase in sales

Others on shortlist at The Grocer Gold Awards included Asda, Waitrose, Ocado and Sainsbury’s

Aldi and Lidl credited with biggest change in shopping habits since 1950s

Sainsbury’s confirmed end of nine years of growth

Tesco revealed its worst trading performance in 40 years

Aldi is opening new stores are the rate of more than one a week ¿ 55 in 2014 - and plans to hire 5,000 staff and some 500 managers

Budget chain Aldi has been named grocer of the year, beating a raft of much bigger upmarket rivals at the industry ‘Oscars’.

It is the second year in a row that the discount chain, which has led a charge on middle Britain families with the result sales are rising 35 per cent a year, has picked up the accolade.

The other names on the shortlist at The Grocer Gold Awards included Asda, Waitrose, Ocado and Sainsbury’s, which yesterday revealed a disappointing fall in sales over the last three months.

Aldi has grabbed millions of customers from all the big four stores – Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury’s and Morrisons – under a promise to sell high quality food and drink at budget prices.

The firm claims savings of up to one third when comparing products it sells versus the big brands sold by the major supermarkets.

The success of Aldi and its German rival, Lidl, has been credited with causing the biggest change in shopping habits since the rise of the national big box supermarket chains in the 1950s.

All of the big four have been forced to respond by cutting prices of shopping basket essentials such as milk, bread, eggs and butter.

The net result is that food price inflation is currently running at around 1 per cent which is the lowest figure for at least ten years.

Sainsbury’s yesterday published figures confirming that nine years of growth has come to an end with a fall in same store sales of 1.1 per cent over the past three months compared to a year ago.

Just last week, Tesco revealed its worst trading performance in 40 years amid a loss of customers to the discounters.

The inside of an Aldi, which is attracting a middle class clientele

Morrisons has responded to the threat with a controversial revolution in is entire retail philosophy with a promise to turn itself into a discount store with price cuts worth more than £1billion over three years.

Aldi is opening new stores are the rate of more than one a week – 55 in 2014 - and plans to hire 5,000 staff and some 500 managers, including top flight graduates with a starting salary of £41,000 and an Audi A4 company car.

The appeal to Middle Britain has been built on its success in a number of blind taste tests that have seen its food beating more expensive products from mainstream stores.

It has been selling aged Aberdeen Angus fillet steaks at just £5 and last week introduced highly prized gourmet Wagyu beef, considered the finest in the world, at £6.99 for a sirloin steak.

Tesco was named Online Supermarket of the year, while its Finest range was the best own label

Just yesterday, it emerged the chain’s Glen Orrin Malt Whisky, which costs £13.29, had won a silver medal in a blind taste testing at the International Spirits Challenge 2014. The same award went to Marks & Spencer’s Spiced Tree Whisky, which costs £40.

Recently, the chain picked up awards for several products in its Specially Selected range including ultimate dry cure unsmoked British back bacon, dark chocolate and raspberry cheesecake, Italian stone baked goats cheese and spinach pizza, quiche with Wiltshire cured ham and cheese and its free range whole chicken.

Tesco's Finest range was the best own label for all the supermarkets

Aldi UK’s managing director for buying, Tony Baines, said: ‘We’re thrilled to have won the Grocer of the Year for the second year running. This award is real testament to the quality products that we source from some of the best food and drink producers in the world, our everyday low pricing and our commitment to providing the best service.

‘Recognition from The Grocer Gold Awards provides our shoppers with the assurance that they are getting the best from us.’

Retail industry expert Julie Palmer said the latest figures from Sainsbury’s are testament to the pressure it is facing from budget rivals.

She said: ‘While Sainsbury’s may have benefitted from customers drifting over from Tesco, it faces constant pressures from discount retailers such as Aldi and Lidl as they attempt to lure customers away.

‘The heydays are over with the food retail sector facing declining sales for the first time since 2008.’

Aldi was not the only company to leave The Grocer awards with a gong. Tesco was named Online Supermarket of the year, while its Finest range was the best own label.