German discounters have
caused a stir amongst the incumbent supermarket groups and grabbed a
healthy share of the wine market They've done it despite charging considerably
more in Ireland than the UK or France for the same goods. Martin will be discussing
Lidl on News Talk 106FM’s Dublin Life show today (25/2/2004) after the 3pm.
Last
week was half term so I drove the family to London to see family and drag
them round some museums for a few days. Arriving back at Holyhead with
time to spare I thought I’d check out the Lidl right next to the port
where I bought seven or eight bottles and noted a few other prices. The
next day I went to Lidl in Dublin and compared prices. It makes for
interesting reading. But first the wines.
Quite
simply this was the worst range of wines I’ve ever tasted. At best they
were bland at worst, unpleasant. If you must buy here try the Chablis or
the Vin de pays Herault or Côteaux du Languedoc. The Bulgarian Mädchentraube
was easily the worst wine I’ve tasted since I bought a Greek red wine in
Lidl in Greece a few years ago. The wines tasted today on the show will be
the Chilean Cabernet 2003 and the Chilean Chardonnay 2003 both £2.99 or
€4.99 or 7.1% more in Ireland when taxes are stripped out. Both are
light and simple. If you really won’t spend more than €4.99 per bottle
I’d suggest Aldi, which is consistently better or take advantage of the
special offers made by the likes of Tesco and Dunnes who reduce the price
on a few more expensive wines to this level each month.
Prices
in Lidl seem cheap though, but in Ireland at least could be even cheaper
if they worked on UK style margins. Duty and VAT are different in Ireland
so I’ve stripped them out of the prices to see what exactly is left for
the retailer and surprise, surprise, Lidl charges an average of about
15.6% more in Ireland on the wines surveyed with one wine at a whopping
82% more expensive. Why? Well maybe extra transport counts for a small
percentage but it seems we are a soft touch. They do it I’d say because
they can. Competition is just not as stiff here as in the UK.
Duty
in the UK is £1.19 per bottle and VAT is 17.5%. In Ireland duty is
€2.05 and VAT is 21%. Exchange rate used was £1 to €1.496 (taken from
xe.com today)
| Wine
|
UK
Price
|
UK
Price less taxes in Euros
|
Irish
Price
|
Irish
Price less
taxes.
|
%
Differ.
|
| Chilean
Cabernet
|
£2.99
|
€2.03
|
€4.99
|
€2.07
|
+2.3%
|
| Chilean
Chardonnay
|
£2.99
|
€2.03
|
€4.99
|
€2.07
|
+2.3%
|
| Australian
Chardonnay
|
£3.99
|
€3.30
|
€5.99
|
€2.90
|
-12.1%
|
| Australalian
Colombard/ Chard
|
£2.99
|
€2.03
|
€4.99
|
€2.07
|
+2.3%
|
| Bulgarian
Chardonnay
|
£2.45
|
€1.34
|
€4.69
|
€1.83
|
+36.4%
|
| Bulgarian
Mädchentraube
|
£2.29
|
€1.14
|
€4.29
|
€1.50
|
+31.7%
|
| Chablis
|
£5.29
|
€4.95
|
€8.99
|
€5.38
|
+8.6%
|
| Rioja
|
£2.89
|
€1.90
|
€5.45
|
€2.49
|
+31.0%
|
| Montepulciano
|
£2.29
|
€1.14
|
€4.99
|
€2.07
|
+82.7%
|
| Chianti
|
£2.99
|
€2.03
|
€5.49
|
€2.49
|
+22.7%
|
| Litre
VDP Herault
|
£2.99
|
€2.03
|
€4.99
|
€2.07
|
+2.3%
|
| Red
Bordeaux
|
£2.54
|
€1.39
|
€5.39
|
€2.40
|
+65.4%
|
| Total
|
|
€25.37
|
|
€29.34
|
+15.6%
|
Finally last summer Lidl France was
selling their Chablis for just €4.49,which is just €3.75 when French
taxes are removed and its tax free price in the UK is €4.95 and €5.38
in Ireland, for exactly the same bottle!
|
