LONDON, April 17 (Reuters) - German discount grocer Aldi saw an 11 percent rise in shopper numbers in the UK and Ireland in the first quarter of this year and is cutting prices on many staple products to 99 pence, it said on Friday.
The privately-owned group, which runs 467 shops in the UK and Ireland, also said its customers were increasingly moving from a top-up to a full shop, with the size of a typical Aldi basket increasing by about a third over the past six months.
It did not say how many prices it was cutting, but said reductions were made from Thursday on items including fruit juices, cheeses, pasta salads and steak cut chips, as well as personal care and household cleaning products.
"Avoiding short-term promotions offering consumers freebies and multiple-products they don't need, enables our customers to save more at the check out," said Paul Foley, group managing director of Aldi UK and Ireland, adding its research showed shoppers could save 23 pounds on a weekly shop of 100 pounds if they shopped at Aldi rather than Britain's top four grocers.
Aldi's UK market share is just 2.9 percent, but it has grown rapidly in the economic downturn, prompting Britain's biggest retailer, Tesco, to launch a range of discount brands last September.
All of Britain's big supermarket groups have announced price cuts in recent months, with many cutting prices on staple products to 1 pound. ($1=.6738 Pence) (Reporting by Mark Potter; Editing by Jon Loades-Carter)