The price freeze was a big loss for them as well, but they are continuing to develop their domestic operations and are also looking to expand. They would like to open stores in more cities, even next to the existing ones.

The portal asked Bernhard Haider, national managing director of ALDI Hungary, about the company's plans.

Aldi's revenue grew at the fastest rate of all retail chains, six percentage points higher in 2022 than last year's average food inflation of 26%.

Asked whether this growth rate is sustainable, the managing director said, "We were very pleased with this result, because ALDI had the highest growth not only among discounters but also among all the big chains, which is due to many factors.

On the one hand, our network coverage is already relatively good nationwide, but we still have a lot of work to do, for example, we only opened our first store in Eger last year.

On the other hand, we have spent a lot of time on our price image, so that customers do not only see our low prices in the store, but also that it is known that ALDI is cheaper or cheaper than what customers have in mind.

Thirdly, we have a lot of new customers, and surveys show that we are even succeeding in attracting customers from discounters in addition to hypermarkets and supermarkets."

In 2022, nearly 20% more customers chose Aldi than a year earlier. "New shoppers who come to us for the first time often find that shopping with us is more convenient and faster, and as a result they stay with us for the long term.

I am confident that if we can keep up this pace on the network development, sourcing and marketing side, we can grow above inflation again this year," he added.