"Almost identical, just with different names": shopping at Aldi

"My first time at Aldi... Should we all be shopping there?" is an article by Felicity Hannah, posted on Yahoo!'s UK & Ireland Finance page with the byline "Our money saving columnist takes her first trip to a discounter to see what all the fuss is about".  The text in red, in the extract below, is enough to make any independent brand owner see red. Felicity writes:

" ...Although my friends rave about the prices and value, and my husband occasionally slips in to buy prize-winning booze, I have not personally shopped in an Aldi, Lidl or any of the discount supermarkets taking Britain by storm.

Yet profits at Tesco have fallen by 92% while Aldi’s profits rose by more than 65% in 2013. There’s got to be a reason for that. A new Aldi has opened just a five-minute drive from my house, so I went to check it out...
...

I was surprised to see so many brands I regularly buy, such as Kellogg’s. But even more surprising were the many, many lookalike brands. There were crisps in tubes, all in the same colours as Pringles so that you knew exactly what flavour you were buying. There were packets of dishwasher tablets and washing machine powder all with almost identical branding to the big names, just with different names.

The prices seemed impressive, even though I didn’t have any comparisons to hand, so I stocked up and hoped the quality was as good as my friends had promised. ..."

According to the author, Aldi’s profits rose by more than 65% in 2013. There is no doubt that the store, with its "pile-it-high, sell-it-cheap" ethos, has been a huge financial success and that the momentum it enjoyed at the beginning of the recent years of recession has been maintained even once the UK economy has picked itself up. With over 9,000 stores spread across 18 countries, Aldi is likely to exert an increasing influence on consumers' behaviour.

Aldi's origins are German, but its business practices are at odds with that country's position on lookalikes and unfair competition. This Kat thinks that it is doubtful whether any country in the European Union is more critical of lookalikes than Germany [though opinions to the contrary are invited].

Smart clothes, but not much in the way of crisps ...

This Kat is always happy with the thought that IP rights should not be given over-wide protection that inhibits or suppresses competition, but he is disappointed that Aldi should find it necessary to indulge in what appears to be a systematic process of emulating others' brands and misleading consumers.  Merpel thinks there's no problem: she doesn't understand, though, why the brand owners don't fight back by opening their own Aldi lookalike stores and giving the downmarket retail chain a taste of its own medicine ...

• Aldi renames its cut-price "Beluga" caviare following complaints that it isn't Beluga, here
• Saucy Fish Co. gets consent injunction against Aldi here
• Aldi ruthlessly apes the appearance of top brands here
• Moroccanoil fails in passing-off action against Aldi, but trade mark proceedings are pending here
• German Law on Unfair Competition (English translation) here

A Katpat to Mrs Kat for drawing this item to our attention