Aldi profits dive as firm focuses on expansion and price cuts

Sales rose 11% to reach £11.3bn in the year to 2018 but pretax profits fell 18% to £182.2mAldi’s profits dived by nearly a fifth last year as it poured money into new stores and cut prices to boost sales in the UK and Ireland.Sales at the German discounter rose 11% to reach £11.3bn in the year to December 2018 as it opened more than a store a week and pulled in 800,000 extra shoppers. But pretax profits dived 18% to £182.2m as the retailer invested £530m in ex