Aldi are closing in on the top four supermarkets at a rapid pace, according to figures released today.

The German chain recorded a year-on-year sales increase of 10.6 per cent - the only UK supermarket to achieve a double-digit increase - for the period.

That means Aldi are now only two percentage points off usurping Morrisons and forcing themselves into the traditional big four supermarkets alongside Tesco, Sainsbury's and Asda.

The figures released by Kantar showed that year-on-year supermarket sales have increased by 1.4per cent for the 12 weeks to March 24, 2019.

Asda were the other notable winners in the figures, with their 0.1 per cent rise in sales taking them above Sainsbury's and into second place of market share behind Tesco.

The figures show that 13million households visited an Aldi at least once in the last 12 weeks - more than the number who shop at Morrisons.

Lidl was the second fastest-growing supermarket, recording an increase in sales of 5.8 per cent and in market share of 0.3 percentage points.

Tesco retain the largest market share with 27.4 per cent of all sales being made in one of its stores with sales reaching £138million in the past 12 weeks.

Sainsbury's sales fell by 1.8 per cent and its market share dropped by 0.5 percentage points to 15.3 per cent, 0.1 points behind Asda.