SWEDEN – Lidl, the German discount retailer, which recently opened 11 stores in Sweden, is taking the country’s market leader head on with a range of own-label products and milk imported from Germany.

Lidl stressed that it wanted to Swedish milk and milk products from the start, but that it has had to get its supplies from Germany because Swedish milk producers and processors refused to supply it.

ICA, which runs stores throughout Scandinavia and the Baltic Republics and has full access to Swedish milks, has announced some restructuring to compete with Lidl’s discounting.