The discounter, which attracted an extra 1.5 million new customers and was named the fastest-growing supermarket in the 12 weeks to October by Kantar’s most recent market share data, also predicts it will shift more than 38 million pigs in blankets.

Squeezed households were thinking about Christmas “even earlier” this year and “having to plan their spend over the festive period much more carefully”, the discounter said.