The Top 8 UK Brands, Products and Stores in 2016

Consumers.

The lifeblood of the modern economy.

Companies create products. People buy the products. Companies pay people to make more products.

But consumerism aside, there is a joy in purchasing.

Buying what you need. Buying what you want. Buying what’s popular.

And what is popular right now?

Plenty.

Aldi

Surprisingly, two of the top UK brands aren’t British at all. They are German. Aldi and Lidl (see below) are both German grocery stores that have found success with the younger generation of Britons. The success of Aldi is a combination of low prices and creative advertising. Aldi is able to keep prices low by having customers bring their own bags, bag their own food, and return their own carts for a deposit. The brand also favors staples over brands, often selling just its own brand of food item.

Lidl

Another German grocery, Lidl does not serve as a one-stop shop for all a household’s needs. Instead, the shop is the chief competition or Aldi and follows the same methods – remove what doesn’t sell. Keep what sells and make the operations of the store as inexpensive as possible. This keeps prices low on the merchandise most people need and want and the brand’s popularity has taken off in a big way.

John Lewis

The department store staple of the UK, John Lewis has been recognized by the Queen when she presented a Royal Warrant as a supplier of “haberdashery and household goods.” In business since 1864, the people of Great Britain stand behind the business as one of the most recognizable brands in the country with a reputation for excellent products.

Dyson

Popular not just in the UK, but in most of the Western world, Dyson is among the top names in vacuums and other cleaning products. The vacuums created by Dyson utilize state-of-the-art technology to create lasting products with powerful motors. Naturally they don’t come cheap, but they are revered household items.

Apple

Another brand in the UK that enjoys not just British attention, but the attention of the world, Apple products including Apple stores, iPads, iPhones and the like are just as popular in the UK as ever. The simplistic approach to mobile technology has become a staple of British life and in most cases, Apple is the brand to beat.

Marks & Spencer

Another Britain-based business more than 100 years old, Marks & Spencer, or M&S, specializes in retail clothing, linens and high-end food products. While you will find some commercially branded food items in the more than 800 M&S stores world-wide, many of the offerings are unique to the store or, at the very least, part of a uniquely British shopping experience.

Yorkshire Tea

One of the newest brands to surge to popularity, Yorkshire Tea has made a place for itself in the British psyche by advertising heavily and creating specialty brews for fun occasions like the recent birth of Princess Charlotte. Yorkshire Tea is currently the second most popular brand of tea in the UK according to the Mirror, following PG Tips.

Cadbury

Named as one of Britain’s greatest exports, Cadbury is easily recognized the world over as a British confectionary. The Cadbury Crème Egg and Roses comprise popular selection boxes and any number of chocolate bars and treats have been sold under the Cadbury brand for more than a century. Despite being taken over by American brand Kraft in 2010, the Cadbury factories in the UK are still turning out the distinctive chocolate they are known for.

At more than 20 percent of the population, the Millennials – 19 to 24-year-olds – have set the standard for shopping both in brick and mortar stores and online. In strategic “brick and click” approaches, many of the retailers on this list have been able to span the generations and appeal to a broad range of Brits. They obviously know what they are doing.