Supermarket rivalry continues as M&S advertises garden furniture with a bottle of Aldi wine on the table – after row over caterpillar cakes

The long-standing rivalry between British supermarkets M&S and Aldi has been revived after M&S advertised garden furniture online with a bottle of Aldi wine sitting on the table.

Hilariously, the mistake was discovered by Aldi’s PR team, who decided to let the world know that ‘Marks & Spencer drinks Aldi wine’ by sharing the photo on social media.

Writing on X (formerly Twitter), the budget supermarket tagged their rival in a tongue-in-cheek tweet and pointed out their mistakes.

The tweet quickly racked up more than 160,000 views in just a few hours, garnering thousands of likes and shares from those who found the exchange hilarious.

It comes after M&S took Aldi to court in 2021 for copying its Colin the Caterpillar cake with its ‘Cuthbert’ product, with the case eventually being settled in a confidential settlement between the two retailers.

The garden furniture in question is the Roma Four Seater Garden Table and Chair Set, which retails for £669 on the M&S website.

But front and center on the wooden table sits a bottle of Aldi’s Specially Selected Côtes De Provence Blanc 75cl.

“This has won the internet debate today,” joked one social media user, while Aldi UK replied: “We’re certainly flattered, it’s a real honor to be part of this journey”.

Others laughed: ‘Great wine so I’m not surprised’ and ‘Oh hell! This has made my day’.

“How do you think we did,” Aldi responded, along with a laughing emoji and the hashtag #GoAllAldi.

The budget supermarket also wrote: ‘It’s great wine but the shock was real but flattering. Always knew we were secretly best’.

‘Oh amazing’, ‘This is fun!’ and ‘Brilliant, well spotted’ added other X users in the responses.

One Aldi fan joked: “Maybe Marks and Spencer can bring some cake to the party?” with another adding: ‘These are moments before they brought a Cuthbert’.

Another wrote: ‘Marks and Spencer had to buy cheaper wine to pay way over the odds for a table and chairs!

“Aldi wine is great, they should have bought the table and chairs from the aisle too!”

Another asked: ‘Has anyone seen their reply yet? Can’t wait for this debate’.

It comes after M&S took Aldi to court in 2021 in what became a long-running legal dispute, with the former accusing the discount retailer of copying its Colin the Caterpillar cake with its ‘Cuthbert’ product.

An undisclosed settlement eventually reached by the two grocers did not stop Aldi from continuing to run an ad announcing it was ‘like M&S, only cheaper’, showing rival caterpillar cakes Cuthbert and Colin breaking into a fight at a party.

Aldi joked that Cuthbert was now ‘free’ following the row, announcing his return on billboards on a van parked outside branches of M&S.

And M&S isn’t the only supermarket Aldi has poked fun at – last year the German supermarket hit back after customers took to X (formerly Twitter) to complain about the price of coffee at the Co-Op in Harborne, Birmingham.

An image shared online showed a shelf with a small and large jar of Kenco instant coffee priced at £5.50 and £10.50 respectively, and a large jar of Nescafe instant coffee priced at £9.35 .

To make things even more bizarre, the coffee was encased in GPS tracking cases on the shelves.

The cases came with a warning warning customers that they must be removed at checkout before leaving the store and shoplifters will be prosecuted.

Aldi decided to lighten the mood and tweeted a snap of their own coffee, writing: ‘If only there was a MUCH cheaper alternative…’

They added some changing eyes in emoji form for good measure.

Earlier, Aldi gently poked fun at McVitie’s after its milk chocolate digestive products were put on sale for as much as £5.39 in another store.

Shoppers appreciate the price, with some joking that they will “be a ten next month”.

But the budget supermarket chain – known for its tongue-in-cheek social media team – simply responded with ‘Belmont Chocolate Digestives: 69p’.

Following this, in response to Elon Musk changing the name of Twitter to X, the team behind the hashtag FreeCuthbert couldn’t resist poking fun at the rebranding – cementing their reputation for poking fun at other companies.

Following their photo, the UK Aldi team shared an image of a ‘new’ logo and wrote: ‘Launching now….AldX, (it’s the same as Aldi, we just wanted a change)’.

Followers on social media loved the joke and were quick to praise the team for light-hearted humour.

One person wrote: ‘I have to admit this social media team is bloody hilarious. It is definitely one of the best business accounts. I still remember the Eurovision scoring tweet being as complicated as the Tesco Clubcard prices from a few years back.’

‘You are funny!’ added another user.

Back in November 2023, the supermarket caused further online hilarity after writing an ‘open letter’ to Great British Bake Off threatening to sue them after the show’s quarter-finalists were asked to make a caterpillar cake.

Aldi jokingly claimed the Channel 4 show infringed copyright by asking bakers to make the cake – which is similar to their Cuthbert the Caterpillar cake.

A Facebook post shared by the supermarket said the show had “violated Cuthbert’s rights” and asked them to “cease and desist” from any illegal reference to the cake.

The open letter generated tens of thousands of ‘likes’ and thousands of comments, with some describing the post as ‘hilarious’.

Earlier this month, shoppers were up in arms after a taste test decided the Co-op’s budget Charlie cake was better than Colin the Caterpillar.

But MailOnline readers disagree with hundreds coming out in support of the original version in our exclusive poll.

More than 1110 of you voted in the first seven hours of voting, with Colin easily claiming first place with 786 votes (66 percent).

Aldi’s Cuthbert the Caterpillar came second with 170 votes (14 per cent) and the Co-Op’s Charlie came third with 99 votes (eight per cent).

Cecil the Caterpillar by Waitrose received 30 votes (three per cent) with Tesco’s Slinky the Caterpillar and Sainsbury’s Wiggles the Caterpillar tied on 29 votes (two per cent).

An M&S spokesperson said: “Sometimes you regret asking guests to BYOB – this is fine as a prop, but if you prefer to enjoy a top quality bottle of award-winning rosé with your new garden furniture, we’d recommend our fantastic fruity and aromatic Collection Côtes de Provence Sainte-Victoire rosé – an absolute must for lovers of pink drinks in the sunshine!’

Aldi has been contacted for comment.