Lidl to invest £1.3bn in UK store expansion
Budget supermarket Lidl has announced it will invest £1.3bn in store expansion across the UK in the next two years.
The German discounter – which has opened 50 new stores in the last 12 months – said this morning that it has committed to investing in growing its store portfolio in 2021 and 2020.
The new investment announcement came as the grocer revealed it opened its 800th store in Britain today, having opened a total of 16 new stores since the beginning of 2020.
Lidl GB chief executive Christian Hartnagel said: “We’re excited to have reached this milestone, which simply means that we’re bringing affordable, high quality food to even more households across Britain.
“I’m proud of our fantastic teams, from our colleagues working on the shop floor to our colleagues in the warehouse and across our offices, who have driven our expansion efforts around the country.
“We’re looking forward to opening our doors to even more communities this year and into this new decade where we see so much potential for further growth.”
The expansion plans ramp up the competition between Lidl – along with its rival discounter Aldi- and the big four UK supermarkets Asda, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s and Tesco.
The company previously announced it is trying to expand its presence in London and the south east, saying it had ringfenced £500m to widen its presence in the capital.
Lidl has also bolstered its logistics capabilities by opening six warehouses over the last four years.
Meanwhile, Aldi has also announced plans to expand in London, with ambitions to more than double the number of stores it has within the M25 from 45 to 100 by the end of 2025.