Aldi has stated that it is stepping up its search for new sites across the UK in order to continue with its current rate of expansion.
The discounter plans to invest more than £400m in store development over the coming year with new and refurbished stores in areas including the Midlands, North West, North East, Yorkshire and coastal towns.
Aldi currently has more than 990 stores and said it was committed to continuing towards its target of 1,200 stores across the UK.
Last month, key rival Lidl revealed that it was scaling back its opening programme in the UK to just 25 outlets this year to focus on growing its warehouse capacity. In recent years, both discounters have been opening around 50 stores annually.
Aldi said today that was on the lookout for freehold town centre or edge-of-town sites that are around 1.5 acres and can accommodate a 20,000 sq. ft. store with around 100 parking spaces. It issued a list of priority locations as below.
The company offers a finder’s fee for agents who recommend a site, which is either 1.5% of a freehold price or 10% of the first year’s rent for leasehold sites.
Data released by Kantar this week showed that Aldi remains the fastest-growing supermarket in the UK. As well as increasing sales by over 26.7% year-on-year during the three months to 19 February, Aldi attracted 1.3m more shoppers from its rivals.
“Demand for Aldi has never been higher here are still some towns and areas that either don’t have access to an Aldi or have capacity for additional stores,” said Giles Hurley, Chief Executive Officer at Aldi UK.
“To meet that demand, we need to open more stores and it’s our mission to keep driving our ambitious expansion plan to achieve that.”
Aldi’s priority locations include:
- Birmingham
- Warwick
- Wellingborough
- Cathcart, Glasgow
- Drylaw, Edinburgh
- Bonnyrigg
- Wilmslow
- Wigan
- Penwortham
- Barry
- Torquay
- Saltash
- Basildon
- Rayleigh
- St Albans
- York
- Harrogate
- Scarborough
- Sunderland
- Chesterfield
- Ossett
- Formby
- Upton
- Liverpool
- Chesterton
- Tunbridge Wells
- Worthing
- Bath
- Oxford
- Dorchester
NAM Implications:
- Given Aldi’s rate of growth and market share…
- …it is imperative that suppliers factor in the probable impact of Aldi in these new locations.
- i.e. Reassess relative competitive appeal in these locations…
- …even if you do not supply Aldi/discounters.
- BTW, differences in funding model (Aldi= equity funded, Lidl funded by outside borrowing)…
- …partially explains why Aldi continues to grow their estate.
