Aldi launches £550m expansion with 1,500 new jobs and plans for 500 stores in bid to lure customers back as discount retailers lose out to rivals
- Aldi saw its UK grocery sales fall from 10.2% in September 2023 to 9.3% in January
Aldi has embarked on a £550 million expansion drive in a bid to win back shoppers after losing out to its rivals in January this year.
The discount retailer plans to eventually open 500 new stores and create more than 1,500 new jobs across the country, as well as upgrade its existing stores.
According to Kantar, Aldi’s UK sales fell from a peak of 10.2% in September 2023 to 9.3% in January, despite record sales due to the cost of living crisis.
Despite this, Aldi saw its biggest ever Christmas sales in 2023, with sales rising 8% to more than £1.5 billion.
It ‘capped a remarkable year’ for Aldi, which now has a 9.6% share of the UK supermarket sector, according to recent data from Kantar.
Aldi has embarked on a £550 million expansion drive in a bid to win back shoppers after losing out to its rivals in January this year. Giles Hurley, CEO (photo)
Fellow rival Lidl welcomed around 4.5 million extra customers to its doors last Christmas, with the busiest trading day being Friday, December 22.
Giles Hurley, CEO of Aldi UK and Ireland, said: “We continue to welcome more and more new customers through our doors – with people coming for our low prices but staying for our award-winning quality and British sourcing.
Mr Hurley said: ‘We continue to welcome more and more new customers – people come for our low prices, but stay for our award-winning quality and British sourcing.’
‘However, there are still parts of the country that do not have Aldi, or that need more or larger stores to meet demand.
‘That is what our expansion plans for 2024 are aimed at. We now have more than 1,000 stores in the UK, with many more Aldi stores on the way in 2024 and beyond.”
Aldi is looking for sites in the city center or on the outskirts of the city that are approximately 1.5 hectares in size and can accommodate a 20,000 square meter store with approximately 100 parking spaces.
Ideally, each location is close to a main road with good visibility and accessibility.