Serving customers in the South East will now be a lot easier for one of Britain’s fastest-growing chains.
Aldi, Britain’s fifth largest supermarket, announced it has opened a new £50m distribution centre in Kent.
The 60,000-square-meter site on the picturesque Isle of Sheppey near Canterbury is Aldi’s 10th UK distribution centre — and will serve the supermarket’s growing customer base across the South East.
“The new Sheppey distribution centre significantly increases our capacity and allows us to open more stores across the South East to cater for the growing number of shoppers switching to Aldi,” says Ben Shotter, managing director for the Isle of Sheppey Regional Distribution Centre.
The facility, which will serve as a hub for 60 Aldi stores in this region, also is set to create 400 new jobs.
“Although some of our newest and most popular stores are situated in the South East, there are still many towns and cities where we have a limited presence or none at all,” says Shotter. “This is something that we are looking to address in the coming years.”
With its smaller-footprint stores and low prices, the UK chain says it has attracted almost a million new customers during the past 12 months and has a 7.5 per cent share of the UK grocery market.
Aldi now operates 827 stores in the country and doesn’t plan to stop there. It plans to open 130 new stores in 2019 and 2020, extending its long-term store opening target to 1,200 stores across the UK by the end of 2025. This includes many new stores within the South East, including London, Brighton and Deal.
