Lidl Great Britain are in a dogfight with Aldi to see which discount retailer can open the most stores here over the next several years.
Aldi has promised to reach the 1,000 in the next two years by opening an additional 100 stores during that stretch. It is currently at more than 920.
Lidl officials say they too will hit that target by the end of 2023 with 100 new stores bringing solar panels and electric vehicle charging ports across town centres and metro locations in England, Scotland and Wales. And it has set another lofty goal: 1,110 stores in 2025.
“Our new store target today marks a significant investment for the business,” sid Christian Härtnagel, Lidl GB CEO. “We remain committed to our bricks and mortar strategy and maintaining our store opening pace; roughly a store a week for the next four years.”
Lidl said the expansion will include an additional 4,000 jobs across the UK. Those colleagues just got some fantastic news with the Christmas season approaching. They will all be getting bumps in pay starting in May of 2022.
Lidl’s expansion since its inception in the UK has been breathtakingly fast but has picked up further since the start of the pandemic. There are now more than 26,000 employees working in its 880 supermarkets and 13 distribution facilities.
According to a YouGov survey done in Q3, Aldi (76%) is the UK’s most popular supermarket chain, followed by M&S Food and then Lidl (73%), and ahead of Morrisons, Sainsbury’s, Tesco and ASDA.
