Lidl reached a massive milestone last week in the UK, opening its 800th store, including four new locations in Cambridge, London, Boston and Dumbarton. This will be followed by a further six new stores this week, creating up to 400 new jobs.
The supermarket continues to expand at pace, having opened a total of 16 new stores across January and February, contributing to its target of 1,000 stores by the end of 2023 in Great Britain. The retailer also recently marked the opening of its 100th store in Scotland and is due to open its 100th store in London this year.
“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,” Lidl GB Chief Executive Officer Christian Härtnagel said. “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.”
As part of its ongoing plans, Lidl has committed to investing £1.3bn in its store expansion over 2021 and 2022. This follows the bolstering of its logistics capabilities, which included the opening and expansion of six warehouses over the last four years, to continue to support its growing store network.
Lidl’s expansion is matched by continued strong sales growth. The most recent set of Kantar data shows that the supermarket is the fastest-growing supermarket in the UK, with gross sales growing 11.1% year-on-year.
Employees working in the recently opened stores will benefit from Lidl’s hourly wage of £9.30 per hour outside of London and £10.75 within the M25 from March 1st, which is higher than the Government’s “National Living Wage“, making them amongst the highest paid in the supermarket sector.
