Aldi has embarked on a £550 million expansion drive in a bid to claw back shoppers after losing out to its rivals in January this year.
The discount retailer aims to eventually open 500 new stores and create over 1,500 new jobs across the country, as well as upgrading its existing stores.
It comes after Aldi suffered a drop in UK grocery sales from a peak of 10.2% in September 2023 to 9.3% in January, according to Kantar, despite seeing record sales due to the cost-of-living crisis.
Despite this, Aldi saw its biggest Christmas sales on record in 2023, with sales increasing by 8% to more than £1.5 billion.
It ‘capped a remarkable year’ for Aldi, which now has a 9.6% share of Britain’s supermarket sector according to recent Kantar data.
Aldi has embarked on a £550 million expansion drive in a bid to claw back shoppers after losing out to its rivals in January this year. Giles Hurley, chief executive (pictured)
Its fellow rival Lidl, welcomed around 4.5 million more shoppers through its doors last Christmas, with its busiest trading day being Friday, December 22.
Giles Hurley, CEO of Aldi UK and Ireland, said: ‘We’re continuing 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’re continuing 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’
‘However, there are still areas of the country that don’t have an Aldi, or that need more or larger stores to meet demand.
‘That is what our 2024 expansion plans aim to address. We now have more than 1,000 stores across the UK but there are plenty more Aldi stores still to come, in 2024 and beyond.’
Aldi is on the lookout for freehold town-centre or edge-of-town sites that are around 1.5 acres and can accommodate a 20,000sq foot store with around 100 parking spaces.
Ideally, each location will be near a main road with good visibility and access.
