Current track

Title

Artist

Current show

The 90s Show

10:00 pm 11:59 pm

Current show

The 90s Show

10:00 pm 11:59 pm

Background

Aldi could open eight stores in some UK towns under growth plans

Written by on 12/05/2017

Aldi could open up to eight stores in some British towns under huge growth plans, the firm’s UK chief has revealed.

Matthew Barnes outlined proposals for the German chain to add close to 2,000 new stores.

Aldi currently has 700 outlets across the UK but a programme to potentially quadruple its number of stores could, it if comes off, see it challenge Tesco as the industry leader.

In an interview with industry magazine The Grocer, Aldi’s UK and Ireland chief executive Mr Barnes said: "If you look at the population, we think not only could we have a store in every town and city, but for every 25,000 to 30,000 people."

With the current UK population at 65 million, Mr Barnes’ ambitious plans could see Aldi establish 2,600 stores.

Tesco, which rakes in more than a quarter of the cash spent at UK supermarket tills, currently has 2,700 outlets.

Aldi has an existing target of establishing 1,000 UK stores within the next five years, but Mr Barnes told the magazine that total could be closer to 1,300 by 2022.

Mr Barnes even suggested those towns that do not yet have an Aldi store could one day have up to eight outlets.

He added: "We have 700 stores now and 300 sites already approved on our books.

"And there are 600 town locations where we don’t have a store; in many of which we could easily have two, three or four stores.

"We don’t have a store in Watford, that would be a six to eight Aldi town."

In February, Aldi was revealed to have overtaken Co-op to become Britain’s fifth-largest supermarket.

It currently holds a 6.9% share of the industry, according to data from Kantar WorldPanel.

Aldi’s fellow German discount chain Lidl holds a 5% share, just below Waitrose’s 5.2%.

The two chains enjoyed a surge in popularity during the last recession as Britons sought to escape soaring food prices.

However, both suffered a recent slowdown in sales growth as Britain’s traditional supermarkets responded with their own price cuts.

Aldi opened its first UK store in Stechford, Birmingham in 1990 and currently has 10,000 stores in 17 countries across Europe and America.

(c) Sky News 2017: Aldi could open eight stores in some UK towns under growth plans