Lidl is searching for almost 250 store sites in London including exclusive locations not normally associated with the discount grocer such as Knightsbridge, south Kensington and Chelsea.
Britain’s sixth biggest supermarket chain revealed its annual store opening “wish list” today as it said it will spend £500 million on expansion this year.
The discounter will open 40 stores nationally in the current financial year but has its eye on hundreds of other neighbourhoods that it believes have the potential to support a Lidl branch. This year will also see the completion of the expansion of Lidl’s Belvedere regional distribution centre, which has more than doubled in size.
Lidl already operates more than 120 stores within the M25 and says it has requirements for at least 100 more. It is increasingly targetting affluent central London neighbourhoods in territory previously dominated by Waitrose, Sainsbury’s and Tesco.
Other affluent areas targetted in the capital also include Belsize Park, Covent Garden, Marylebone, Soho and Mayfair.
Richard Taylor, chief real estate officer at Lidl GB, said: “This level of investment is a clear sign of our ambition. As we enter our fourth decade in Great Britain and hurtle towards a thousand stores, there are still so many parts of the country crying out for convenient access to a Lidl store. That’s why we welcome the measures proposed in the Government’s Planning and Infrastructure Bill – they recognise the urgent need to remove barriers to development and support the kind of growth we at Lidl are working towards.”
“Our latest site requirements brochure reinforces the scale of our ambition for the future. New Lidl stores mean new jobs, new opportunities for British suppliers, and continued investment into local economies. We’re proud to be one of the fastest-growing supermarkets in the country, and with this investment, we’re taking another big step in our journey.”
German owned Lidl opened its first UK store in 1994 and now has more than 980 branches, 14 distribution centres and 35,000 employees.
Last week Marks & Spencer announced a £90 million investment to expand and upgrade its store portfolio across London, with six new food halls and 11 enhanced stores set to open or relaunch in the coming years
