Aldi is expanding its UK operations and planning on investing £600 million in total therein.
According to a report in the Daily Mail, this will be Aldi's largest investment in the UK. It will open 60 stores next year and complete a major refurbishment of existing stores and the regional distribution centre in Barnsley. It will also build a new regional distribution centre in Cardiff by 2016.
By the end of this year, the number of staff employed by Aldi in the UK will be 24,000, which is double the amount of people it employed in 2012.
Aldi has continued to increase its market share in the UK, and it now holds around 4.7 per cent of the UK market. It has also consistently managed to increase its sales and profits.
The paper notes that this latest move is likely to put increased pressure on the main British supermarkets, which are constantly worried about the success of the discounters Aldi and Lidl.
As part of its plans, Aldi will open a second convenience store in London, in Tooting Bec, early next year. Its first convenience store opened on Kilburn High Road, in North London, last year, in an attempt to move into the convenience market dominated by the larger retailers.
Lidl recently confirmed that it is planning on opening more stores in London, which it believes is necessary in order to be taken seriously as a retailer.
© 2014 European Supermarket Magazine by Nicole Gernon
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