PLANS to open more than 800 new Aldi and Lidl stores in the UK by 2022 will create more than 8,000 jobs.
The German supermarkets have announced the plans to expand as more people turn to the budget stores for their groceries – and ditching the big four.
Top Aldi bosses said that it aimed to have 1,000 UK stores by 2022, up from its current 762. It will create 8,000 more jobs.
Aldi rival Lidl – which currently has 710 shops in the UK – reckons we could see between 1,200 and 1,500 stores in the long term.
This year alone, 70 new Aldi stores will be opened, meanwhile Lidl hopes to open 50 stores and re-vamp 30.
This is different to the big four – Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons and Asda – are instead announcing restructuring plans, with thousands of jobs being lost between them.
Aldi launched in Britain in 1994 and Lidl in 1990 and they have changed the shape of the UK grocery market.
But it’s not all good news for the discount supermarkets, who are struggling with sales at home.
Plus, their profits have fallen and traditional retailers have questioned whether the model is sustainable.
The discounters also have little presence online and could face competition there from the big four and grocery newcomers such as Amazon.
For now, Aldi and Lidl’s combined share of the 200 billion pound ($283 billion) UK grocery market is set to grow.
It will be 15 percent by 2020, up from 12.1 percent currently, according to Ashley Anzie, strategic insight director for grocery at researcher Kantar Worldpanel.
“That’s largely driven by the fact that Aldi and Lidl will just physically be opening more stores,” he said.
Aldi and Lidl are also modernising existing stores and making a push into premium ranges to get British shoppers spending.
The big four supermarkets have been broadening their business over the past few years in an attempt to get profits up.
Sainsbury’s purchased general merchandise retailer Argos in 2016, Morrisons has struck wholesale deals with Amazon and McColl’s, and Tesco has just spent 4 billion pounds buying wholesaler Booker.