Aldi steps up search for sites and one West Midlands area is a main focus

New industry data revealed this week that Aldi remains the fastest-growing supermarket.

As well as growing sales by over 26 per cent year-on-year, during the last three months Aldi attracted 1.3m more shoppers with customer spend switching from every other supermarket.

Aldi plans to invest more than £400 million in store development over the coming year as it targets new and refurbished stores across the UK, including in the Midlands. Priority locations, it says, include Birmingham.

Locations have already been found in Ellesmere, Shropshire, while the company will also be opening a store in Cannock, to be located in Orbital Retail Park and providing 45 new jobs for the community.

It currently has more than 990 stores but is committed to continuing towards its current target of 1,200 stores across the UK to reach more shoppers.

That means it 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 would be near a main road with good visibility and access, with priority locations listed below.

The supermarket offers a finder’s fee for agents who recommend a site, which is either 1.5 per cent of a freehold price or 10 per cent of the first year’s rent for leasehold sites.

Giles Hurley, Chief Executive Officer at Aldi UK, said: “Demand for Aldi has never been higher here are still some towns and areas that either don’t have access to an Aldi or have capacity for additional stores.

“To meet that demand, we need to open more stores and it’s our mission to keep driving our ambitious expansion plan to achieve that.”

Anybody who has a site that may fit Aldi’s requirements should contact info.nationalproperty@aldi.co.uk.