In a rare piece of good news for Britain’s battered high street, a major supermarket is set to open 10 news stores before Christmas. After swathes of store closures from Tesco, WHSmith, Millets and more in recent months, German supermarket giants Lidl are bucking the trend.
The move will see 400 new jobs created across the country – although the location of only nine of the 10 stores has been made public. It comes off the back of new stores opening earlier this year in Worthing and Fulham, and comes as three previously closed stores are set to return after refurbishment or relocation.
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Richard Taylor, Chief Development Officer at Lidl GB, said: “Our plan to open 10 new stores before Christmas demonstrates our continued commitment to providing more communities across the country with access to affordable, quality food, as well as employment opportunities. But we still have big ambitions for our expansion plans to open hundreds more Lidl stores in the future.
“Our teams are constantly scouring the country for new sites, identifying opportunities not just in towns where we don’t currently have stores, but also in areas where existing stores are experiencing increasing demand.”
(Image: UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
The move is being done in partnership with Roadside Real Estate Plc and Meadow Partners, as part of a £70m sale and leaseback scheme.
The list of new stores opening include:
- Crediton
- Manchester
- Saffron Walden
- Berwick Green in Bristol
- Bovey Tracey in Devon
- Stirchley in Birmingham
- Hoxton
- Forest Gate
- Caterham
- Chessington (reopening)
- Connah’s Quay (reopening)
- Dagenham Heathway (reopening)
Since establishing itself in the United Kingdom in 1994, Lidl GB has managed to amass an army of around 34,000 employees, across 960 stores and 14 distribution centres in England, Scotland and Wales.
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