Aldi searching for Birmingham sites in £400 million national store development plan

Birmingham is a priority location for Aldi as it steps up its search for new sites around the country. 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, North West, North East, Yorkshire and coastal towns.

Aldi GB already has 21 locations in and around Birmingham alone and soon there could be more. In the country, the German supermarket chain has more than 990 stores but is looking to scale it up to 1,200 stores to reach more shoppers.

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% of a freehold price or 10% 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.”

With grocery price inflation reaching 17.1% in the four weeks to February 19, 2023, shoppers are switching to affordable alternatives like Aldi. Overall take-home grocery sales increased by 8.8% during the four weeks and by 8.1% over the 12-week period.

This February marks a full year since monthly grocery inflation climbed above 4%, according to Kantar. Shoppers have also been dealing with shortages in the fruit and vegetable aisles.

Aldi market share

Aldi pushed its market share to a new record this period hitting 9.4%. It remains the fastest growing grocer, with sales up by 26.7%. It was closely followed by Lidl which increased sales by 25.4%. Lidl’s share of the market now stands at 7.1%. Frozen food specialist Iceland also won share, taking 2.4% of market sales, up from 2.3% last year as spending through its tills increased by 10.8%.

Priority locations

1. Birmingham

2. Warwick

3. Wellingborough

4. Cathcart, Glasgow

5. Drylaw, Edinburgh

6. Bonnyrigg

7. Wilmslow

8. Wigan

9. Penwortham

10. Barry

11. Torquay

12. Saltash

13. Basildon

14. Rayleigh

15. St Albans

16. York

17. Harrogate

18. Scarborough

19. Sunderland

20. Chesterfield

21. Ossett

22. Formby

23. Upton

24. Liverpool

25. Chesterton

26. Tunbridge Wells

27. Worthing

28. Bath

29. Oxford

30. Dorchester

Anybody who has a site that may fit Aldi’s requirements should contact [email protected].