Aldi is in a race to open 23 stores by Christmas, having opened only 14 so far this year and watched its sales growth steadily shrink.
Commenting as the discounter announced its annual results this morning, Aldi UK & Ireland CEO Giles Hurley said it was willing to invest in the planning process at local authorities, which currently holds new store openings up.
“The planning system is something that’s outside our control in terms of bringing this investment [in new stores] to market as quickly as we’d like to,” he said.
“So, it’s right and proper that we liaise with local authorities and central government, highlighting the challenges and opportunities.
“And clearly, from our side, if planning is dragged out over a long period, there’s an expense to that, and also a lost opportunity. So, of course we would welcome investment which can drive decisions more quickly.”
He said Aldi was “keen to be part of the solution on planning challenges and work with local councils and central government to make sure our investment can reach the British public as quick as possible”.
It comes after The Grocer revealed last week that Aldi’s national real estate director, George Brown, had visited No 10 to discus planning reform. “Obtaining planning consent for new Aldi schemes can take us over 12 months due to under-resourcing in local authorities. We will happily invest in the application process to help speed that up,” said Brown.
Hurley said: “I think it is well known at the moment that a planning system that should take weeks or months can take years.”
The government launched a consultation in July on proposed changes to planning policy, including increasing planning application fees – principally for householders but with possible increases for other applications – to boost local authority resourcing.
Brown said last week that he hoped Aldi’s “campaign” would encourage responses to the consultation, which closes on 24 September.
Aldi said it planned to invest £800m in its expansion this year, having already announced a £1.4bn two-year investment in 2023.
As well as opening new stores, the discounter said it was refurbishing 100 existing ones, while expanding its network of distribution centres and updating technology infrastructure to support its growth. It reiterated a plan to grow its UK estate, which currently stands at about 1,000 stores, to 1,500 in the long term.
Aldi’s pre-tax profit more than tripled to £536.7m in 2023 – compared with £152.6m in 2022 – boosted by greater efficiencies across stores and central functions. Sales increased by 16% to £17.9bn.
However, more recently, Aldi has seen its sales growth slow to a near flatline in Kantar’s monthly data. They were up by just 0.5% in the 12 weeks to 4 August, well behind the 2.3% growth of the total grocery market. It made Aldi the third slowest-growing major grocer, with its market share down from 10.2% to 10% in a year.
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