Aldi looks set to maintain its forward momentum with ambitious plans to step up its store expansion, according to figures from property analysts Glenigan.

The discounter recently opened its 500th store but has plenty more planned for the next two years. “Aldi has 49 projects in 2014 that we are aware of,” said Glenigan content director Rob Davis. “It’s been on a significant growth spurt and already has 34 projects in the pipeline for 2015.”

Davis also said Aldi’s rival Lidl was starting to pick up growth again after a quiet 2013.

“Lidl only opened 10 stores in 2013, but that almost doubled to 19 in 2014 and we’ve got 19 set for 2015 already,” added Davis. “They have definitely accelerated.”

The data also shows the big four are now focused almost exclusively on convenience stores. Although Sainsbury’s has 58 supermarkets planned for 2015, 49 of them have an average sales floor of 4,700 sq ft.

And of Tesco’s 53 supermarkets planned for 2015, 43 have an even smaller average sales floor size of 3,600 sq ft.

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