Aldi’s pre-Christmas expansion drive continues, with the opening of four new stores in one day.
All four locations – in Bristol, Tyneside, Greater Manchester and Scotland – were among 11 new store sites set to open before Christmas confirmed by Aldi last month. They opened today, Thursday 5 December.
The stores – in Cribbs Causeway, Bristol; Colliery Lane, Hetton-le-Hole, Tyne and Wear; Princess Road, Ashton-in-Makerfield, Greater Manchester; and Duff Street, Macduff, Banffshire – would create a collective 100 new jobs. Each of the stores would host a Team GB Olympic medallist on opening day.
“Our new store openings are a testament to our ongoing investment in the UK, and we’re thrilled to bring Aldi’s unbeatable prices to even more communities just in time for Christmas,” said Richard Thornton, Aldi UK communications director.
“To be opening four new stores in one day is an outstanding effort from the team and shows just how serious we are about bringing more stores to communities up and down the country.”
In September, Aldi revealed plans to open 23 new stores before Christmas. The four follow new openings in Muswell Hill, London, Sedgley and Horsham in West Sussex over recent weeks. Another store in Totton, Hampshire is proposed to open later in December.
Aldi has set the long-term target of opening 1,500 UK stores, and intends to invest £1.4bn into its store estate by the end of 2025. Around £800m has been invested into opening new stores in 2024 alone. The discounter will renovate a further 100 of its stores as part of the two-year strategy.
The renewed pre-Christmas push came after the retailer revealed it had only opened 14 stores in 2024, as it battled with planning restrictions and a slower rate of sales than it had been used to in previous years.
Still, Aldi’s pre-tax profit more than tripled to £536.7m in 2023, up from £152.6m in 2022. Sales increased by 16% to £17.9bn.
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