Aldi plans to hit its target of hiring 3,000 new staff in the next year by expanding UK store numbers, boosting staffing levels in its 400 existing stores and boosting numbers on its graduate recruitment and national apprentice schemes.

Announcing the expansion this week, Aldi said jobs would be created across “all positions, from stock and store assistants, to store managers” and through its graduate area management programme, which would recruit a record 100 graduates. It would also take on 200 new recruits on its national apprentice scheme, launched this year, it said.

The news comes a month after Aldi said it would open a new £25m regional distribution centre in South Yorkshire, creating up to 200 jobs.

An Aldi spokesman would not provide further details, but confirmed not all of the new jobs would be on the shop floor: “As well as graduate positions, there will also be roles in logistics and elsewhere.”

Increasing the number of staff in its existing stores is the latest move by the German discounter to evolve its traditional no-frills model into one closer to that of a UK supermarket.

Similar changes have included a development of a three-tier good, better, best own-label range and offering baskets to customers for the first time.

Sales indicate this tactic is paying off as hard-pressed UK shoppers try to slash the price of the weekly shop. The most recent Kantar data found Aldi commanded a record 2.9% share of the UK grocery market in the 12 weeks to 8 July - having grown sales by 26% year-on-year.

That performance is directly eating into the market share of the ‘middle ground’ supermarkets such as Tesco, which has seen its market share drop 0.4%. Aldi’s market share jumped 0.5% over the same period.

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