Lidl has opened six new stores on the same day, and is planning two more before Christmas, to kick off a new wave of store openings.
Significantly, it marks a new period of “accelerated“ expansion for the discounter, following a slowdown of its rollout over recent years. The new Christmas stores will be followed by a further eight new stores in early 2024, then by “40 more” throughout the rest of the next financial year, which begins in February.
Four of the new openings – Shinfield, Berkshire; Bovey Tracey, Devon; Downham Market, Norfolk and Stirchley in Birmingham – are among 10 new stores that Lidl announced in October it would open before Christmas.
The other two are in Connah’s Quay, where Lidl has relocated an existing store, and in Chessington, which has been extended and refurbished. It follows the opening of four new Lidl stores last month, with two more, in Forest Gate and Caterham, set to open before Christmas. All stores opened on Thursday 5 December.
“As we head into December, opening six stores in a single day highlights the incredible momentum behind our expansion in our 30th year,” said Richard Taylor, chief development officer at Lidl GB.
“This milestone reflects our unwavering commitment to delivering affordable, high-quality products to more households across the country, especially at a time of year when value matters most. Our teams are relentlessly pursuing expansion opportunities and, with every store we open, we’re taking another step towards making this vision a reality.”
Lidl has dialled back its rollout had slowed over the past couple of years. It had previously opened an average of 50 stores a year but dialled back the plans to around 25 a year in February 2023 in a move that led to some redundancies. The retailer later said the slowdown would last until 2026, and it would instead invest in growing its warehouse capacity, including the opening of a new 1.2 million sq ft distribution centre in Luton.
In April, Lidl reaffirmed its desire to open hundreds of new sites across the UK, with a “wish list” of ideal locations. In the meantime, it has been working to secure new investment to fund the rollout, including a first-of-its-kind for Lidl UK sale and leaseback deal with Roadside Retail to build 12 new Lidl stores in October.
Lidl was the fastest-growing bricks-and-mortar retailer for the 15th period in a row, according to Kantar’s latest market share data in November, with its sales growing 7.4%.
The openings come the same day as its rival discounter Aldi announced it the opening of four new stores, as part of its own pre-Christmas push.
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