Lidl has opened five new stores in a month as a £70m property deal it struck last year begins to pay dividends for its expansion programme.
The discounter opened last month in Berwick, Redcar, Hull, Crediton and Manchester, creating around 200 jobs.
The Berwick store is Lidl’s first in the area and opened with a ribbon-cutting ceremony featuring the town crier, according to a post by Lidl on LinkedIn.
The new store in Hull is Lidl’s fourth in the city, on Connaught Road, while the latest Lidl in Manchester is part of a new development at Castle Irwell.
In October last year, Lidl sealed a deal to sell 12 stores under construction, which it would then lease back, nearly a year after approaching investors with a funding pitch. The 12 sites were sold for £70m to Roadside Retail – a joint venture between Meadow Real Estate Fund and Roadside Real Estate – which agreed to lease them back to the discounter for 25 years.
It marked a breakthrough for Lidl’s UK estate expansion programme, which slowed in 2023 as parent Lidl Stiftung faced higher interest rates on debt.
Lidl has been the fastest-growing bricks & mortar supermarket for 19 months in a row, according to Kantar. Its sales were up 9.1% year on year in the 12 weeks to 23 March, pushing its market share to 7.8%, up from 7.4% a year earlier.
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