BUDGET supermarket firm Aldi is planning to open a store in Wellington as part of a £1.4 billion expansion in the UK.

Aldi is Britain’s fourth largest supermarket chain and competes fiercely with fellow German discounters Lidl, which controversially opened a store in Wellington in April.

Now, Aldi also has its eyes on Wellington as it plans to invest in creating new stores across the country over the next two years.

Aldi opened its 1,000th store in Woking last month and is committed to a long-term target of reaching 1,500 stores in the UK - meaning it is on the hunt for more locations across the country. 

In an annual trading update, Aldi said it had attracted around one million extra customers in the past 12 months with 'a new generation of savvy shoppers’ turning their back on traditional, full-priced supermarkets.

Aldi is searching for freehold town-centre, edge-of-centre, or retail park sites suitable for property development.

The sites need to be able to accommodate a 20,000 sq foot store with about 100 parking spaces, and ideally should be near a main road with good visibility and access.

The company will also be investing in the development of new and expanded distribution centres to serve its expansion plans. 

Aldi UK communications director Richard Thornton said: “We want to make our great value groceries accessible to all, and to do that we need more stores, particularly in towns and areas that do not have an Aldi already.

“The areas we have identified in our latest list are places where there is demand for stores and we are committed to continue investing until we can bring our quality products and unbeatable prices to as many people as possible.”

Currently, the closest Aldi stores to Wellington are in Taunton and in Cullompton, Devon.

Aldi overtook Morrisons last year to become the country’s fourth-largest supermarket, claiming two-thirds of UK households now shop with it, and together with Lidl it had the fastest growth of any other chain this year.

Its financial results for the year to the end of December, 2022, showed UK sales increased by nearly £2 billion to £15.5 billion and operating profits rose to £178.7 million, nearly three times what it had made in 2021.

Meanwhile, profits at other large supermarket firms fell, and bitter rivals Lidl suffered an annual loss.

For its planned Wellington store, Aldi said it needed a minimum site of two acres which had to be at least one mile from an existing supermarket or a site to which one could relocate.

Aldi offers a finder’s fee for previously unknown sites which typically is 1.5 per cent of the freehold purchase price or 10 per cent of the annual rent on a leasehold plot.

Anybody who knows of a site which might fit Aldi’s requirements should email the firm at[email protected].

More information on Aldi’s nationwide site requirements is available on a dedicated website here.