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Coming soon to a neighbourhood near you: Aldi! That's right, the beloved and affordable German supermarket wants to open a tonne of new stores in London. Middle aisle, we're coming for you.
So far, there are only 13 Aldi stores in London, but that could be about to change. Back in September Aldi announced it wanted to open 11 new stores in the capital. Now, news comes that it wants to open a whopping 100 supermarkets in the Big Smoke thanks to a £500 million investment, creating 3,500 new jobs.
The retailer has published a ‘wish list’ of locations for the potential new shops which spans greater London (more on that below). Aldi is offering property agents a finder's fee of 1.5 percent of the freehold price or 10 percent of the first year's rent for leasehold sites if they can recommend a previously unknown site. These won't be diddy express supermarkets – Aldi is looking for spaces big enough to house a 20,000 square foot store with around 100 parking spaces, on a prominent main road if possible.
‘We want to make high quality, affordable food accessible to all, but there are still many areas in the capital that don’t have access to an Aldi and, as a result, too many people have to make do with big prices at the traditional supermarkets,’ said Jonathan Neale, managing director of National Real Estate at Aldi UK.
‘The locations we’ve identified are places where there is demand for our stores and we are committed to continue investing until we can bring our quality products and unbeatable prices to as many people as possible.’
A timescale for the opening of the new stores hasn't been revealed.
Here's the full list of priority locations for future Aldis:
- Bromley
- Beckenham
- Richmond
- Walthamstow
- Wanstead
- Winchmore Hill
- Notting Hill
- Chelsea
- Kensington
- Chiswick
- Highbury
- Hackney
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