The British arm of German discount supermarket chain Lidl on Wednesday set a new target to have 1,100 stores by the end of 2025, creating up to 4,000 new jobs in the process.
Lidl GB, part of Germany's Schwarz retail group, had a previous target of 1,000 stores by the end of 2023, which it said it was on track to reach.
It currently trades from about 880 stores, having opened 55 in 2020-21, with 26,000 employees.
The Big Four
Britain's food retailing sector has been transformed in the past decade by the rise of Lidl and fellow German-owned discounter Aldi, which have driven down returns at the Big Four of Tesco, Sainsbury's, Morrisons and Asda.
Unlike its bigger rivals, but in common with Aldi, Lidl is opening lots of new stores.
"We continue to see tremendous opportunity in the market," said CEO Christian Hartnagel.
Trading Update
Lidl, which has a 6.2% share of the UK grocery market but does not trade online, said revenue in the year to 28 February rose 12% to £7.7 billion ($10.3 billion), resulting in a pretax profit of £9.8 million, against a loss of £25.2 million in 2019-20.
Hartnagel said the trading performance reflected investment in new and existing stores, product innovation and staff.
The company said it invested £498 million on land and fixed assets during the year.
News by Reuters edited by Donna Ahern Checkout. For more Retail stories click here. Click subscribe to sign up for the Checkout print edition.
