Lidl targets 1,000 stores as pressure grows on big four

The discounter plans to open 230 new supermarkets in the next three years, taking its total to 1,000 by 2023, according to The Sunday Times. The retailer previously said it would open between 50 and 60 new stores this year.

This comes as fellow discounter Aldi plans to open 50 stores a year for the next two years.

Both organisations have also been increasingly pushing into London and the South East, where high rents previously acted as a deterrent to the discounters.

In June, Lidl announced plans to plough £500m into its London expansion plans. It secured a 14,000 sq ft store site on Tottenham Court Road and said it would open a further 39 other stores in the capital over the next five years.

Aldi opened its first Local-fascia in Balham, south London, in March. It subsequently opened Local stores in Camden and converted a number of existing stores across the capital to the smaller format.

The expansion of the discounters has seen their combined grocery market share grow to more 14% according to the latest figures from Kantar Worldpanel.

Boosted by store openings, Lidl’s UK sales grew 8.2% in the 12 weeks to the end of October, marking the discounter out as the country’s fastest-growing supermarket share. In the same period, Tesco’s market share fell 0.2%.

This disruption led to big-four grocers Sainsbury’s and Asda trying to merge late last year, only for regulators to block the deal earlier this year.