German discounter Aldi is sticking with bricks and mortar expansion plans aiming to open another 100 stores across the UK over the next two years.
The group, which is now the fifth biggest supermarket operator in the UK, will also expand its logistics infrastructure, including a new 1.3m sq ft site in Leicestershire, as part of a £1.3bn spend.
Work will start on the £100m national distribution centre project early next year with Birmingham warehouse specialist DSP Construction Management tipped for the project.
Aldi has been given the go-ahead to build a vast new warehouse on a 72 acre site at Nailstone Colliery in Coalville
The supermarket, which has over 920 UK stores, will also trial a new Aldi checkout-free concept store in Greenwich, London.
This will use a system of cameras, sensors and artificial intelligence to identify the items customers take from shelves, avouding the need to go through a checkout.
In its annual trading update, Aldi said sales in the UK and Ireland had grown 10.2% to a record £13.5bn last year while profit dipped 2.5% to £265m.
Giles Hurley, Chief Executive Officer for Aldi UK and Ireland, said: “As well as delivering record sales last year, we continued to invest for growth, deploying over £600m in stores and distribution centres across the UK. This helped to create thousands of much-needed jobs and support for British farmers and manufacturers.”
