Anyone who has ever visited the likes of Lidl or Aldi will know the excitement of heading into the middle aisle to discover what bargains can be found there. Although the two shops are entirely separate from one in a corporate leadership sense. They are competitors in any meaningful sense of the word, although there are also some similarities between the two shops that will be evident to anyone who shops in them. As a result, the two stores look to expand wherever possible, which Lidl hopes to be doing in Guildford by adding a second store to the area in a South of England expansion.
Half a Billion Pound Expansion Plan
Having worked hard over the past decade or so to establish itself as one of the main discount supermarkets in the United Kingdom, Lidl is now looking to expand even further. There is an aim to do so in the South East of England especially, with Surrey being one of the areas on the company’s expansion plan. Lidl is looking to invest as much as half a billion pounds in adding new stores to the area, with as many as 40 new shops being opened by the April of 2026. That will including opening shops in the likes of Bracknell, Ascot, Sunningdale and Windsor.
On top of that, the idea is to see a second store opened in Guildford, in addition to branches in Haslemere ands Godalming. The latter two locations would see a Lidl opened there for the first time, whilst Guildford may well become one of only a few towns across the UK that have two of the stores open there. That being said, what isn’t clear at this stage is whether they would definitely keep both locations, or whether there might be a decision to close the original branch in favour of a larger one with a better location. A lot of it will likely depend on where the new one is located.
A ‘Clear Sign of Ambition’
In the eyes of Richard Taylor, the Chief Development Officer for Lidl, the plan to invest so much money is a ‘clear sign’ of the company’s ambition. He said,
As we enter out fourth decade in Great Britain and hurtle towards a thousand stores, there are still so many part of the country crying out for convenient access to a Lidl store. That’s why we welcome the measure proposed in the Government’s Planning Infrastructure Bill; they recognise the urgent need to remove barriers to development and support the kind of growth we at Lidl are working towards.
The ambition being shown by Lidl can only be seen as a good thing for Guildford and other parts of Surrey. New stores will mean new jobs and opportunities for people in the local area, as well as for suppliers from elsewhere in Britain. It will mean continued investment into the Guildford economy, boosted by the fact that Lidl is one of the country’s fastest-growing supermarket chains. Recent estimates suggest that Lidl is the seventh-largest supermarket chain in the United Kingdom, which puts it ahead of more prominent companies like Waitrose & Partners.
Where the New Store Might Be
The first Lidl store that opened in Guildford was on Woodbridge Road, replacing the Curry’s PC World store that had been there previously. It offered a large sales area as well as an in-store bakery, creating in the region of 40 new jobs when it opened on the 24th of June, 2021. Now news has emerged of plans for a second, many people are wondering where it might be located. What we do know, though is that the company offers a ‘finder’s fee’ of 1.5% of the total freehold purchase price to anyone who identifies a locational that the company considers suitable for a new store to be located.
That could amount to as much as £22,500 if the site costs £1.5 million for Lidl to buy. The expansion is part of a plan to try to keep up with Aldi, who have recently leapfrogged Morrisons in order to become the UK’s fourth-largest supermarket chain. That came about thanks to it’s own rapid expansion plan, with more and more people hoping to take advantage of budget supermarkets during the Cost of Living Crisis. Lidl is hoping to try to ensure that it isn’t left behind in the race to open more stores, which is why Guildford could see it’s second being opened in five years.