Boss promises to deliver a merry Lidl Christmas
LIDL has promised that Christmas will not be ruined by supply chain problems and its customers will be able to purchase what they want.
UK boss Christian Hartnagel said thanks to the hard work of the group’s staff, suppliers and distribution team it is in good shape ahead of the peak festive trading season.
The discount store group’s chief executive added: “If you had asked me three months ago, I’d be concerned. But we are in a much better position now and we will deliver a great Christmas for customers.
“It was cancelled last year, but that will not happen this year.”
Yesterday Lidl announced plans to invest around £1billion more than it had originally planned and open 100 extra stores around the country, a move that will create 4,000 new jobs.
Lidl also plans to build more warehouses and distribution centres.
The German international discounter currently has 880 stores in the UK and initially had plans to reach 1,000 by the end of 2023.
However, yesterday it increased that target and now aims to have 1,100 outlets open by the end of 2025.
According to its latest set of annual results, Lidl invested £500million in opening 55 stores over the 12 months to the end of February. The year before, it opened 51 and built a distribution centre in Motherwell at a cost of £654million.
The 100 new stores will feature solar panels and electric vehicle charging points.
It is looking at town centres, retail parks and city locations as sites.
Mr Hartnagel said: “We remain committed to our bricksand-mortar strategy and maintaining our store opening pace; roughly a store a week for the next four years.
“We will continue to bring our offer of great quality products at unbeatable value to even more communities across the country.”
Despite extra Covid costs, Lidl made a pre-tax profit of £9.8million, compared with a loss of £25.2million the previous year, thanks to sales rising 12 per cent to £7.7billion.