Lidl’s ‘£22,500’ offer for new store sites
EXPANDING supermarket
Lidl is calling on help from the public to identify places for new stores – with around £22,500 being offered up to the lucky person who successfully introduces a site.
The discounter store, which is investing £1.3bn in its expansion across 2021 and 2022, has sparked a flurry of excitement after revealing its finder’s fee offering for areas it is looking to set up shop in, which include Emsworth, Netley, Winchester, Lymington and Chandlers Ford.
The fee is either 1.5 per cent of the total freehold purchase price or 10 per cent of the first year’s rent for leaseholds, which would equate to £22,500 for a completed £1.5m site purchase.
Richard Taylor, chief development officer, said: ‘We know that the majority of British shoppers still love doing their shopping in person and we are as committed as ever to opening new stores and enhancing our existing ones.
‘We’re opening an average of one new store a week, which is incredible, and our teams have done a phenomenal job of keeping that pace going over the last couple of years. But there are still communities up and down the country that are telling us how much they want – and need – a Lidl store.
‘We work with some of the best people in the industry to identify new sites, but we also know how engaged our future and existing customers are and we want to build on this.
‘Our finder’s fees are, therefore, available to absolutely anyone that can identify a viable option for a new store that we’re not already aware of, and we welcome any suitable suggestions that will help up us to meet our ambitious target of 1,100 stores by the end of 2025.’
Since the beginning of 2022, Lidl has already opened 23 new stores across the country, including in Warwick, Hounslow and Straiton. In March 2022 it became the sixth largest supermarket in the UK.
Members of the public who know of potential sites are encouraged to check details against Lidl’s site requirements and contact the supermarket’s property team with further details.
More information can be found here: www.lidl.co.uk/ about-us/property