IT’S CONQUERED THE UK – NOW ALDI TARGETS THE U.S.

Aldi is Britain’s fifth-largest grocery chain after overtaking Co-op

The German grocer was founded in 1946, when Karl and Theo Albrecht took control of their mother's grocery store in the city of Essen It was split into two firms after the brothers had a row about selling cigarettes

Today it has 10,000 stores in 18 countries – and wants 2,500 US stores

Wine sales alone were up 15pc last year with its £5.99 Cotes De Provence Rose named one of the world’s best wines It also stocked £299 hot tubs which sold out in hours CUT-PRICE supermarket chain Aldi is seeking to conquer the US market – building on its unprecedented success in Britain.

The German firm already has 1,600 American stores but plans to expand this to 2,500 – which would make it the third-largest US retailer.

Along with fellow German retailer Lidl, Aldi has dramatically transformed the British High Street by undercutting other supermarket giants. The duo have now cornered nearly an eighth of the UK’s grocery market – up 80pc in the past four years. Aldi is now hoping to repeat this success across the Atlantic, adding 400 more stores in America by the end of next year. It will also spend £1.3bn on redesigning 1,300 of its existing shops. The plans will create 25,000 jobs.

The move comes at a time of increasingly cut-throat competition in US markets – which has seen 18 grocers go bankrupt since 2014 – with Lidl opening the first of 100 US stores on Thursday and promising to be 50pc cheaper than competitors. Walmart, meanwhile, is to spend £4.7bn on its own cut-price ambitions.