Lidl offers £20,000 bounty in hunt for supermarket sites

LIDL plans to open hundreds more supermarkets across Britain and is offering more than £20,000 to people who help it secure new sites.

The German discount chain, which is now the UK’s sixth biggest supermarket, is targeting thousands of new shoppers as it continues its expansion across the nation.

Lidl said it is looking for sites for new stores in a swathe of locations, and is eyeing major expansion in cities including Edinburgh, Leeds, Liverpool and London.

It currently has about 960 stores but is targeting more than 1,100 across England, Wales and Scotland.

It said it needs to open supermarkets in prominent locations with easy access and a strong flow of traffic or pedestrians, allowing for unit sizes between 18,000 and 26,500 square feet, and over 100 parking spaces.

If it successfully finds a good location, it is willing to pay a finder’s fee of 1.5% of the total freehold purchase price, or 10% of the first year’s rent for leaseholds, which would equate to £22,500 for a completed £1.5 million site purchase.

A finder’s fee can be paid to any member of the public who identifies a suitable site for it to open a new store.

Lidl’s Richard Taylor said: “We’re planning to open hundreds of new Lidl stores but ultimately see no ceiling on our ambition or growth potential.”

Lidl currently has an 8% share of the UK grocery market, its highest ever.

This puts it only slightly behind Morrisons, which has an 8.7% share of the grocery market.

Rival German discounter Aldi recently overtook Morrisons to be the UK’s fourth largest supermarket, after rapid expansion across the country.

Tesco is still the UK’s biggest supermarket with a 27.4% share of the market, while Sainsbury’s is in second place with 15.3%.