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Aldi is spending £70m expanding its Warwickshire headquarters as it prepares to nearly double its stores in the UK by 2021.
The German discounter has about 530 outlets in the UK and plans to have 1,000 in six years' time. Last year, the company opened 42 stores, with 54 more launching this year – creating 7,000 new jobs.
Aldi is to lease a second building to accommodate additional staff until 2017 when it expects to complete the extension of its existing headquarters in Atherstone.
The move comes as Aldi and fellow discount retailers including Lidl, B&M Stores and Poundland are driving dramatic change in the grocery market as their combination of low prices and convenience tempts shoppers away from big supermarkets such as Tesco, Sainsbury's and Morrisons.
Aldi, which first arrived in the UK in 1990, now controls nearly 5% of the grocery market, up from 3.7% a year ago, putting it almost in line with the upmarket grocer Waitrose. Sales are rising by around 30% according to data from Kantar Worldpanel, the market analysts, as more than half of Britons now buy at least some goods at a discount store.
Roman Heini, group managing director of Aldi UK, said: "In addition to opening new stores, we are making strong investment in our behind-the-scenes operations. This ensures we can successfully grow, while keeping our customers at the heart of everything we do."
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