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Lidl has announced plans to build its largest warehouse yet, creating up to 1,000 new jobs.
The supermarket has exchanged contracts with Houghton Regis Management, a consortium of Aviva Investors, LIH and the Diocese of St Albans, on a 58-acre site in Luton.
The new regional distribution centre (RDC) will be 1 million sq ft, over double the size of Lidl’s current largest warehouse.
The facility will be Lidl’s fourth for Greater London, supporting others in Belvedere, Northfleet and Enfield, and its 16th in the UK.
Ingo Fischer, Lidl board director for expansion and development, said: “As more London households choose to shop at Lidl we are committed to the continued investment in our operations and infrastructure to support our growth.
“With five new stores opening in the next two months alone, and further store expansion and development plans in place for the Greater London area across the new financial year and beyond, this new warehouse is vital in supporting our ambitious expansion plans in and around the M25.”
David Skinner, managing director of UK real estate at Aviva Investors, added : “We are delighted to have secured Lidl as an owner occupier on this important strategic land site. The wider consented scheme has consent for over 5,000 homes and, following the recent opening of the new M1 motorway junction, we intend to commence development in early 2019”.
The new distribution centre, which forms part of Lidl UK’s £1.45bn expansion investment in Great Britain between 2017-18, follows the opening of two new RDCs in Exeter and Wednesbury in 2017, and the announcement of a further three new warehouses in Doncaster, Bolton and Peterborough.
Construction has also begun on two new warehouses in Avonmouth and Eurocentral, Scotland, which will replace its existing warehouses in Weston-Super-Mare and Livingston respectively.
