Category: North Edinburgh News

Aldi has revealed plans to open six new stores in Scotland this year as part of their scontinued investment and expansion across the UK – and one of them’s in Leith.

The new stores scheduled to open over the next 12 months will be Crown Street in Glasgow, Commercial Street in Edinburgh, Rigg Street in Stewarton, Houstoun Road in Livingston, Gallowgate in Parkhead, and Gateside Commercial Park in Haddington.

It comes as Aldi announces its £25 million storage and chill facility in Bathgate will be fully operational by the end of April.

The store openings and new chill facility will create an additional 200 jobs, taking the total number of staff employed by the retailer in Scotland to 2800 by the end of 2020.

Aldi’s Project Fresh programme will also continue next year and will see investment in a further six store upgrades offering customers an enhanced shopping experience.

Last year marked the 25th anniversary of Aldi opening its first store in Scotland and the 10th anniversary of the creation of its dedicated Scottish Buying Department. As part of the supermarket’s anniversary celebrations, Aldi became Kiltwalk’s official ‘Supermarket Partner’ for 2019. The retailer has confirmed it will continue to support Kiltwalk in 2020 fuelling thousands of Kiltwalkers across all four events in Scotland.

Richard Holloway, Regional Managing Director for Scotland said: “This is an exciting time for Aldi as we look ahead to 2020 and plan for the next 25 years in Scotland.

“Our new state-of-the-art storage and chill facility will be fully operational by the end of April, which will aid our expansion across Scotland while allowing us to increase the range of Scottish products available on our shelves.

“For several years Aldi has led the way with local sourcing, and we see Scotland as a key area of growth for the business. We’re proud to have reached our ambition to stock over 450 Scottish products significantly ahead of our target of the end of 2020, and we will continue to work in partnership with our local suppliers to increase this to over 500 locally sourced products in the next two years.

“With six new stores planned for next year and a further six being refreshed and upgraded, we’re looking forward to serving even more local communities and expanding our market share even further.

“We’re also very much looking forward to continuing our relationship with Kiltwalk and fuelling even more Kiltwalkers next year. It’s been fantastic to be involved with such an ambitious and forward-thinking charity and we’re looking forward to supplying our energy boosting snacks to participants at next year’s events.

“Hopefully Kevin the Carrot will make an appearance again as well!”

In May 2019, Aldi was crowned Scottish Sourcing Business of the Year at the Scotland Food & Drink Excellence Awards, demonstrating the supermarket’s commitment to its Scottish suppliers and to offering the finest quality, locally sourced produce at everyday low prices.