Lidl appeals to landowners in Peterborough as it seeks to build new stores across city

The discount food store operator is planning to build four stores in Peterborough and another four outside the city over the next two years.

It wants new stores in the south, east and west areas of Peterborough plus another in Whittlesey as well as stores in Market Deeping, Spalding, Louth and Horncastle.

It is part of an ambitious £1.3 billion store building programme that is intended to bring Lidl’s total number of stores in Great Britain to 1,000.

Lidl, which currently has three stores in Peterborough, including its most recently opened on the former British Sugar site in Oundle Road, plus a regional distribution centre at Peterborough Gateway, opened 20 new stores across the country last year.

Alongside its list of preferred locations for its stores, the company has published a guide for landowners outlining what makes the ideal site for a new supermarket.

It says the right sites will be in a prominent location, easily accessible and have a strong pedestrian or traffic flow.

It is also open to mixed-use sites - one of its stores has a school on the upper floors.

All stores will include a bakery and will feature solar panels to provide renewable energy for the site and electric vehicle charging points.

Each store will be part of Lidl’s food redistribution programme, called Feed It Back, in which surplus food is donated to those people most in need through food banks or partner charities.

Christian Härtnagel, chief executive of Lidl GB, said: “We are calling on developers and landlords up and down the country to help find potential sites for us to build Lidl stores, which demonstrates the continued ambition we have to further expand our store portfolio across the nation.

“Despite the challenges of the past year, we still managed to meet our ambitious target of opening, on average, one new store per week across Great Britain.

“We are looking forward to opening more stores throughout the country and welcoming new colleagues in the coming months and years, so that more communities can access quality food at the lowest prices on the market.”

Last week rival supermarket chain Aldi made a similar appeal to landowners as it looks to open new stores in Yaxley, Bourne, Marketing Deeping and Horncastle.

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Supermarket chain unveils plans to open new stores around Peterborough