Discount Retail Chain Aldi (privately owned) maintains its strong expansion plan in Spain and plans to open about 40 new stores and increase investment in the country during 2021. If this plan is fulfilled, it would mean an annual record of openings for the chain, only comparable to the record reached in 2015 when it opened a total of 35 stores and generated 39,625 m2.
On average, in recent years, its annual opening plan has been between 20 and 30 stores. During the past year, Aldi opened a total of 23 new stores, five of which occurred during the month of December. As of today, the company has a commercial area of more than 350,000 m2, after growing by 7.4% in terms of commercial area. “We are committed to the Spanish market and we are developing a strong expansion plan for the next few years. During the past year we opened 23 new stores and our goal is to continue growing intensely this year with about 40 new discount stores”, explained Valentín Lumbreras, CEO of Aldi. “We want to continue to be close to our customers and offer them a simple, complete and safe purchase, maintaining our quality standards and always at the best price. Throughout 2020 we have guaranteed low prices for our customers and we want this to continue in 2021”, he adds.
In order to meet this premise of proximity, around 60% of the new Aldi supermarkets in 2020 were located in urban centers and city centers such as Madrid, Barcelona or Seville. By strategic regions, most of the new stores opened in Andalusia, specifically seven of them, which represents 30% of openings. Catalonia and the Community of Madrid opened six new stores each, which in both cases represents 26% of openings. Andalusia is also currently the autonomous community that concentrates the largest number of stores of the discount brand, with a total of 80. By locality, Madrid, with 17 stores, is the city with the most stores in the country.
The key to Aldi's business lies in a discount model, with an assortment of nearly 2,000 products; 86% of private label brand SKUs (see here for more on Private Label Brand development). The company also bets on local suppliers. Currently, it works with more than 400 national suppliers that represent 80% of the chain's assortment in Spain.
To support all this growth, the group has once again carried out a capital increase in Aldi Supermercados, SL bringing the total value to € 621,562,000 (US$ 0.75Billion), after injecting € 80 Million (US$ 100Million) in 2019. At this time of strong expansion of the company in our country, the group has also decided to create a new company for the management of real estate assets. The subsidiary, called Aldi Real Estate, was established last December and is based in Sant Cugat del Vallés (Barcelona). Its corporate purpose, as recorded in the Mercantile Registry, is the sale and acquisition, by any title, of all types of properties, as well as their promotion and construction, in addition to their possible transfer to third parties.
See here for more: https://www.alimarket.es/alimentacion/noticia/326062/aldi-marcara-un-record-de-aperturas-en-2021
Comments