Aldi is on the lookout for new store locations in Kent towns including Broadstairs, it has announced.
The UK’s fifth largest supermarket has been on an expansion drive in recent years as it targets having 1,200 stores open by 2025.
Among the towns it hopes to open in are Broadstairs, Ebbsfleet and Folkestone. It also wants to build additional stores in Canterbury, Dover and Tunbridge Wells.
Aldi, which currently has more than 880 stores across the UK, has identified 15 new locations where it is looking for freehold town-centre or edge-of-centre sites suitable for development.
It says each site should be around 1.5 acres and able to accommodate a 20,000 sq ft store with around 100 parking spaces, ideally on a prominent main road and with good visibility and access.
Ciaran Aldridge, National Property Director at Aldi UK, said: “Aldi is growing rapidly and we are welcoming around a million new customers into our stores every year.
“But there are also hundreds of towns across the UK where there is not an Aldi, meaning there are hundreds of thousands of people who can’t easily access the high quality, affordable food our customers love.
“We are willing to explore all opportunities, including developer-led schemes or existing retail units.”
The store is also planning to demolish the Aldi store in Cliftonville and build an improved, larger store with more parking spaces and relocate the Ramsgate store across the road to the former gas works site in Boundary Road.
