ALDI has announced plans to open a further six stores across Scotland this year.
Two of the new stores will be in Glasgow – on Crown Street in the Gorbals and Gallowgate in Parkhead – while one store will open on Commercial Street in Edinburgh.
The others will be based on Rigg Street in Stewarton, Houstoun Road in Livingston, and Gateside Commercial Park in Haddington.
Meanwhile, the discount supermarket’s new £25 million storage and chill facility in Bathgate is expected to be fully operational by the end of April.
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The new facility and stores will create an estimated 200 jobs – taking the total number of staff employed by the retailer in Scotland to 2800 by the end of 2020.
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. Established in 2009, the department works with over 90 local suppliers, and stores across the country stock more than 450 Scottish products.
At least 30% of the range stocked at Aldi’s stores in Scotland is locally sourced, and the department has committed to increasing the number of Scottish products available.
As part of this, Aldi is investing in new chill facilities for the Scottish Buying Department to help support the growth of its Scottish product range.
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 thousands of Kiltwalkers across all four events in Scotland in 2020.
Richard Holloway, Aldi’s 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.
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“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.”
He added: “We’re also very much looking forward to continuing our relationship with Kiltwalk and fuelling even more Kiltwalkersnext 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!”
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