Lidl has bought a 58-acre site in Luton just off J11A of the M1 and will build a huge shed covering a million square feet. The new warehouse will be Lidl’s fourth for Greater London and its 16th in the UK.
The retailer also plans to open five new London stores in the next two months, taking its UK estate to nearly 700 stores.
Ingo Fischer, Lidl UK director for expansion and development, said: “As more London households choose to shop at Lidl we are committed to the continued investment in our operations and infrastructure to support our growth. With five new stores opening in the next two months alone, and further store expansion and development plans in place for the Greater London area across the new financial year and beyond, this new warehouse is vital in supporting our ambitious expansion plans in and around the M25.”
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Lidl has bought the site from the Houghton Regis Management Company, which is a consortium of Aviva Investors, LIH and the Diocese of St Albans. The transaction is part of the first phase of the development of the site being led by the consortium, following the opening of the new J11A of the M1. The consented scheme comprises 5,000 houses, three primary schools and a further million square feet of commercial and retail space .
The new distribution centre, which forms part of Lidl UK’s £1.45bn expansion investment in Great Britain between 2017 and 2018, follows the opening of two new regional distribution centres in Exeter and Wednesbury in 2017, and the announcement of a further three new warehouses in Doncaster, Bolton and Peterborough. Construction has also begun on two new warehouses in Avonmouth and Eurocentral, Scotland, which will replace its existing warehouses in Weston-Super-Mare and Livingston respectively.
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