Aldi, the supermarket group, is preparing to recruit more than 1,700 new workers over the next five months as part of its rapid expansion plan, a company statement revealed.
Including both part-time and full-time jobs, the roles are at its regional warehouses and will offer staff salaries of up to £53,000 per year.
Kelly Stokes, Recruitment Director at Aldi UK, said: “As we continue to grow and attract new shoppers, we need even more amazing colleagues at our distribution sites to make everything possible.”
Over in the US, Aldi confirmed it would be buying the two domestic grocery chains Winn-Dixie and Harveys as part of a wider expansion globally.
Battle for third
Aldi is planning to open one new store every week in the UK until Christmas. The group’s dominance in the battle for supermarket supremacy has been underpinned by its ability to offer cheaper products at a time when customers are trying to save wherever possible.
For well over a year now Aldi has constantly offered the cheapest products out of any supermarket, according to Which?, and it proved of little surprise when it overtook Morrisons last year to claim its spot as one of the big four, after Tesco, Sainsbury's and Asda.
Unsatisfied with fourth best, the German value retailer has its sights set on third place - currently held by Asda - closing the market share gap between the two by 1.3 percentage points in the last year, according to Kantar data.
Asda checking out the competition Source: The Mirror
Holding a 10.2% share of the UK market, Aldi saw till roll reach £3.3 billion for the 12 weeks to August 2023, a 21% jump year-on-year and the largest growth of any supermarket.
Asda isn’t giving up the battle though. Reporting a 9.6% jump in second-quarter sales, the privately-owned group is dominating in the online grocery category, receiving 800,000 orders per week, making it the second-largest retailer in this area.
“Asda is a rational player in a competitive UK grocery market,” said Clive Black at Shore Capital, adding “in share terms we applaud [the digital drive] although whether this supports margin is perhaps more questionable.”