Aldi Spending $2.2 Billion to Jumpstart UK Expansion

Aldi is reportedly making a $2.2 billion investment in its British grocery business.

The two-year project comes as the German supermarket chain is enjoying record sales in the U.K., according to a Monday (Sept. 15) Bloomberg report.

“As a privately-owned business we can take a long term view,” said Giles Hurley, CEO officer of Aldi UK, who made these comments on a call with the media, according to Bloomberg. “No matter what the circumstances, no matter what the profit outlook, our mission is to grow.”

According to the report, Aldi aims to open 80 stores during those two years. The company’s latest results for 2024 show an uptick in sales, but a 21% decrease in profits as Aldi reduced prices, upped salaries and spent on infrastructure.

Bloomberg characterized this as a show of Aldi’s ambitions in the U.K., where in 2022 it became the U.K.’s fourth-biggest supermarket amid the country’s cost-of-living crisis. It now commands approximately 11% of the British grocery market.

Aldi has 1,060 stores in the U.K., with 21 new ones slated to open throughout the rest of the year, and a long-term target of 1,500 locations, the report added.

The report also noted that increasing food prices are making shoppers more price sensitive and fueling competition among grocers. Aldi said last week it has invested more than $400 million in price reductions since the beginning of the year, marking down more than 900 products.

In other grocery news, recent inflation data shows that Americans are paying more to fill their carts at the supermarket.

“There’s evidence that tariffs are at least partly to blame for the higher price of foodstuffs. And scarcer availability also has the impact of driving up prices,” PYMNTS wrote last week.

Research by PYMNTS Intelligence—as detailed in the report “Stock Out: The Impact of Tariffs on Consumer Product Prices and Availability”—showed that during the summer, trade disruptions were “moving beyond geopolitical discussions to become a personal financial burden,” with 22% of consumers saying they’d tried to buy food products but could not because they were not available. That figure jumps to 31% among those struggling as they live paycheck to paycheck.

The effects of inflation has trained consumers to adopt cost-containment measures at the grocery store, Matt Garfield, then-managing director for retail and consumer products at FTI Consulting, told PYMNTS earlier this year.

“This shift has led to decreased basket sizes and more focused shopping trips,” he said. “Meanwhile, digital platforms and technology are playing a significant role, with grocery stores investing in AI for inventory management, pricing optimization and personalized shopping experiences.”