Lidl, Britain‘s fastest growing supermarket, will open its 12th Regional Distribution Centre in East Devon, paving the way for up to 500 new jobs in the area.
The discounter has ample expansion goals, with plans to double the number of its existing stores.
Should permission be granted by East Devon District Council by the end of June, the supermarket chain would look to start work on site shortly after, with a view to having the warehouse ready to start operating by September 2017.
Features of the planned warehouse include low energy design, including maximising solar gain to reduce light energy consumption, high performance building fabric, low energy lighting design and a high efficiency heating plan running a Refrigeration Waste Heat Recovery System.
The value grocer currently has nine RDCs across the country, servicing Lidl‘s 630 stores in England, Scotland and Wales.
“It‘s incredibly encouraging that our sales growth is consistently outperforming the market, but this requires a solid infrastructure that enables us to cope with growing customer demand,” said Lidl UK Head of Warehouse Expansion, Adrienne Howells.
“A new regional distribution centre in East Devon will help to alleviate pressure on our other warehouses which are currently servicing the region, and will support new stores that we hope to open across the South West in the coming years.
“We are of course delighted that this will lead to considerable investment and job creation in the area, and very much hope that the outcome of the application is positive.”
