Aldi Wednesday said it will invest around £650 million across Britain in 2025.
This includes the development of new stores in Fulham Broadway in London, Billericay in Essex, and Cheadle in Stoke-on-Trent, with the supermarket targeting around 30 new store openings in total in 2025.
This forms part of Aldi’s package of annual investment to accelerate its expansion across Britain’s towns and cities.
The rate of investment in 2025 continues from an equally busy new store opening programme in 2024 with Aldi opening in new locations such as Totton in Hampshire, Cribbs Causeway in Bristol and Pwllheli in Gwynedd in recent weeks.
“At Aldi, our unwavering commitment has always been to provide Britain with the best value groceries. The demand for our unbeatable prices is now at an all-time high, which gives us the confidence to continue investing in Britain to provide greater access to our award-winning products at the lowest prices,” Giles Hurley, chief executive, Aldi UK and Ireland, said.
“We recognise that there are still areas without an Aldi store, so our expansion plans for 2025 are designed to address some of these gaps as we work towards our long-term goal of 1,500 UK stores.”
In May, Aldi announced its second pay increase for Aldi store colleagues this year, paying a minimum hourly rate of £12.40 nationally and £13.65 within the M25.
Asda has announced a new trial of electronic shelf edge labels (eSELs) at an Asda Express convenience store in Manchester city centre.
Working with Vusion Group to install 3000 electronic shelf edge labels, pricing updates at the Oxford Road store can be done in as little as 15 seconds – allowing colleagues to make changes at the click of a button.
Running for 12 weeks, the trial aims to simplify operations for colleagues and ensure more of their time can be spent meeting the needs of customers.
The Manchester Oxford Road store is a high footfall store, which will help to stress test the technology and provide even more learnings. The trial will be run across a wide array of product categories, including frozen, fresh, instore bakery, toiletries as well as beers, wines and spirits.
Chris Walker, Managing Director of Asda Express, said: “We’re delighted to launch a new trial of electronic shelf edge labels, as we continue to invest in enhancing our instore processes.
“This ‘test and learn’ trial will not only help to simplify operations for colleagues in the store, but it will also provide us with valuable learnings that will shape future technology rollouts into stores. We look forward to hearing feedback from customers and colleagues on the trial.”
Asda has previously tested similar technology at its Stevenage superstore, concluding the trial in 2023. Asda hopes to continue investing in future technology trials within its Express estate, as it sets out to provide an enhanced instore customer experience.
Farmers have slammed supermarkets over their practice of slashing the cost of vegetables to lure Christmas shoppers, saying that heavy discounting can impact consumer expectations about the real value of British produce.
Around Christmas, most supermarket giants, even upmarket chains Waitrose and Marks & Spencer, cut the price of festive basics by at least half at their busiest time of year.
The deep discounts come as the cost of producing homegrown vegetables has been pushed up with growers “already under the cosh” according to the National Farmers’ Union (NFU). Workforce availability, extreme weather and rising employment costs – compounded by recent national insurance and minimum wage increases – have taken their toll on the sector.
A spokesperson for the NFU told The Guardian, “While promotional activity can have positive impacts for growers to help drive sales volumes and attract new shoppers, growers have long held concerns about the impact heavy discounting can have on consumer expectations about the real value of British produce. Growers must also be reassured that this pricing strategy is not funded by unsustainable farmgate prices.”
Jack Ward, the chief executive of the British Growers Association, said: “Is that really a cause for celebration? We are giving people a false impression of what’s involved in improving food.
“People ask ‘if I can buy it for 15p at Christmas why is it 65p the rest of the year?’ It completely devalues what are superfoods compared to a lot of other things consumed in Christmas week. There’s no denying that consumers like this kind of deep discounting but they have got to understand it comes at a cost.”
While Ward admits that retailers take the profit hit on discounting the vegetables over the festive season, he says the growers will ultimately pay in lower prices throughout the year.
“Let’s not delude ourselves, the [cost of the] promotions are factored in somewhere along the way over the 12 months.”
Some retailers agreed the discounting was not good for the industry.
One supermarket insider told The Guardian that the discount frenzy devalued the image of vegetables and that it is a "race to the bottom and no one is really benefiting. Anyone selling a bag of carrots for 17p is making a thumping loss.”
Marks & Spencer has finally been given the green light to knock down its the 1920s art deco Oxford Street store.
After a three-year legal battle, housing secretary, Angela Rayner, ruled on Thursday (5) that the plans of demolition could go ahead.
The retailer wants to rebuild the store as a nine-storey building housing a retail space, cafe, gym and office.
Stuart Machin, Marks & Spencer’s chief executive, wrote on X, “I am delighted that, after three unnecessary years of delays, obfuscation and political posturing at its worst under the previous Government, our plans for Marble Arch – the only retail-led regeneration proposal on Oxford Street – have finally been approved.
"We can now get on with the job of helping to rejuvenate the UK’s premier shopping street through a flagship M&S store and office space which will support 2,000 jobs and act as a global standard-bearer for sustainability.
"At M&S, we share the Government’s ambition to breathe life back into our cities and towns and are pleased to see they are serious about getting Britain building and growing. We will now move as fast as we can."
M&S won planning permission to demolish the 1920s art deco store , named Orchard House, from Westminster City Council in 2021. But it ran into opposition — on grounds of both sustainability and heritage — from the conservation group Save Britain’s Heritage, architects, engineers and celebrities.
Former minister Michael Gove maintained that the building, which sits in the heart of central London’s shopping district, should be retained and refurbished rather than bulldozed.
M&S repeatedly contended that it had explored 16 refurbishment schemes that would have avoided demolition but found none to be suitable for its aims. The retailer described the building as "not fit for purpose", citing low ceilings, blocked lavatories, uneven flooring, disconnected escalators, temperamental heating and thick pillars.
Earlier this year, a high court judge ruled that the government made a series of flawed decisions while trying to block the plans.
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) today (27) declared that people who are members of a loyalty scheme can almost always make a genuine saving on the usual price by buying loyalty priced products.
Having analysed around 50,000 grocery products on a loyalty price promotion, the CMA found very little evidence of supermarkets inflating their "usual" prices to make loyalty promotions seem like a better deal.
George Lusty, Interim Executive Director of Consumer Protection, said: "We know many people don’t trust loyalty card prices, which is why we did a deep dive to get to the bottom of whether supermarkets were treating shoppers fairly. After analysing tens of thousands of products, we found that almost all the loyalty prices reviewed offered genuine savings against the usual price – a fact we hope reassures shoppers throughout the UK.
"While these discounts are legitimate, our review has shown that loyalty prices aren’t always the cheapest option, so shopping around is still key. By checking a few shops, you can continue to stretch your hard-earned cash.
As part of the CMA’s work to help people facing cost of living pressures, it conducted a rigorous investigation of loyalty pricing. This sought to get to the bottom of a number of potential concerns, including whether loyalty prices can be trusted, how they compare to prices at other supermarkets and how accessible they are.
The CMA conducted a consumer survey to understand what shoppers specifically think about loyalty pricing, for example: do they trust it, do they think it’s fair, and does it change where people choose to shop. The CMA also examined supermarkets’ behaviour – including, importantly, their use of customers’ data.
The evidence shows that almost all products scrutinised – 92 per cent of around 50,000 items – offered a genuine saving against the ‘usual’ price in the same store. While loyalty prices are generally some of the cheapest available, this wasn’t always the case meaning it’s worth shopping around.
The survey also found that people can make an average saving of 17-25 per cent buying loyalty priced products at the 5 supermarkets examined: Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Waitrose, Co-op and Morrisons. 76 per cent of shoppers say loyalty pricing has not changed where they shop, but 24 per cent now compare prices more due to the introduction of loyalty pricing.
55 per cent of those surveyed think the price for non-members is inflated during loyalty price promotions while 43 per cent of those surveyed think it is unfair that loyalty scheme members pay lower prices for some products than those without a membership.
Another key finding of the survey was that people’s concerns about how their personal data is used is not stopping them from joining a loyalty scheme – only 7 per cent of those surveyed said they hadn’t signed up to a scheme due to personal data concerns. Some supermarkets could do more to make sure that certain shoppers – such as those without smart phones and the elderly – are able to join and make use of loyalty schemes
As part of its wide-ranging review, the CMA also looked at the way supermarkets collect and use people’s data when they sign up to a loyalty scheme. It did not see evidence of consumer law concerns in relation to this.
However, the CMA did find that there was room for improvement regarding people’s ability to access loyalty schemes.
Some supermarkets could do more to ensure people without smart phones or under 18s, for example, can access – and know how to access – loyalty prices. This could include introducing offline sign-up, in-store or via the telephone for example, and lowering the minimum age for joining a scheme.
Supermarket Tesco is planning to open 150 new convenience stores across the UK over the next three years as part of a major expansion, creating more than 2,000 jobs in local communities across the country.
The supermarket chain has not confirmed where it plans to open any of these new stores. The supermarket chain announced the plans for its Tesco Express sites last week as it celebrated the 30th anniversary of its convenience store brand. Tesco has over 4,000 supermarket stores overall across the UK.
The supermarket opened the doors of the first Express store in Barnes and Norbury, London in 1994. Most recently, the supermarket chain opened a new Express in Burnt Oak in northwest London. The new site opened close to where Tesco's first-ever site - founded by Jack Cohen - opened in 1929. The Burnt Oak Express store in North London will be the supermarket’s 2,882nd UK store.
Tesco managing director of UK stores Kevin Tindall said, “I’m delighted that we have come full circle and returned to the street where it all began, with Jack Cohen’s first store in Burnt Oak. Burnt Oak has a special place in Tesco history, and we’re proud to be serving its local community once again – alongside thousands more across the country.”
The supermarket opened the doors of the first Express store in Barnes and Norbury, London in 1994.
Similar to other supermarket chains, Tesco has increasingly prioritized its convenience store offerings over the past year. Most recently, the retailer unveiled significant price reductions on staples like bread, milk, and chicken, spanning 200 product lines in its Express stores. According to Tesco, these prices have been reduced by an average of 10 per cent.
Tesco CEO Ken Murphy said at the time, “Today’s round of price cuts on more than 200 lines in our Express stores underlines our commitment to offering great value to Tesco customers.
"Whether you are picking up coffee and milk for the office or a loaf of bread and a tin of soup on the way home, our Express stores offer both convenience and great value.”