Lidl set to invest £15bn in British suppliers

Lidl GB, which this year celebrates its 25th anniversary, is to invest a record £15 billion in British suppliers over the next five years.

The move comes after the firm opened its distribution centre at Eurocentral that will support its growing store estate across Scotland. Picture: contributed.

It comes just after the discount supermarket launched its biggest distribution centre in the UK at Eurocentral - a £70 million 58,000 square metre site set to create 250 jobs - as it looks to reach 100 locations north of the Border in the coming months

Lidl also said today that it has pledged to increase sales of British sourced fresh meat, poultry and fresh produce by over 10 per cent across the next 12 months, following its commitment to source all of its listed fresh poultry from UK farms.

Additional initiatives from the supermarket in support of its suppliers include longer-term contracts that will help suppliers invest for the future helping them to create jobs and develop their business, and a young farmers programme designed to support new talent in the sector.

Lidl GB chief commercial officer Ryan McDonnell said: “As our business continues to grow, it’s vital that our suppliers remain at the heart of our growth plans, and that is why we are committing to investing at least £15bn over the next five years. Our business is only ever as good as our suppliers’, so our investments and commitments are key to ensuring that they can invest and expand with us.

“Our long-term partnerships with farmers are all the more important during economic uncertainty, and with 2019 marking our 25th anniversary, we are more committed than ever to supporting our suppliers here in Britain and offering customers British-sourced products in the future.”

Tom Hulme, of family-run A.C. Hulme & Sons, which has been Lidl’s main supplier of apples and pears for ten-plus years, said it upgraded its packhouse on the back of its confidence in Lidl’s future custom. "The company has stayed true to its word with its growing orders over the years.”

Fran Bell, a dairy farmer suppling Lidl through Müller, said: “Our farming business had committed to large capital investments, to modernise and promote efficiencies in preparation to include our next generation within the business. The Lidl fixed-price scheme has given us certainty, within a volatile market, to lock in a percentage of our milk at a known price for two years. This will enable us to protect those investments whilst helping to secure a sustainable future for this business.”

Lidl also pointed out that it currently has a market share of 6 per cent and is continuing with its "ambitious" expansion plans, which will see it open 50 to 60 new stores across 2019.

In July, it said it was opening 12 Scottish stores in a move creating around 500 jobs, following the announcement in June of a £500m investment in London over the next five years.