German discounter plans online store in the UK
20 Mar 2015
The world's biggest discount retailer, Germany's Aldi plans to launch an online store in the UK.
The retailer, which had long avoided online sales as they were not profitable enough, had offered online delivery of alcoholic drinks in Australia since 2013 but the UK launch would be its first foray into ecommerce in Europe.
Aldi South, which runs the chain in the UK, could go online in other countries including Germany, even as sister company Aldi North was considering ecommerce in Spain and Portugal, German trade journal Lebensmittel Zeitung said.
Aldi South said the German holding group was not currently planning any online trade, referring queries about UK to the unit there.
Aldi, and rival Lidl had been expanding fast in UK taking away market share from incumbents Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury's and Morrisons.
Last month, the retailer revealed plans to open over 70 new stores and recruit almost 5,000 staff in UK this year.
The scheme would add to its current 560 outlets in the country, taking the number of its stores past 600.