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Lidl asks public to help find sites for new stores

Lidl is offering a finder’s fee to member's of the public who successfully identify suitable sites. Photo: Getty
Lidl is offering a finder’s fee to member's of the public who successfully identify suitable sites. Photo: Getty (jax10289 via Getty Images)

Discount supermarket Lidl is calling on the British public to help find sites for new stores, offering a finder’s fee to people who successfully identify suitable sites.

The finder's fee is either 1.5% of the total freehold purchase price or 10% of the first year’s rent for leaseholds. This which would equate to £22,500 for a completed £1.5m site purchase.

The discounter has published a list of locations across the UK where it is interested in acquiring sites for potential store developments.

These include Bristol, London, Southampton, Cambridge and Oxford in the south of England, Derby, Nottingham and Birmingham in the Midlands, and Liverpool, Manchester and Sheffield in the north.

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Lidl is also looking to open new stores in Edinburgh in Scotland and Swansea in Wales.

Read more: UK households face £271 rise in food bills

The supermarket is opening an average of one new store a week and is aiming for 1,100 stores by the end of 2025, according to Richard Taylor, chief development officer at Lidl GB.

Since the beginning of 2022, Lidl has already opened 23 new stores, including in Warwick, Hounslow and Straiton.

Lidl is now the sixth largest supermarket in the UK with a market share of 6.6%, according to data from Kantar.

"There are still communities up and down the country that are telling us how much they want – and need – a Lidl store," said Taylor.

"We work with some of the best people in the industry to identify new sites, but we also know how engaged our future and existing customers are and we want to build on this.

"Our finder’s fees are, therefore, available to absolutely anyone that can identify a viable option for a new store that we’re not already aware of, and we welcome any suitable suggestions that will help up us to meet our ambitious target of 1,100 stores by the end of 2025.”

Read more: Heathrow passenger numbers rise as COVID losses top £4bn

UK shoppers are increasingly turning to discount supermarkets as inflation squeezes household budgets. Over one million extra shoppers visited Aldi and Lidl respectively over the past 12 weeks compared with this time last year, according to Kantar.

Grocery prices were 5.9% higher in April compared to a year before – the biggest increase since December 2011 – meaning the average UK household is facing a £271 per year rise in food bills, the market research firm found.

Watch: How to save money on a low income