Heavy investment leads to Lidl UK losses

The German-owned discounter said it slumped to a £25.2m pre-tax loss for the year to February 29 2020, against profits of £19m the previous year.

It said its UK workforce increased by 8 per cent to 23,249 as it hired nearly another 1,800 employees, while the group also spent £654m adding another 51 stores and a new warehouse in Motherwell.

Since the end of the 2019/20 year, Lidl has ramped up its UK operations, opening more than 50 new stores as it targets a network of 1,000 stores by 2023.

It now has more than 800 stores and 13 distribution centres.

Christian Hartnagel, Lidl’s UK chief executive, said: “Whilst the world has changed considerably since this financial period… our driving focus remains on offering customers the best quality products at the lowest prices in the market.

“We will continue to focus on providing customers up and down the country with this, as we grow our store estate, logistics and operations.

“We are confident in our strategy and see huge potential in the market long-term and will continue to hire more colleagues, invest in British suppliers, open more stores and become an integral part of more communities.”