Lidl planning to open dozens of new stores this year – including these 17 in Sheffield

The discounter is urging landowners to come forward and says the focus is on ‘town centre, edge of centre, retail park and metropolitan locations’ which are prominent, easily accessible and have a ‘strong pedestrian or traffic flow’.

Areas of interest in Sheffield include Beauchief, Broomhill, Burngreave, Chapeltown, city centre, Crystal Peaks, Ecclesall, Ecclesfield, Fir Vale, Fulwood, Gleadless, Handsworth, Hillsborough, Holbrook / Mosborough, Meadowhall, Norton and St Mary's Gate.

The firm opened a store in Malin Bridge earlier this month. Lidl GB has 860 shops and wants 1,000 by the end of 2023.

It has opened 20 since the start of 2021 and says it is committed to investing £1.3bn in expansion this year and next.

Christian Härtnagel, chief executive at Lidl GB, said: “We are calling on developers and landlords up and down the country to help find potential sites for us to build Lidl stores, which demonstrates the continued ambition we have to further expand our store portfolio across the nation.

“Despite the challenges of the past year, we still managed to meet our ambitious target of opening, on average, one new store per week across Great Britain."

Lidl set up in Britain in 1994 and today 25,000 employees, 860 stores and 13 distribution centres.

It is part of the Schwarz retail group, which has a presence in 32 countries, 310,000 employees, 11,200 stores and more than 200 warehouses and distribution centres.

Turnover in 2019 was 113.3 billion euros.

40 jobs at Sheffield bakery

Huge events building in Sheffield city centre revealed

Sheffield’s Old Town Hall for sale again

Local journalism holds the powerful to account and gives people a voice. Please take out a digital subscription or buy a paper.

Thank you. Nancy Fielder, editor.