Lidl takes on Waitrose with first West End store in £500m growth scheme

The new Lidl store in Tottenham Court Road will be the most central yet from the discount supermarket
Shutterstock / Manuel Esteban

Discount supermarket chain Lidl is to open its first branch in the West End as part of a £500 million challenge to the dominance of Tesco, Sainsbury and Waitrose in London.

The German-owned grocer, known for its £5 lobsters and £9.99 bottles of champagne, plans to launch 40 new branches in and around the capital over the next two years. They will also include outlets in Alperton near Wembley, East Acton, Hackbridge in Sutton and Watford. The new 1,300 sq m store in Tottenham Court Road, near Warren Street Tube, will be the most central yet from the no-frills retailer.

Lidl plans to invest £500 million over five years in the capital, where it has been under-represented since opening its first UK stores in 1994.

Most London branches of Lidl are in the suburbs, with very few in Zone 1 “Waitrose country”.

However, it has increasingly targeted more wealthy shoppers through initiatives such as the “claret offensive” when it launched a range of higher quality French wines at reduced prices. Last year Lidl opened a major supermarket in Shepherd’s Bush, replacing a former Morrisons branch, and it also has branches in Camden Town and Clapham.

The plans announced today include a major new head office in Tolworth in south-west London that will accommodate 800 workers. In total the new branches will create 1,500 jobs.

Lidl’s UK chief executive Christian Härtnagel said: “It’s coming up to 25 years since we first launched in London, and in that time we’ve grown to almost 90 stores, employing more than 5,000 people.” He added that the capital was “at the heart of our growth plans across Great Britain”.

Lidl has around 760 stores in the UK and about one in eight is in London.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in