Nine months after its arrival in Italy, Aldi has opened a total of 50 stores, exceeding the target of 45 anticipated in the retailer's development plan for 2018.
Since arriving in March, the German retailer progressively expanded its network in Northern Italy and recently opened stores in Borgaro Torinese, Casalpusterlengo, Monselice, Villanuova sul Clisi and Udine.
Aldi is now present in six Italian regions with five stores in Emilia-Romagna, eight in Friuli-Venezia Giulia, 15 in Lombardy, four in Piedmont, five in Trentino-Alto Adige and 13 in Veneto, for a total sales area of over 63,000 square metres.
Significantly, 36 of the 50 supermarkets are powered by photovoltaic systems, whose total power is over 2 MWp, and the retailer has also installed 36 electric charging columns.
Urban Development
In terms of urban development, Aldi has also planted around 400 trees and built 11 cycle lanes and nine roundabouts, plus contributed to the recovery of 16 residential areas as part of its expansion.
The retailer's logistics centre in Oppeano near Verona has so far moved more than 226,000 pallets, and is able to supply Aldi's network within 24 hours.
The facility will soon be joined by a new storage centre in Landriano near Pavia, the construction of which is currently underway. once completed, it will allow the retailer to grow 'progressively and organically', Aldi said.
In spite of a difficult start to the year, 2018 has so far proved to be one of the most profitable periods for the food industry in Italy, resulting in a significant growth in sales volumes, especially packaged fruit and vegetables, milk and eggs.
© 2018 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Branislav Pekic. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine
