Discounter Lidl has announced plans to invest €1.5 billion in its Spanish operations between 2021 and 2024.
Lidl, which currently has over 17,000 employees across 630 shops in Spain, plans to open more than 150 new locations and four logistics hubs by 2024, it announced.
Spanish supermarkets and food producers have benefited from customers hoarding and spending more money on groceries during the COVID-19 pandemic as restrictions on eating out and socialising forced people to stay in.
Rival cut-price supermarket DIA cut first-half losses by more than 44% earlier this month, while rice and pasta maker Ebro Foods saw annual profit soar 36% last year.
'Ambitious Expansion Plans'
"This ambitious expansion plan responds to our firm determination to continue boosting our business in Spain," Imanol Zabala Ruiz, manager of Lidl Expansion & Real Estate in Spain, said in a statement, Reuters reported.
The supermarket chain's development plan for the country will focus specifically on the Madrid region, where it expects to invest over €200 million in the next four years and open 50 new locations.
Commitment To Spain
During the summer, Lidl said that it created 2,000 jobs in Spain last year, and increased its national purchasing by 13% to €5.2 billion.
It invested €350 million last year in the opening of nearly 40 new stores, as well as a new logistics facility in Agüimes, Gran Canaria. As of the end of its financial year, the discounter operated more than 630 stores and 11 logistics centres across Spain.
News by Reuters, additional reporting by ESM. For more Retail news, click here. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: European Supermarket Magazine.
