50-year-old Aldi continues expansion in Belgium

Fifty years ago, Aldi opened its first Belgian store in Geel. It now has 445 outlets and its product range has grown from 450 to 1,750 products, with strong private labels as the common thread. This year, the discounter is opening five new stores.

Rapid growth

With a range of around 450 products, Aldi introduced Belgians to discount shopping for the first time on February 26, 1976, with private labels such as River (soft drinks), Milsa (dairy), Panda (snacks), and Tandil (laundry products): according to the discounter, these are of equally high quality and often half the price of A-brands. Aldi’s growth runs parallel to the share of private labels in Belgian shopping carts, which today stands at around 42%. Nowadays, the discounter’s daily range includes around 1,750 products, 90% of which are private labels. This range is supplemented weekly with around 100 temporary products and extra promotions.

The discounter also grew rapidly in terms of the number of stores: in just a few years, more than a hundred Aldi branches appeared in Flanders. In the 1980s, the discounter doubled its store network and crossed over to Wallonia, more specifically in the region around Charleroi and the East Cantons.

Growing stores

With the limited range in the early years, smaller sales areas were often sufficient, usually less than 500 m². As the discount formula caught on, the range also expanded. The well-known non-food promotions became a permanent feature, but fresh products also took on an increasingly prominent and larger role. The stores grew to an average retail space of approximately 1,200 m².

Aldi now has 445 stores in Belgium, the largest number of stores under a single brand in our country. The discounter continues to focus on expansion: this year, five new stores will be added, in addition to around 15 expansions.