Aldi wants to add 700 European stores by 2026

German discounter Aldi Nord is speeding up its foreign expansion. After implementing a new corporate structure for its European branch a few days ago, it is now embarking on a multi-billion-dollar plan to create 700 new outlets over the next three years.

New structure

Aldi hit the headlines twice in the past two weeks with operational measures: in mid-September the company created a separate holding company for its non-German European operations, and last Monday there was a reshuffle in the board with the last member of the founding family Albrecht closing the door of operational management behind him.

That new structure serves an ambitious goal: CEO Torsten Hufnagel wants to have as many as 6,000 European branches under his belt by 2026, which is 700 more than today. The biggest growth should come in France, Poland and Spain, Lebensmittel Zeitung reports.

“Paying dividends to customers”

The ambition is remarkable, as recently Aldi was mostly looking closely to its German shop network and even pulled out of Denmark altogether, dropping the number of European Aldi shops below 5,300.

The money for the expansion has already been found within the Albrecht family, LZ reports. More money is also going into optimising logistics. Once these economies of scale bear fruit, the discounter promises, the extra profits will be invested in lower prices, paying dividends to customers.