Aldi looking for new site for supermarket in Colchester

The German supermarket giant, now the UK's fifth largest chain, has been on a massive expansion drive in recent years, opening about one store a week on average to meet demand.

And the firm is looking to open 15 new stores in Essex in the near future, including one in Colchester.

Aldi, which now has more than 900 stores across the UK, is looking for freehold town-centre or edge-of-centre sites suitable for development.

It says each site should be around 1.5 acres and able to accommodate a 20,000 sq ft store with around 100 parking spaces, ideally on a prominent main road and with good visibility and access.

Aldi already has three stores in Colchester - in Cowdray Avenue, London Road and Magdalen Street - but is still look to identify another site.

Aldi in Magdalen Street, Colchester

The London Road store, in Stanway, is set to relocate to a larger unit at the new £60 million Stane Retail Park once it is complete.

This could be as soon as October is building work moves along as planned.

Read more:

• The new supermarkets coming to Colchester in the near future
• Supermarket set to be built at the heart of 1,600-home Colchester estate
• Subway to join Lidl and Costa at old Homebase site in Colchester

Ciaran Aldridge, National Property Director at Aldi UK, said: “We have been investing in Britain for more than 30 years now, but we know that there are still areas that either do not have an Aldi at all, or that need another store to meet customer demand.

“Shoppers are increasingly looking to get unbeatable prices on their weekly shop without compromising on quality.

"That’s why, more so than ever, we’re keen to explore all opportunities to open new stores across the country.”

The full list of locations it is targeting in Essex are:

• Basildon

• Brentwood

• Canvey Island

• Colchester

• Epping

• Great Dunmow

• Harlow

• Leigh on Sea

• Rayleigh

• Rochford/Hockley

• Shenfield

• Shoeburyness

• South Woodham Ferrers

• Stanford Le Hope/Corringham

• Tilbury

There is also a new Lidl store under development at the former Homebase site, in St Andrew's Avenue, Colchester, as well as a new Co-op being built at the Chesterwell development in Mile End.