ALDI On A Roll With Expansion Plan

Discount supermarket chain ALDI will unveil a new $3.5 million store in a Melbourne homemaker centre  at the end of the month as part of its large-format store strategy for Victoria.

The new 1600sqm ALDI store will open on April 29 and will be located on a site that forms part of Folkestone's Millers Junction homemaker centre in Altona North.

The supermarket group is taking advantage of Victorian planning laws that enable supermarkets to be built within larger-format retail centres.

According to The Australian Financial Review, an ALDI spokesperson confirmed that the company wanted to grow its 123 stores in Victoria to "at least 200 in the coming years".

The spokesperson for ALDI Australia said that the Victorian planning laws "enable developments in new areas, giving smaller retailers the ability to better compete with the major players who may be already established in commercial precincts."The laws would allow ALDI to roll out seven new stores in Victoria between 2014-2015 according to ALDI Dandenong store manager Damien Scheidel  in an interview with Inside Retail.

Apart from the Altona North store and another that opened in Cheltenham last October, he said there were also stores planned for Dromana, Springvale, Traralgon and Epsom Village.

He said it would add an extra 105 people to ALDI's current workforce of over 2,300 people.