Aldi is to invest over £550M expanding its UK store and distribution network this year, with plans to open stores in new locations nationally, as well as upgrades to its existing stores and distribution centres, the German grocery discounter has announced.

Aldi operates from more than 1,000 stores across the UK and has a long-term target of expanding to 1,500 locations around Britain. The retailer said it is looking for freehold town-centre or edge-of-town sites of about 1.5 acres that can house a 20K SF store and around 100 parking spaces.

“There are still areas of the country that don’t have an Aldi, or that need more or larger stores to meet demand,” Aldi UK and Ireland CEO Giles Hurley said in a statement. “That is what our 2024 expansion plans aim to address. We now have more than 1,000 stores across the UK but there are plenty more Aldi stores still to come, in 2024 and beyond.”

In September, Aldi confirmed it would invest £1.4B to support its expansion over the following two years on the back of strong sales growth. In December, the retailer formed a new national real estate team to help deliver on its aggressive growth targets.

The new team, headed by Managing Director of Real Estate Jonathan Neale, is working in tandem with Colliers as its national adviser, and Neale said the aim of centralising its property division was to make the retailer easier to work with and to help accelerate its growth.

Aldi and discount rival Lidl both achieved record Christmas trading, with sales at Aldi topping £1.5B over the four weeks to 24 December for the first time, up 8% on the same period in the previous year, while Lidl said its sales were up 12%.

Separately, Aurelius, the German private equity owner of Body Shop, has appointed administrators FRP Advisory for its UK business. Earlier in February, Aurelius sold parts of the beauty retailer’s European and Asian business to an international family office.

Aurelius acquired Body Shop from Brazilian-based group Natura & Company in November 2023 for £207M, less than a quarter of what Natura paid for the business in 2017. As part of the administration, a significant number of UK stores is expected to close among the chain’s 200 in the UK and Ireland.