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Aldi to invest £900m in UK and open 40 more stores next year

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Cite

Butler, S. (2026, September 28). Aldi to invest £900m in UK and open 40 more stores next year. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/sep/28/aldi-900m-investment-uk-open-40-new-supermarkets

Dated when The Aporia collected the article, usually within hours of publication. Check the original for its exact date and byline.

The Guardian · collected 2026-09-28 · by Sarah Butler

Quick Summary

Aldi announced plans to invest £900 million in the UK for new stores and infrastructure, including opening over 40 additional stores this year alone. Despite a slight dip in profits due to price cuts amid inflation, Aldi’s sales increased by 5% to reach a record of £19 billion last year. The company aims to become the third largest supermarket chain in the UK based on items sold and customer numbers, with long-term goals of expanding its presence to 1,500 stores across the UK and Ireland.
Written by AI on 2026-09-28, from this article's own text only (the story summary below draws on all the coverage).

AI analysis

Story summary

Discount supermarket Aldi has pledged to invest £900 million in opening another 40 stores across the UK and Ireland in 2027, despite facing lower earnings. In 2025, Aldi's operating profits decreased by 1% to £432.9 million compared to the previous year's £435.5 million, while sales rose by 5%, reaching a record turnover of £19 billion. The company attributed this drop in earnings to investments in price reductions and rising wages, as it aims to expand its presence to reach 1,500 shops across both countries. Additionally, Aldi plans to continue cutting prices ahead of Christmas following a £340 million price cut campaign earlier in the year.

Written for “Aldi Store Expansion” on 2026-11-04, grounded in this article and the 2 other(s) covering the same event.

Story

📰 Aldi Store Expansion
Economy/Business · 3 article(s) covering the same event. See how they differ ↓

Compared with similar articles

This article reads unscored and hedges 14% of its claims. Each row says how that neighbour differs.
Evening Standard
Hedges 0 of 7 claims Outlet record 64/100
Evening Standard
Hedges 1 of 10 claims Outlet record 64/100
How this article was measured signals, leaning charts, publisher record, byline, topics and claims

Signals How these are calculated →

Claims extracted
22
sentences that state something as happening or true
Uncertain
14%
3 of 22 hedged ("reportedly", "may", "according to")
Leaning
not political
takes no side on a contested political question
Publisher signals
66/100
The Guardian's corrections and hedging, across everything collected from it. Not a measure of accuracy.
Outlets on this story
3
Economy/Business
Same framing elsewhere
1
articles that frame the event the way this one does
Analyzed 2026-09-28 · how these are computed

How this is being covered How these are calculated →

Article leaning vs. publisher reliability
Source leaning vs. consistency

Publisher

The Guardian · 2937 article(s) · 6 correction(s) detected
Running correction rate · 6 correction(s)

Who wrote this

Sarah Butler
22 article(s) here · 1 carrying a prediction
🔮 In an urgent question in the House of Commons on Tuesday, Gareth Snell, Labour MP for Stoke-on-Trent Central, asked the government what could be done to “send a message to Gordon Brothers that the predatory capitalism that they are putting into this company will not be tolerated, because we in this country will always stand with people before profit”.
🔮 The UK’s third largest supermarket said that 73-year-old executive chair Allan Leighton, who has been running the business since 2024, would now step back to a non-executive role focusing on “the long-term strategic agenda for the business”.
🔮 The legal fight has emerged just days after Mondelēz launched legal action against another small vegan chocolate brand, Catherine’s Originals, accusing it of copying the famous chunky shape of Toblerone with its O’bar. Moo Free, which has products stocked in several major supermarkets and online, said it had been selling its Snowballs for about two years before Mondelēz demanded it immediately remove the items from sale just ahead of the busy Christmas period. Mike Jessop, who co-founded Devon-based Moo Free in 2010 when he and his wife could not find allergen-free chocolates for Easter or Christmas, said they began selling online before being picked up by Waitrose and then other supermarkets.
🔮 The legal measure, which is expected to be approved by a court on Thursday, protects Poundland from the demands of creditors for 10 days while a solution to its problems is sought.
🔮 The business secretary has written to the owner of Poundland amid fears that the cut-price retailer could collapse into administration, threatening to overshadow John Healey’s budget.
🔮 So far this year 36 branches within the high street chain formerly known as WH Smith have closed and a further 34 are set to close by early 2027, according to Post Office records analysed by the Guardian. TG Jones was bought and renamed by Modella last year.
🔮 The measure could raise up to an extra £1bn by forcing them to collect VAT on behalf of large-scale sellers based in the UK as well as those overseas.
🔮 The upmarket grocer will open the store on Thursday and another supermarket in Hale Barns, Greater Manchester, next month.
🔮 They want the Nics threshold raised to £6,000, arguing this would help create jobs and ease inflation pressures on high streets.
🔮 The former UK chancellor Rachel Reeves said she would get rid of the UK’s rule, which allows overseas sellers to send goods valued at £135 or less direct to British shoppers without paying any customs duty, by 2028.
Also by Sarah Butler
Nothing else under this byline is closely related to this article, so these are simply their most recent.
All 22 articles by Sarah Butler →

Topics

Aldi Asda German Ireland Irish

Subjects

Aldi ORG · 12× Asda ORG · 2× Hurley PERSON · 2× Ireland GPE · 2× German NORP · 1× Giles Hurley PERSON · 1× Irish NORP · 1× Leeds GPE · 1× Worldpanel ORG · 1× the British Retail Consortium ORG · 1×

Narrative

The supermarket chain said it had committed to sourcing at least half its products through long-term supplier agreements by next year, giving its producers and manufacturers greater confidence to invest and make Britain’s food system less reliant on imports.
framing: assertive · carried by 1 article(s) · first seen 2026-09-28
🔮 Aldi will open 42 stores this year, with 30 opening in the next 10 weeks.
2026-09-28 · The Guardian
Aldi to invest £900m in UK and open 40 more stores next year · assertive framing

Claims (22 extracted, 3 hedged)

Aldi says it is stepping up investment in the UK with plans to spend £900m and open more than 40 stores. asserted
it → say → stores
The company, which operates 1,092 budget supermarkets in the UK and Ireland, revealed sales rose 5% to a record £19bn last year. asserted
sales → operate → record
It opened 40 stores but profits slipped by £2.6m to £433m as it cut prices despite cost inflation. asserted
it → open → inflation
Giles Hurley, the boss of Aldi’s UK and Irish arm, said the German-owned business had “increasing confidence around growing our business”, claiming it already was the third largest UK supermarket in terms of items sold and customer numbers. asserted
it → say → items
Asda is classed as the UK’s third largest supermarket by value of sales, just ahead of Aldi. asserted
Asda → class → Aldi
Leeds-based Asda is less than one percentage point ahead of its rival, with a market share of 10.6% in mainland UK, according to the latest data from Worldpanel. uncertain
Asda → base → Worldpanel
Aldi will open 42 stores this year, with 30 opening in the next 10 weeks. asserted
30 → open → weeks
It plans a similar number next year, stepping up investment by about £100m to £900m. asserted
It → plan → 900
In the longer term it is aiming for 1,500 outlets in the UK and Ireland. asserted
it → aim → UK
“We could probably grow faster but we need to find the right sites in the right locations and have to go through a planning process which can, at times, be challenging,” Hurley said. uncertain
Hurley → grow → times
He said consumers were “feeling the pinch” against a backdrop of persistent inflation, and the “continuity and clarity” of Aldi’s range of cheap groceries had attracted 425,300 more customers. asserted
continuity → say → customers
He said the outlook for grocery inflation, which stood at 2.8% in August, according to the British Retail Consortium, was difficult to assess until the impact of drought and extreme heat on UK crop yields was clear. uncertain
impact → say → yields
He said the industry was “not seeing systemic food shortages” but the climate crisis was creating “a real challenge” for food producers. asserted
crisis → say → producers
He urged the government to treat the UK’s food system as “a national strategic priority” because “relying on imports leaves us exposed”. asserted
relying → urge → us
Hurley claimed Aldi was the only grocery chain reducing prices. asserted
Aldi → claim → prices
He said the loyalty discount schemes offered by many rival chains, including Tesco and Sainsbury’s, were “definitely a roll of the dice for customers and questions remain about how much of the value [they offer] is perceived rather than real”. asserted
they → say → value
He said Aldi was winning over customers because it remained the cheapest place to shop in the market and it would continue to invest to maintain that position by cutting prices. asserted
it → say → prices
However, Aldi does not reveal sales performance in established stores – those open for more than a year – making it difficult to gauge how much growth is just the result of expansion. asserted
growth → reveal → expansion
Aldi’s growth is much slower than than that of its rival Lidl, which is gaining market share with a loyalty scheme while allowing shoppers to order online and pick up in a store. asserted
shoppers → gain → store
Aldi has signed a deal withDeliveroo under which the courier firm’s workers will pick, pack and deliver Aldi groceries sold through its app. asserted
workers → sign → app
The supermarket chain said it had committed to sourcing at least half its products through long-term supplier agreements by next year, giving its producers and manufacturers greater confidence to invest and make Britain’s food system less reliant on imports. asserted
system → say → imports
Aldi said it spent £14bn with British suppliers in 2025 and about 80% of its sales came from them. asserted
% → say → them
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