Lidl wants new UK base to drive expansion

The discount grocery retailer Lidl is looking for a new UK headquarters that would be more than thre…

The discount grocery retailer Lidl is looking for a new UK headquarters that would be more than three times the size of its existing base, underlining the company's ambition to expand.

Lidl has told property agents that it wants a site for a 150,000 sq ft head office in the south east of England. Its existing offices cover 38,000 sq ft in Wimbledon, where the retailer has been based since it arrived in the UK in 1994.

Lidl and its German rival Aldi are growing sales rapidly in the UK and plan to open hundreds of new stores in the next few years. Their performance is piling the pressure on the "big four" supermarket chains - Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury's and Morrisons - which are suffering falling sales in their largest stores.

The pace at which Lidl is opening stores and hiring staff means it needs to move to larger offices, according to Property Week.

Ronny Gottschlich, the managing director of Lidl in the UK, told The Telegraph in November that the retailer wants to expand from 600 stores at present to up to 1,500.