Leading grocery retailer Aldi has officially opened its new supermarket at Harworth’s Logistics North development in Bolton on 1 June 2017, as it continues to expand its footprint across the North West.
Olympic cycling gold medallist Jason Kenny opened the c. 18,500 sq. ft store that will employ around 30 members of staff on a plot immediately adjacent to Junction 4 of the M61. Aldi already employs 550 staff at the development within its 610,000 sq. ft regional distribution centre, which opened in April 2016 at Logistics North and features a whole floor dedicated to the Academy, Aldi’s recruitment and training department.
The milestone follows a series of developments in rapid succession at the North West’s largest commercial development in 2017. In January, Whistl – the second largest postal operator in the UK – announced its decision to take a ten-year lease on M&G’s Logistics 225 unit, with more than 300 staff beginning work from its new depot from May to expand its existing mail, packet and parcel and ecommerce business.
At the start of May, Harworth also announced that it had entered into a joint venture with the Lancashire County Pension Fund – advised by Local Pension Partnership and Knight Frank Investment Management – to deliver ten commercial units totalling approximately 564,000 sq. ft across 31.2 acres over the next two years. This followed Harworth starting the construction of two other commercial units, totalling 52,000 sq. ft, at the start of April that will be ready for occupation at the beginning of 2018.
Since it received outline planning consent at the end of December 2013, nearly 3m sq. ft of space has already been built or is under construction at Logistics North, with more than 1,500 people already employed from the development. Land for just 1m sq. ft of space remains available.
Chris Davidson, Associate Director of Major Projects at Harworth Group plc, said:
“Aldi’s investment in Logistics North over the past three years has been significant and I’m very pleased that their retail store is now open for local residents to benefit from. The opening of this new supermarket is further evidence that the long-term investment made in the site is delivering growth and we’re delighted that our objective of Logistics North enabling the creation of thousands of new jobs is coming to fruition.”
Councillor Cliff Morris, Leader of Bolton Council, said:
“The opening of this new Aldi store further demonstrates major businesses’ confidence in investing in Bolton. Aldi’s distribution centre and other businesses opening at Logistics North have already created thousands of jobs for our residents. We are delighted that a development such as this will provide further employment opportunities for a large amount of local people. ”
Ruth Doyle, Regional Managing Director at Aldi said:
“As the UK’s fastest growing supermarket, we’re on course to open 1,000 stores by 2022. Bolton in particular, is a key location for us as it’s home to a number of our stores and our Regional Distribution Centre.”