Supermarket giant Lidl opens a new store in Liverpool today, its 900th in the UK, creating 40 jobs with staff being paid a minimum of £10.10 an hour. Tony McDonough reports

German supermarket chain Lidl will open the doors of its new store in Liverpool today – its 900th outlet since it arrived in the UK in 1994.

Lidl, a discount retailer which operates more than 11,000 stores across Europe and the US, will employ 40 staff at the outlet, located on Edge Lane. It will employ 40 staff who will be paid a minimum of £10.10 an hour, higher than the National Living Wage.

It will join five other stores being opened by the company in January across the UK, creating a total of almost 250 jobs. Additional store openings include two new London stores in Heston and St Mary Cray, Shipley, Merry Hill and Newcastle.

A new Lidl store had been planned for the site of the former Abbey Cinema in Wavertree. The company planned to demolish the building and build a new store, creating 30 jobs. But heritage campaigners made a successful bid to get the building listed, and the project remains in the balance.

Lidl GB chief executive Christian Härtnagel, who will soon be handing over to new chief executive, Ryan McDonnell, said: “As my time at Lidl GB comes to an end, I have been reflecting on our achievements over the past five years.

“Since my appointment in 2016, we have opened more than 240 stores and seven distribution centres, creating thousands of new jobs for the UK economy. The opening of our 900th store reiterates our ambitious plans and commitment to Great Britain, and we remain on track to open 1,100 stores by the end of 2025.”

As part of its ongoing plans, Lidl has committed to investing £1.3bn in its store expansion over 2021 and 2022. All new stores will also benefit from the discounter’s surplus food donation programme, Feed It Back, in partnership with Neighbourly, which donated 2.7m meals to local good causes in 2020 and 5.5m in 2021.