The Aldi discount grocery chain continues coast-to-coast expansion in the United States with new stores, its 26th regional headquarters and distribution center and additional e-commerce offerings in the pipeline this year.
On February 10 the Batavia, Illinois-headquartered private label specialist marketer (approximately 90% of its SKUs are own label products) announced that it will open approximately 100 new outlets nationwide in 2021, focusing on Arizona, California, Florida and the Northeast. By 2022 it aims to be the third largest food retailer by store count in the country, with well over 2,000 units operational in 38 states.
As part of an ongoing mission to provide customers convenience in how and when they shop, the company will add curbside grocery pickup service to 500 additional stores by the end of the year, bringing the total number of curbside locations to more than 1,200. Aldi will also continue to offer grocery delivery via Instacart in almost all of its units.
Additionally, Aldi has broken ground on a new regional headquarters and distribution center in Loxley, Alabama, which will support the company’s expansion throughout the Gulf Coast market. The 564,000-square-foot facility is the company’s sixth distribution center in the southern United States, and it will be equipped to service up to 100 stores in Alabama, the south of Georgia, Mississippi, the Florida Panhandle and Louisiana.
The Loxley distribution center will feature several sustainable building elements, such as solar panels, LED lighting and an environmentally friendly refrigeration system. An additional 200 jobs will be created at the facility when it opens next year. With the new distribution center in place, plans will be carried out to open as many as 35 new Gulf Coast-area stores by the end of 2022, with the first two of them in Tallahassee, Florida slated to open later this year.
“We’re incredibly proud to continue growing in all aspects of our business, especially in light of the challenges businesses have faced in the last year (due to the coronavirus pandemic),” said Jason Hart, chief executive officer of Aldi operations in the United States. “Our commitment to shoppers, new and existing, is the same – we will do everything in our power to offer the lowest possible prices every day – and we look forward to supporting more communities across the country by offering products at a value that can’t be matched.”
Aldi features an impressive range of own label frozen products, ranging from Breakfast Best Sausage & Gravy Meat Lovers Breakfast Bowls and Mama Cozy’s Pizza Kitchen Original Thin Crust Pepperoni Pizza, to Season’s Choice Steamable Broccoli Florets, Sea Queen Cooked Shrimp, Bremen French Onion Soup and Belmont Butter Pecan Ice Cream.
