A supermarket giant is planning to open a new site in Dorset.

The budget supermarket chain Aldi has announced that it is currently looking for a site in Dorchester to open a new store.

This comes after news that the chain announced its largest ever annual investment, in a bid to ‘accelerate its expansion’ across towns and cities in the UK.

The supermarket is searching for freehold town-centre, edge-of-centre, and retail park sites suitable for property development.

Aldi say that the sites should be able to accommodate a 20,000 square foot store with around 100 parking spaces. Ideally the location will be near a main road with good visibility and access and a prominent main road frontage where possible.

Richard Thornton, Communications Director at Aldi UK, said: “We are committed to bringing high quality, affordable groceries to millions more British families.

“With more than 1,000 stores across the country, our footprint is definitely growing, but we know there are still a number of towns that either don’t have an Aldi or have shown demand for more stores.”

In its annual trading update, Aldi said it plans to open 23 new locations before the end of the year  after marking a what is a record £800m investment programme during the year so far.

The retailer, which currently has over 1,000 stores, has previously announced plans to scale to 1,500 stores across the UK and Aldi has confirmed Dorset is among the areas it is focusing on. 

As well as this, Aldi are looking to attract a footfall of roughly 15,000 people to its store. Bosses are willing to explore all opportunities to build an Aldi site, this includes developer-led schemes as well as existing retail units.

In Aldi’s list of required locations, Dorchester are the only site in Dorset being looked at. There are two Aldi stores in Weymouth, with one off the Chickerell Link Road in Link Park and the other off Mercery Road.

Aldi are encouraging anyone who has a site in mind that would fit the requirements to contact their team on realestateacquisitions@aldi.co.uk. To look into more of the site requirements for Aldi stores, visit www.aldi.co.uk/about-aldi/property/required-towns