Aldi UK has set out a record £900 million investment for 2027, including about 40 new stores, after reporting sales of £19 billion for 2025. The discounter plans to open 42 stores in 2026 and says it aims to grow its estate to 1,500 sites over the longer term.
Announced on 29 September 2026, the plan follows a year to 31 December 2025 in which Aldi UK’s sales rose 5% to £19 billion and pre-tax profit slipped by £2.6 million to £433 million. The estate stands at 1,092 stores across the UK and Ireland combined, so the figure cannot be read as a UK-only count.
Aldi UK operates its own stores and does not offer franchises, so the news is a benchmark for the sector’s physical expansion rather than a franchising opportunity; brands that do recruit operators can be compared across the UK franchise directory.
The 2026 programme and price cuts
Aldi is set to open 42 stores in 2026, with 30 of them due in the final 10 weeks of the year. It is investing £370 million in new UK stores this year, and recent openings include Telford, Rayleigh and Hoxton.
Separately, it has committed £340 million to price cuts across more than 1,000 products in 2026. For 2027, the article says Aldi will open a similar number of stores to this year, and the £900 million is not broken down between stores, distribution and price.
Planning and the pace of growth
Giles Hurley, chief executive of Aldi UK and Ireland, linked the pace of openings to sites and consents. He said: “We could probably grow faster but we need to find the right sites in the right locations and have to go through a planning process which can, at times, be challenging.”
The 1,500 target covers the longer term and carries no date in the coverage reviewed, so it cannot be turned into an annual rate. At 42 openings a year, the estate would take close to ten years to add the roughly 400 stores that separate 1,092 from 1,500, although Aldi has not suggested a timetable and the sum is only illustrative.
Planning rules differ across the UK
Aldi’s estate covers the whole of the UK and Ireland, but planning is devolved. England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland each run their own planning systems, and the coverage reviewed does not say how the 2027 openings are split between them.
Customers and distribution
Grocery Gazette reported that Aldi attracted more than 425,000 additional customers, and trade coverage describes the £900 million as a retail and logistics programme, with the distribution network among the areas to be expanded. The announcement does not split the sum between new stores, warehouses and price. Aldi’s record-spend framing also sits alongside a profit figure that fell slightly in 2025, which is the context for the 2027 plan.
Suppliers and delivery
Aldi said it spent £14 billion with British suppliers in 2025, and that around 80% of its sales come from UK suppliers. It aims to put 50% of products on long-term supplier agreements by 2027, and it has a delivery partnership with Deliveroo, the platform several food and drink franchises recruiting in the UK also sell through.
The 50% target applies to the share of products rather than the share of sales, and the coverage reviewed does not give today’s starting level.
