Aldi boss: Planning delays are slowing new supermarket openings and job creation

Aldi’s UK boss Giles Hurley has criticised the country’s complex planning system and objections from competitors for stalling new store openings and job creation.

The supermarket chief executive said the once straightforward 12-week planning process had now extended to a two-to-three-year procedure.

“There’s a number of hurdles in the way of moving at the pace we’d like to. It’s now more convoluted, more complex,” Hurley told The Times.

Aldi is planning to inject over £650m into expanding its store estate this year, with 40 new supermarkets in the pipeline creating around 1,600 jobs.

Hurley said that the reality of the discounter’s expansion plans was increasingly shaped by the inefficiencies of the country’s planning framework.

“Clearly, there’s a benefit for inward investment into the country and also for customers in terms of choice and value,” he said.

“Where we can, we work with the government to try and keep the system as efficient as we can.”

The chief executive said Aldi’s plans were also being repeatedly delayed by objections filed by supermarket rivals such as Tesco and Sainsbury’s, which would raise concerns about the potential impact of new Aldi branches on local centres and planning guidelines.

“It’s been well publicised that our competitors do object to our planning,” Hurley said.

“Sometimes on matters which we think are pretty spurious. That delays us; it doesn’t stop us, but these are frustrating delays around investments and job creation.”

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