Aldi plans to double market share, push store numbers past 400
- January 21, 2009
- Daniel Palmer
German-owned discount supermarket chain Aldi, which now has over 200 outlets in Australia, is continuing an aggressive store roll-out.
The company is currently building new distribution centres in Sydney and Melbourne to cope with the expected expansion, allowing it to double its impact on the Australian grocery market, according to The Australian.
The new warehouses in Sydney and Melbourne will be built over the next three years at a total cost of $500m, enabling the company to cater for 460 stores. At their current rate of expansion the 460 store milestone will be reached in around seven years, and could see them more than double their current market share of 3 per cent.
Managing Director, Michael Kloeters, described the pace of store openings as “frantic”, with 38 new stores last year, but said they would continue to stick to a plan of opening at least 30 outlets a year “for the foreseeable future”, The Australian reported. He added that the family-owned business had built annual turnover to somewhere in the range of David Jones and Myer, implying it was between $2.1 and $3 billion. As a means of comparison, market leader Woolworths last financial year reported annual sales of $30.5b in their Australian Food & Liquor division.
The company, which opened its first Australian store in January of 2001, still only operates in the eastern states and territories and will not extend beyond eastern borders in the near future, according to Mr Kloeters. Property price falls would aid growth, but “restrictive covenants” were still a concern, he added.
Since the Grocery Price Inquiry their expansion has gathered pace, with comments by the ACCC giving impetus to their push and bringing them priceless positive publicity. The competition watchdog suggested Aldi, which primarily sells private label goods, was having a “dynamic impact” on the grocery sector in Australia, forcing a competitive response from Coles and Woolworths. Comments from Consumer Affairs Minister Chris Bowen and results from the GROCERYchoice price survey gave further ammunition for their consequent advertising campaign, and unquestionably delivered the brand a wider audience.
The upbeat publicity has combined with an economic downturn, which has seen discount grocers become more prominent in a number of countries, to ensure that Aldi now has the perfect opportunity to become the ‘third force’ in Australia’s “workably competitive” grocery sector.
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10 Responses to “Aldi plans to double market share, push store numbers past 400”
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I note from the comments in A F N regarding gowth and expansion etc that you will not be coming to South Australia, this is a shame as when we were in Victoria we visited some of your stores and bought quite a few items. There are several things that we would like to purchase , is there any way we can buy them from you direct and pay the freight of course.
Regards J& M Cyster
We drive 360 km to get to the nearest aldi store in Swan Hill VIC, wish they would at least open one in Mildura.
Regards,
Olivia
We travel interstate regularly and shop at Aldi Stores. When can we expect to have them in South Australia?
We have shopped in Aldi stores in Queensland when we are on our travels and loved it the prices were so cheap I can’t understand why we cannot get one in South Australia we are crying out for one here what is stopping it from happening. Has anyone heard of the legislation which is stopping Aldi from coming to South Australia.
Hi,
We live in Port Macquarie – 2444 – on the mid North coast of NSW and cannot readily acces Aldi without many Kilometres of travel.
I understand that you are considering opening a store in Port Macquarie and would be pleased if you could provide any details of where and when if this is in fact correct.
We always visit Aldi when we visit our children in Sydney but it is not always practical to pre-purchase our needs.
Please let me know.
Regards,
Dennis Pearce
We will never get it in SA to quote the Aldi Website:
“Locations attractive to ALDI should ideally have an immediate catchment population in excess of 20,000 and be situated on major roads with good access and exposure. ” ~ ALDI, accessed 12/4/2011, http://www.aldi.com.au/au/html/company/3127.htm?WT.z_src=main
Mount Gambier is the ideal place to build an Aldi store. The town has a population of near on 24,000, and if you include the surrounding towns up to an hour away in all directions you can see it would be profitable. There is a major highway on the Adelaide side on town where a shopping complex is being built, ideal spot!
Towns in Victoria with half the population have an Aldi, you can’t tell me it’s not viable to have one in Mount Gambier for a start.
It seems that Aldi expands in a state from its distribution hub and based on the 20000 pop factor in a driveable radius from store provided also store is in shopping centre or on a good site by major road. I would like to know what legislation would stop them . Barossa Valley SA has pop of over 22000 and only one hour from Riverland and Adelaide CBD centre. Barossa Council has though kept out Woolworths Coles and MacDonaldsb but Aldi (German HQ) you think would be welcome . Mildura might be the first to have store before South Australia. Many would travel from Riverland etc to shop at Aldi Mildura . Then you would think a Riverland or Barossa store next if supplies were coming from Victoria..Barossa main centre is close to Main highway and is connected to Adelaide by new Northern Expressway. Aldi would cause a shopping revolution in SA and help the people doing it tough because of excessive rises in the total price of a weekly or fortnightly shop.
Since Woolworths is moving to the new Big W location Aldi’s could buy the Woolworths place on Commercial St East in Mount Gambier. It’s already set up for supermarket and as others have mentioned we have the population. The nearest Aldi’s is either Portland or Hamilton but we can’t bring fruit and veg across the borders but we can buy other items there.
Since we’ve been selling a rent to own 3 bed room home in Portland we’ve been shopping in Aldi’s every chance we get!
Bring Aldi to Mount Gambier please… we have 2 times the amount of the population which many Aldi stores are located, yet we are neglected… I see this as unfair and UN-AUSTRALIAN … the Australian government is all about equal rights among its citizens.. so why can we not benefit the same food price advantages that those who live in Vic, QLD and NSW have? If your not going to bring Aldi here and give us cheaper food, then maybe the food prices for SA and WA and NT should go down to meet the equal amounts. Its simply unfair to us
The price of food over here is appalling…. $14 a kilo for grapes???? you have to be kidding me 
When I went 2 weeks later across the border and in Melbourne and they were selling for $3.45 a kilo…. what exactly is going on here? A WHOLE LOT MORE THEN WHAT WE ARE LED TO BELIEVE!!!! ….. Australia is capitalist.