As German global discount chain, Lidl, continues to buck the trend by stealing market share from Britain’s so-called ‘Big Four’ supermarkets, HBPW is now playing an increasing part in its on-going success story.
Since gaining a foothold in the UK in 1994, Lidl, whose pedigree dates back to the 1930’s, now has more than 600 stores and, with 4.4% of the UK grocery market firmly under its belt, the chain is building more stores whilst extending existing outlets.
Geoenvironmental Engineer, Jay Fox, said: “They have an on-going programme of store improvements across the country as part of the chain’s drive to develop in store bakeries and improve parking facilities at existing outlets.
“As part of this programme HBPW is assisting Lidl’s Northern region with ground investigations and geoenvironmental advice at a number of sites including Ossett in West Yorkshire, Driffield, Brigg near Scunthorpe and Woodseats in Sheffield.
“The challenge is to carry out our work without disrupting any of Lidl’s operations, which can be difficult because of some of the areas we need to access,” said Jay.
“Many of the chain’s stores are located in older buildings and sometimes Lidl doesn’t always have access to records indicating how the original foundations were built. Consequently we have to dig pits and boreholes so that we can get the necessary information for engineering design and to ascertain whether, or not, there are any contamination issues.”
Jay said some of the stores were only two years old and, in certain cases, Lidl had been purchasing adjoining residential or commercial land in order to expand car parking facilities.
“Over and above existing stores, we are also working with them on new retail developments and hope to be involved with many of these at a much earlier stage. I am delighted that our initial trial period was a success and that we are now on the chain’s new Framework Agreement.”
Lidl, along with other discount supermarket chains, have gradually been eating into the market share of the biggest supermarkets, and have provoked a fierce price battle among the top four chains.
November’s Kantor Worldpanel figures showed that Lidl’s sales rose by 19% in the latest quarter from a year earlier.
In contrast, sales at Tesco, the UK’s largest supermarket chain, fell 2.5% from a year earlier, while Morrisons dropped 1.7%.