Aldi’s new £22m freezer and chill facility in Bathgate was officially opened on Friday 25 September.
The new warehousing facility will provide an extra 17,000sq m of space to help meet growing demand for Aldi products in Scotland, as well as supporting the retailer to expand its range of locally-sourced products. Marking the official opening of the facility, Aldi has renewed its commitment to increasing the number of Scottish products available in its stores to 500 over the next two years.
Aldi currently has 92 stores across the country stocking more than 450 products from its network of over 90 Scottish suppliers. This year, Aldi will open a further four new stores across Scotland taking the total number of staff employed in Scotland to over 3,000 by the end of 2020.
Graham Nicolson, Group Buying Director, Aldi Scotland said: “It is important to us to mark the official opening of our new freezer and chill facility today, which reinforces our continued commitment to invest and support the Scottish food and drink industry.”
“When the decision was made to create a dedicated Scottish Buying team 11 years ago it was made with the clear strategy that buying Scottish products would not cost our customers any more than buying the equivalent non-Scottish product. This has never been compromised, and 30% of our range is now locally sourced in Scotland, the largest share of any supermarket. We are committed to expanding further in Scotland and will be investing an additional £36m in nine new stores before the end of 2021.”
Local MP Hannah Bardell welcomed the news: “I am pleased to hear of Aldi’s new chill and storage facility that is opening in West Lothian. This large investment is most welcome in these difficult times and I hope it will bring new secure employment to the local area.”
