Aldi to recruit 6,000 new staff across the UK

The German-owned supermarket chain Aldi has announced plans to create 6,000 new jobs in the UK this year.

The staff will be recruited for its distribution centres, as well as a number of new stores including in Norwich and Newcastle.

Aldi has 990 stores and 40,000 staff in Britain and last year overtook Morrisons to become the UK's fourth-largest supermarket chain.

It said it had attracted 1.3 million new customers in the past three months.

Its store assistants receive a starting pay of £11.00 an hour in most parts of the UK and £12.75 within the M25. Warehouse staff get a minimum starting salary of £13.18 an hour.

Aldi store managers have salaries of up to £63,000 a year.

Aldi's Richard Thornton told the BBC the company "prides itself" on paying well and "prioritising value".

The discount retailer reported double-digit sales growth for its strong Christmas sales period as the cost of living crisis continued to bite.

"What we're seeing is shoppers prioritising value like never before, we attracted 1.3 million new customers in the last three months alone," Mr Thornton said.

• Aldi becomes Britain’s fourth-largest supermarket
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Aldi has been expanding and growing its market share in the UK over the past decade and said it had invested more than £700m in expansion last year.

Aldi increased pay for store staff to a minimum of £11 an hour at the beginning of this year. Pay for warehouse staff went up by 20% to a minimum of £13.18 an hour at the start of February.

Aldi is not alone in boosting its pay in an effort to recruit and retain staff. Asda hiked wages for its shop floor workers in July and discounter Lidl put them up in October.

The cost-of-living crisis has helped to further drive the growth of discount retailers, which were already expanding strongly.

Both Aldi and Lidl are opening new stores, which is driving extra sales. Meanwhile, prices are also rising, pushing up the value of sales.

Consumers are buying fewer big brands and putting cheaper own-label products in their shopping baskets instead.

According to retail research firm Kantar, private label ranges, which make up more than 90% of Aldi's products, now account for 51% of the market, compared with branded products.

Sales of the cheapest own-label ranges were at a record high last year, according to Kantar.

Meanwhile, more than 2,000 roles are set to go at Tesco after it announced more changes to the way it runs its supermarkets.

The UK's biggest supermarket chain said it was planning to cut 1,750 team manager posts across hundreds of its larger stores, and close roles elsewhere. However, it said a new tier of 1,800 lower-paid shift leader positions would take over running its shop floors.