A brand new Aldi supermarket could soon be built at Ainsdale in Southport, creating 40 new jobs.
Aldi has submitted a full planning application to Sefton Council to build the new 1,881 sq m store at the Sandbrook Way local centre, to the west of Sandbrook Road in Ainsdale, next to St John’s Church and the Ainsdale Centre for Health and Wellbeing.
The proposed opening hours would be 8am-11pm Monday to Saturday, and 10am-6pm Sundays and bank holidays.
The scheme would include 117 parking spaces.
It would become the third Aldi store in Southport, adding to Aldi sites already operating at Meols Cop retail park in Blowick and Liverpool Road in Birkdale.
Aldi says it wants to create “a modern, well positioned and exciting addition to the local area.”
The proposed site is a brownfield plot of land currently housing several buildings including several residential and retail properties many of which are vacant and in poor condition, which are now due for demolition.
Sefton Council has acquired most of these properties with a view to bringing the site into their ownership.
Sefton Council has been collaborating with Aldi to bring the site forward for redevelopment with having expressed long-term aspirations to improve the Sandbrook Way local centre.
Aldi says its new development would “bring a new, modern food store to the local area, improving the appearance and environment in the area” as well as enhancing the local retail offer for residents in Ainsdale, broadening choice for shoppers and creating 40 full-time jobs.
The project would involve the demolition of all existing structures and the erection of a new foodstore with supporting access roads, car parking, servicing area, hard and soft landscaping, electrical substation and site infrastructure.
The scheme provides a total of 117 customer car parking spaces including 8 disabled, 6 parent and child spaces, 4 75 kva rapid electric vehicle charging spaces, 4, 22 kva fast electric vehicle charging spaces, 6. cycle hoops, 6 motorcycle spaces and 8 staff spaces.
Also included is the infrastructure for future passive EVC spaces – 20 passive EVC spaces to account for 20% of the total parking count.
Aldi said: “An Aldi store is a modest scale supermarket often fulfilling a neighbourhood shopping role as well as attracting customers from the surrounding area.
“Aldi’s customers generally use other shops and stores alongside Aldi in order to fulfil their grocery shopping and local service needs. Aldi is, therefore, complementary to the existing pattern of trading in both existing local/city centre shopping areas.”
Speaking in March, a spokesperson for Aldi said: “We’re delighted to announce our plans for a new food store at this site in Ainsdale.
“This is an ideal site for a new Aldi food store, which would significantly improve the local retail options available to residents in the community and transform this brownfield site.
“We’d like to encourage all those in the local area to let us know what they think about our plans and look forward to working with residents and stakeholders to deliver a new Aldi food store for the area.”
Residents can find details about the plans and give their feedback online, by calling the Freephone information number 0800 066 8941 or emailing [email protected]
Aldi is one of the World’s largest privately owned companies with over 9,000 stores across Europe, North America and Australia and is proud to count itself amongst the leading global retailers.
Aldi opened its first stores in the UK in 1990 and currently operates over 1,000 stores across the country.
Aldi says: “Aldi is able to achieve lower prices through an extraordinarily efficient operation, from the sourcing of its products, to the retail experience in store.
“In an Aldi store, you will not find 100’s of versions of the same thing.
Aldi focuses on quality rather than quantity; stocking a range of groceries that includes everything shoppers need, every day of the week.
“This allows Aldi to get the lowest prices from suppliers – then pass on the savings to customers with quantity discounts.
“As a food store with predominantly own labelled brands, Aldi would not compete directly with existing businesses within the area.
“For instance it does not have an in store butcher, fishmonger or café and does not sell cigarettes or newspapers.
“This, therefore, allows local businesses to flourish as customers link trips with the Aldi store and other local shops.”
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