400 jobs created as Lidl opens biggest ever distribution centre

400 jobs are being created with the opening of a Lidl’s biggest ever distribution centre at iPort in Doncaster.

The new Regional Distribution Centre (RDC), which represents a £70m investment in Lidl’s expansion and logistics, will initially provide support to 53 Lidl stores across South Yorkshire, Lincolnshire and the Midlands, with this number expected to grow.

At 58,000m², the distribution centre is the supermarket’s biggest to date, with 3,900 pallets of products projected to pass through the premises every day.

Tsvetelina Butrakova, Lidl UK regional director for Doncaster, said: “We’re extremely excited to mark the start of the year with the opening of our Doncaster distribution centre, which plays an essential role in enabling us to meet growing customer demand for Lidl products.

“The centre also underlines our commitment to creating more job opportunities, and I am so incredibly proud of the team that we have here in Doncaster and across our stores, whose hard work and dedication has enabled us to get where we are today”.

Lidl also announced employees at the warehouse and store will benefit from an increase in pay, as it plans to match the voluntary Living Wage rate, as recommended by the Living Wage Foundation.

The new salaries of £9.00 per hour, increased from £8.75, will come into effect from 1 March and will be 10% higher than the Government’s ‘National Living Wage’.

Lidl currently has warehouses in 12 other locations across the UK, including Southampton, Northfleet, Enfield, Belvedere, Bridgend, Livingston, Lutterworth, Avonmouth, Newton Aycliffe, Wednesbury, Exeter and Runcorn.

The warehouse is Lidl’s third to open in the past two years, with plans for four further regional distribution centres to open by 2025, along with the relocation of its Livingston warehouse to Eurocentral, near Motherwell.