Largest Lidl warehouse in the world opens in Bedfordshire

German supermarket chain Lidl has opened its largest warehouse in the world.

The regional distribution centre at Houghton Regis near Luton, Bedfordshire, cost £300m to build and is three times bigger than its existing warehouses.

The giant building is 1.2 million square feet in size - the equivalent of about 20 football pitches.

Lidl said the site will create as many as 1,500 jobs and will move more than 9,400 pallets of goods each day, bound for 150 stores.

Its existing distribution centres normally service between 60-80 stores.

"Demand for Lidl has never been higher, and we are seeing an increasing number of people walk through our doors to make savings on every shop," Lidl GB’s chief development officer, Richard Taylor, said.

"The fact that Lidl's largest regional distribution centre in the world is here in Great Britain speaks for itself not only in terms of us needing to meet the growing demand from customers, but also in terms of our ambition to grow that demand in the future."

The company added that the warehouse would be the first Lidl one to feature automation which it said would help to "store more goods and increase capacity."

The building also includes solar panels which will be able to run the warehouse at certain times of the year, and the delivery fleet will be fuelled by biogas made from food waste. 

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt said it was "fantastic" that Lidl was creating so many new jobs.

"As our plan to halve inflation this year and grow the economy bears fruit, businesses can be confident that investing in the UK is the right decision," he said.

“It’s fantastic to see Lidl investing in the UK and creating thousands more well-paid jobs."

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