Aldi has said it is on track to eventually operate 1,500 UK stores, despite a report this week that claimed the number was unrealistic. The CACI report, Discounters’ Challenge in Tesco & Sainsbury’s Heartland, claimed there were 959 potential new sites in the UK where the demographics would support a new discounter store over the next five years.

“This may be enough to hit the short-term growth plans of Aldi and Lidl,” the report states, “but it would not be sufficient to achieve Aldi’s goal of 1,500 stores in the UK.” Aldi currently has 430 so even if was able to snap up all of the sites identified by CACI it would still have fewer than 1,400. But Peter Casey, regional MD at Aldi, said the retailer was gaining new customers each week. “Our plans to open one store a week until we reach our target of 1,500 UK stores are well under way.”