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Lidl’s Polegate store in Sussex

Lidl has created over 700 new jobs over the past two months as part of accelerated expansion plans across the UK.

The discounter is also set to hit the 700-store mark today, with five new stores opening in Edinburgh, Hull, Polegate in Sussex and Rosehill in south London.

Lidl will already have launched 19 new stores in 2018 by the end of this month.

All staff will be paid the national living wage from 1 March this year, following Lidl’s pledge to do so last November.

“As the UK’s fastest-growing supermarket, surpassing 700 stores is yet further proof of our ambitious rate of expansion across Britain,” said Lidl UK expansion and development board director Ingo Fischer.

“It’s great that more people than ever before have access to our high-quality, fresh and locally sourced products at incredible value, and that as a result, we’re able to create more jobs for local communities up and down the country.”

This comes as part of Lid’s £1.45bn expansion across the UK over the past year, with plans to open over 50 new stores and regenerate 30 existing stores during this financial year.

The discounter has also announced plans for a major new RDC in Luton, with a further five new warehouses already in the pipeline.