Aldi is coming to Kinnegad

Aldi is coming to Kinnegad after An Bord Pleanála decided to uphold Westmeath County Council's decision to grant the German retail giant planning permission for a new store in the town.

Retail rival Tesco, whose own store is adjacent to Aldi's site, appealed the council's decision on a number of grounds, including what it claimed was the application's failure to provide any open space, its inappropriate design and a shorfall in car parking provision.

In a statement issued today, an Aldi spokesperson said that the firm welcomes An Bord Pleanála’s decision.

“We believe competition is good for consumers. We will now move forward with our plans to open a new store in Kinnegad, bringing our range of award winning products at unbeatable prices to the local community. Our commitment to our customers is we will never be beaten on price and that we will always provide a minimum of a 15% discount on a basket of goods compared to the big supermarkets.

“Our stores in Mullingar and Athlone have become an established presence in each town’s retail landscape, proving very popular with local consumers.  Each store is deeply involved with their local communities, donating surplus food daily to local charitable organisations as part of Aldi’s partnership with FoodCloud.  Combined, our Westmeath stores have donated almost 38,000 meals to charity through FoodCloud, saving charities more than €50,000.”

“The opening of every new Aldi store has brought greater choice, quality and value to more and more consumers across Ireland. Since 1999 we have invested €1.2 billion in our store opening programme and we spent over €700 million with Irish suppliers last year.

“We are investing €160m to expand and upgrade our Irish store network. We have committed €100m to constructing and opening 20 new stores by the end of 2019, while Project Fresh sees a further €60m investment to revamp the layout and design of all our 130 stores nationwide.”