Lidl has announced the opening of a new £300 million pound warehouse in Luton, its largest distribution centre (DC) in the world.

The new Bedfordshire-based Regional Distribution Centre (RDC), which spans 1.2 million square feet and half a kilometre in length, will service 150 Lidl stores and create up to 1,500 jobs.

Employing “almost triple” the number of employees than preexisting Lidl warehouses, it is anticipated that the warehouse will process and distribute over 9,400 pallets a day across the stores.

The new site is the first UK-based Lidl warehouse to feature automation, which Lidl said is aimed at helping to store more goods and increase capacity at the distribution centre.

The warehouse has also been designed with sustainability at the forefront, featuring solar panels that are set to generate around two million kilowatt-hour units of electricity annually, Lidl added.

Richard Taylor, chief development officer at Lidl GB said the opening of the warehouse was a “seminal moment” for Lidl.

“The fact that Lidl's largest RDC 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,” he said.

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