Construction is underway at the site of Lidl’s new logistics platform in Alcalá de Henares in Spain, which when completed will become the biggest distribution centre in Europe. The 71,800m2 facility will employ 275 workers and supply more than 150 Lidl stores in central Spain together with the retailer’s existing facility in Pinto. Work on the project is due to be completed in summer 2016.
“This will be the biggest distribution platform in the whole of Europe, the most technologically advanced and the most sustainable,” said Javier Suárez, Lidl’s director of expansion and real estate.
At a ceremony held last week to mark the laying of the first stone, Madrid’s regional president Ignacio González said the project would benefit not just the regional economy but the whole of Spain due to the positive repercussions the retailer’s expansion would have on the country’s agrifood sector.
González hailed Lidl’s expansion in the region as a success for the regional government’s economic policies, which include relaxing rules on business hours and “easing fiscal pressure”, claiming they generated “a climate of trust and more welcoming environment for foreign investors”.
He noted that between January and September 2014, Madrid attracted 52 per cent of the total foreign investment in Spain, equivalent to around €5bn.
