Source: Sharecast
The chain will open 80 new stores as it targets an estate of 1,500 sites across the UK, up from 1,060 at present.
Sales in 2024 rose to £18.1bn, up from £17.9bn a year earlier. Operating profit fell to £435.5m from £552.9m with the company citing price cuts, infrastructure investment and higher wages.
Aldi in August lifted pay for its more than 28,000 hourly paid workers for the second time in two months.
Chief executive of the chain’s UK operation Giles Hurley said shoppers were "still finding things difficult”.
He added that the recent rise in National Insurance costs for employers and new packaging rules had already “rippled through to prices on the shelf edge” across the supermarket sector.
“Any policies which affect the operating costs of business should be considered very, very carefully because of the very real risk they find their way... back into the food system and onto prices,” he told the BBC.
Reporting by Frank Prenesti for Sharecast.com
