Could supermarket giant Lidl be coming to Hitchin?

The Lidl brand was founded in Germany and has grown a great deal to become one of Europe's leading food retailers, with the first Lidl GB store opening its doors in 1994.

Nearly three decades later, the cut-price store now has more than 800 stores and thirteen regional distribution centres across Great Britain employing more than 22,000 people. 

Their latest expansion scheme - equating to a total countrywide investment of around £1.3bn - also involves paying a finders fee to anyone that identifies a suitable site for a new Lidl store.

The fee will either be 1.5 per cent of the total freehold purchase price or 10 per cent of the first year's rent for leaseholds - which would equate to £22,500 for a completed £1.5m site purchase.

Lidl said: "To continue our phenomenal growth we require further sites across the country.

"Our finders fees are available to absolutely anyone that can identify a viable option for a new store that we're not already aware of, and we welcome any suitable suggestions that will help us to meet our ambitious target of 1,100 stores by the end of 2025

"Since the beginning of 2022 we have already opened 23 new stories, providing more communities with access to high quality food at the lowest possible price and in March 2022 we became the sixth largest supermarket in the UK."

The company has a wish list of edge of town centre sites across the country, but they said they will 'consider opportunities in addition to those areas listed.'

If you can help by earmarking a site for Lidl in Hitchin or North Herts in addition to their store in Letchworth, you are requested to contact the company and if the earmarked site is successful, will receive a 'finders fee'.