Doncaster Lidl warehouse 'to create 500 jobs'

Lidl is planning on building a warehouse at the iPort logistics park in Doncaster

Lidl will create 500 jobs by building a new warehouse in Doncaster, the budget supermarket chain has announced.

Construction of a £70m distribution centre is aiming to start in 2017, with a planning application lodged for a site at the iPort logistics park.

The move is part of a £1.5bn investment in Lidl stores and warehouses across the UK over the next three years.

On Wednesday, it announced 400 jobs were to be created at a warehouse in Southampton.

Adrienne Howells, Lidl UK's head of warehouse expansion, said the grocer was "laser focused" on the sustainable growth of its business.

Earlier this year, the chain said it would relocate warehouses in Weston-Super-Mare in Somerset and Livingston in West Lothian to Bristol and Scotland's Eurocentral respectively.

It is also opening two new warehouses in Wednesbury in the West Midlands and Exeter, in Devon, while expanding its regional distribution centres in Newton Aycliffe, County Durham, and Runcorn, Cheshire.

Lidl's sales grew 6.1% over the quarter to 6 November, according to the latest Kantar Worldpanel figures.