Aldi Rollout

German supermarket chain, Aldi has made a major impact in the UK food retail market in recent years and has been embarking on a rollout to increase its distribution and market share. Woolgar Hunter provided civil and structural engineering services to the Aldi Framework for four years, delivering a programme of both new-build stores and the refurbishment of existing facilities.

One of our early tasks was to work with the wider Design Team to improve efficiencies through the development of a small number of standard designs. These could be fitted to the sites, together with site-specific additional retail units, to suit the constraints of the local environment and planning restrictions.

We were involved in the projects from the earliest stages: working with site-finders to supply pre-acquisition due diligence on the engineering constraints; providing the technical information needed to support planning and Building Warrant submissions; steering the build programme through construction; and contributing to “lessons learned” workshops.

Retail development can be contentious in planning terms and we also provided Expert Witness to Planning Inquiries.
Stores were delivered across a wide geographical area, from Irvine, through Glasgow and Fife in Central Scotland; to Oban, Inverness, Elgin, St. Andrews and Peterhead in the north.