German discounter Aldi has announced plans to open an additional 80 stores in the UK this year as it continues to expand its presence in the British market. The news is the latest part of a £600m investment plan for its UK business announced by Aldi in 2014.

With these new stores, the number of Aldi branches in the UK will rise to around 700, at a time when the larger multiples in the UK are cutting expenditure by closing stores, trimming staff numbers or shelving expansion plans.

UK shoppers have been flocking to the upstart discount retailers over the last number of years, eroding away the market shares of the UK’s traditional big four multiples – Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury’s and Morrison’s – and eating into once healthy profit margins.

The growing popularity of the discounters has forced the traditional UK retailers to rethink their business strategy in recent times. All four have moved away from the "stack them high, sell them model" and have all invested in a range of price cuts across staple brands which has led to a full-out grocery price war in the UK.

Irish market share for Lidl and Aldi

In Ireland, both Aldi and Lidl have also been able to carve out significant market shares for themselves over the last five years. The latest figures from Kantar Worldpanel show that both discounters have a combined share of the Irish grocery retail market of nearly 16%. Aldi has taken a 7.9% share, while a further 8% is held by rival discounter Lidl.

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