A Letterkenny man is leading Lidl’s move into the America market as the supermarket chain prepares to open its first wave of stores in the States.
Up-to 100 locations will be opened in the next year.
Lidl’s first 20 US stores will be opening in North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia, where the company established its US base two years ago.
Lidl – who have 10,000 stores in 27 countries – has a prototype store in Fredericksburg, Virginia and heading up the supermarket giant’s move to America is Letterkenny native Brendan Proctor.
“A lot of the supermarkets are so large, it’s a challenge for people to go shopping,” Proctor said.
“If I wanted to go in and get a bottle of ketchup — first of all, there are probably about 24 aisles in the store.
“I have to find what aisle it’s in. I get there, I find that there’s 50 types of ketchup. Who honestly needs 50 types of ketchup? So we can streamline that.”
Proctor’s father, also Brendan, ran the popular Proctor’s Newsagents in Letterkenny and, now, Brendan junior, is at the coal face of Lidl’s massive US expansion.
Lidl employs 1,400 workers in the United States already, and is poised to add 4,000 more when it opens the stores.
Established grocery chains, such as Wal-Mart, are already under pressure from the likes of Aldi, who have expanded significantly in America, but Proctor has a detailed plan in place.
He said: “When we work with our focus groups, there’s a challenge for a lot of our future customers,” Proctor said. “They’re saying, ‘Okay, but can you really get good quality at these prices?’
“What we’ve seen and heard is that a lot of customers feel they’re being forced to compromise. So they’re either getting okay quality at a cheap price or they’re getting good quality and having to pay very, very high prices.”
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