ALDI, the low-priced Germany-based grocery chain that claims to be America’s fastest-growing retailer, seems determined to live up to its reputation. It has announced that 2025 will see 225 new stores in states across the nation.
That’s the most it has ever opened in a single year, though the company says that for more than a decade it has added “hundreds of stores per year” in the U.S.
The retailer will achieve this year’s goal by converting 220 Winn-Dixie and Harveys Supermarket stores it bought last year from Southeastern Grocers to the ALDI format. The process is to continue through 2027.
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ALDI will divest itself of an additional 170 Winn-Dixie’s and Harveys acquired in the same transaction and spin them off to a consortium led by their original owner, Southeastern Grocers and its senior leadership. Other members of the group are C&S Wholesale Grocers and private investors. These stores – “a meaningful number” -- and will continue to operate as before, under their original banners, ALDI said.
“Throughout this transformational journey, our commitment to thoughtful, purpose-driven growth remains strong and propels us forward with renewed momentum,” Anthony Hucker, CEO of Southeastern Grocers, added.
The transaction includes both the grocery and liquor store operations of the stores acquired. “This includes approximately 170 grocery stores in Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi and Florida, as well as the existing Winn-Dixie liquor store business,” according to a statement from Southeastern Grocers.
“This transaction allows ALDI to create a focused conversion portfolio in the Southeast as it progresses its expansion plans across the country,” ALDI said. Those plans include the Northeast and Midwest, where 330 stores will be added across both regions by the end of 2028. Its presence in the West will also grow, with more stores in Southern California and Arizona. And it will enter Las Vegas and other new markets.
ALDI intends to invest $9 billion over the next five years in its national expansion strategy, which will occur through organic growth as well as acquisition. In 2024, it opened nearly 120 new locations, for a total U.S. store count of 2,400. The company claims to be the nation’s third-largest grocery chain by number of stores.
The new development was foreshadowed in March 2024, when ALDI announced a goal of opening 800 stores nationwide by the end of 2028. The Winn-Dixie/Harveys-to-ALDI’s conversions began in the second half of the year with grand openings for many already underway, using environmentally friendly features.
According to the publication Grocery Dive, “the deal creates a new regional grocery competitor in the Southeast. The concentration of the former ALDI locations in the Southeast could prove beneficial from a distribution standpoint for C&S, which has supplied Southeastern Grocers for 20 years.”
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