ALDI SÜD consolidates its real estate expertise

ALDI SÜD is restructuring how it plans new stores, in response to a property market where cities and councils increasingly want to use space efficiently, create new housing, and support city centres under pressure from online retail and the pandemic. "We believe in the city centre," says Jan Riemann, Director of Property Cooperation and ALDI SÜD's central contact for cross-regional real estate partnerships. "We want to bring city centres back to life and develop them further, to be even closer to our customers. Short distances make shopping easier and reduce traffic in cities."

To support this, ALDI SÜD has created a central point of contact for partnerships across its whole market area, and opened dedicated project development offices in Cologne, Frankfurt am Main and Offenbach, Stuttgart, and Munich, each specialising in mixed-use property in its own city region. "Planning a city-centre site with food service, retail, and a rooftop nursery is considerably more complex than building a stand-alone store out of town," says Riemann. "That's why we're consolidating our expertise."