Food retailer eyes Hertford store

Hertford could have a new supermarket if plans for a food store on a retail park are given the go-ahead.

Planning and development consultancy Lichfields, who include Lidl amongst their clients, have submitted a planning application to subdivide Hertford's Matalan store in to two units and to widen the range of goods that can be sold to include food.

The planning application includes a retail impact and transport assessment, which suggests a store of the size proposed is likely to create 143 new jobs and with an annual turnover of £12.3mn. The transport assessment predicts up to six deliveries per day, including deliveries by smaller vehicles providing fresh produce such as milk.

The Matalan store is located at the Madford Retail Park in Ware Road, along with Pets At Home, Wickes, Majestic Wine and Costa Coffee.

Lidl have made no comment on the proposed store, but in a recently published brochure, the company identified Hertford as a location of interest, saying: "Lidl are big on expansion, with ambitious plans to achieve 1,000 stores by the end of 2023 across Great Britain.

"This means we are looking to acquire sites that meet our standard store format requirements. Prominent locations with easy access and strong pedestrian or traffic flow.

The company's minimum desired unit size outside of London has recently increased from 14,000sq ft to 18,000sq ft. The floorspace of the proposed food store is 19,999 sq ft, with a sales area of 13,993 sq.ft.

Other sites considered for the store included Bircherley Green, but this was deemed to be "not intended to facilitate a single, large retail unit, with the largest unit proposed measuring just under 600 sq.m." and "not suitable or currently available for the proposed development".

A new Lidl store opened in Edinburgh Way, Harlow last week, whilst a planning application for a store in Bishop's Stortford is still awaiting a decision.

Across the country, the expansion plans of both Aldi and Lidl have increasingly encountered legal challenges from established food retailers such as Tesco and Sainsbury's, who mount legal challenges to new store openings. However, none of these judicial reviews has prevented the opening of new outlets.