Lidl Stores Will Make U.S. Debut June 15

ARLINGTON, Va. — The U.S. food retailing market will have one more player come next month.

German discount retailer Lidl will make its U.S. debut on June 15. It will be the 28th country in the company's footprint. 

At a May 16 event in New York introducing the array of private label products it will offer at its American stores, Lidl US CEO Brendan Proctor attributed the earlier opening date — moved up from 2018 — to the U.S. team's "hard work," and promised customers a "retooled, refreshed and rethought" grocery experienced.

According to Lidl, its first 20 stores to open in the United States will be in Kinston, Greenville, Wilson, Sanford, Rocky Mount, Winston-Salem, Havelock, Rockingham and Wake Forest, N.C; Spartanburg and Greenville, S.C.; and Virginia Beach, Hampton, Culpeper, Chesapeake, Norfolk, Newport News, Richmond (two locations) and North Chesterfield, Va.

The grocer established its U.S. headquarters in Arlington County, Va., in 2015, and has three southeastern distribution centers.

Lidl will release a full list of store openings next month; however, it has already revealed plans to roll out as many as 100 stores along the East Coast, stretching from New Jersey to Atlanta and creating 5,000 jobs. 

Click here to see the full story from Convenience Store News' sister publication Progressive Grocer.