German retailer Lidl hosted hiring events in the Southeast last week—in North Carolina and Virginia—and has acquired a industrial building in Philadelphia. The company also recently opened a regional headquarters distribution center in Cecil County, Maryland, with others in Virginia and North Carolina.
The retailer, which sells mostly private brand products and often is compared to Aldi, expects to open its initial stores on the East Coast by 2017 or 2018 and anticipates owning and operating several hundred stores on the East Coast. Lidl currently has more than 10,000 stores in 27 countries, but none in the U.S.
In opening the Maryland center earlier this year, Lidl U.S. President and CEO Brendan Proctor said, “This facility is an important step in building a efficient infrastructure that will allow us to deliver outstanding quality goods to our customers at the lowest prices.”
