Lidl Luxembourg Celebrates 20th Anniversary

The supermarket chain Lidl has announced that it is celebrating its 20th anniversary in Luxembourg this year.

The first Lidl Luxembourg store opened its doors in Differdange on 5 September 2001. Since then, the brand has continued to grow, with stores opening up in Ingeldorf (2004), Bertrange (2005), Pétange (2006), Mersch (2009), Wasserbillig (2010), Pommerloch (2012) and Huldange (2020), among others. Today, there are eleven Lidl stores across Luxembourg.

In addition to the number of stores, the square footage has also been increased over the years in order to better respond to changing consumer buying behaviour. The newly renovated Differdange store is an example of this: the store area increased from 650 m² in 2001 to 1,428 m² today.

In a very competitive sector, Lidl aims to continue its expansion strategy over the months and years to come by opening new stores, or by transforming stores that are already operational to meet better quality standards. 

According to the brand, Lidl's success in the Grand Duchy lies in particular in the shopping experience that is offered to customers, as well as in the quality of the products that are offered, especially fresh products.

“A special feature of our stores is the importance we place on the shopping experience of our customers in the design of our stores. We want the experience to be as pleasant as possible as soon as they arrive in our car park", explained Julien Wathieu, spokesperson for Lidl Luxembourg. "We favour bright and spacious spaces as well as modern architecture, aluminum cladding and large bay windows that bring natural light into the stores. Over the past 20 years, the layout of our stores has been completely redesigned: they are designed to allow easier circulation for customers, better organisation of shelves and products and, as a result, a more shopping pleasant and quite simply enhanced experience”.

According to the brand, Lidl is continually strengthening its assortment, particularly when it comes to fresh products. Year after year, the brand also includes more Luxembourg references. Today, Lidl already offers eggs, milk, dairy products, cold cuts, meat, wine and beer from Luxembourgish productions. In terms of local production, the brand aims for sales growth of 10% each year.

Lidl stores have also quickly adapted to new technologies. For example, in February 2020, Lidl developed a digital loyalty card (Lidl plus), which has already been used by more than 54,000 customers.

Over the years, Lidl has also strengthened its commitment to fair trade. The range of Fairtrade products is growing each year and new references are systematically added to the shelves. Lidl also offers a range of organic products, such as its assortment of fish, 85% of which is sustainable, and all bananas are certified 100% sustainable.

Since the first store opening in Luxembourg, the supermarket chain has committed itself to pursuing its development while respecting the needs of our planet. Each new store construction or transformation is therefore accompanied by a key environmental aspect.

Many Lidl stores in Luxembourg include in particular the permanent monitoring of the store's energy consumption, heat recovery (including through cooling installations) and water recovery. Lidl also has charging stations for electric cars and photovoltaic panels in three stores: Huldange, Differdange and Foetz. The ultimate aim is to install photovoltaic panels and charging stations in each new store.

“Drawing on our 20 years of experience, we take a very positive view of the development of our brand within the Luxembourg market. We are growing, we are continually integrating new Luxembourg references into our shelves and we continue to be a human-sized brand and close to our customers. In addition to meeting the constantly evolving needs of our customers, we want to surprise them with a unique experience”, added Denys Vandenrijt, Head of Sales and Logistics at Lidl Luxembourg. "We obviously remain ambitious and have many other plans for the future".

Lidl has confirmed its plans to continue increasing the area and number of its stores in Luxembourg. Beggen, Koerich and Dudelange represent the brand's next priorities. Respectively, this entails an expansion project, a new store and a mixed project where, in addition to retail, Lidl will install professional spaces upstairs. Moreover, the Koerich store alone will accommodate 448 photovoltaic panels. Through these new projects, 60 new jobs will be created in Luxembourg. At present, Lidl employs nearly 369 people.