Lidl invests €200M in Portugal

The retail chain Lídl has announced in a communiqué that it will invest €200 million in Portugal this year.

The German company also said it was fully committed to Portugal where since 2017 it has invested around €1Bn.
Of the latest €200 million investment, €125 million has been earmarked for the refurbishment and modernisation of its current stock of stores and new openings.
According to Lidl’s CEO Alexandre Frech in an interview with Jornal de Negócios, the €200 million investment this year is €20 million more than in 2021 and there are also plans to hire more staff.
Lidl has stepped up investment over the past few years and in 2018 was “responsible for 1% of Portugal’s national GDP according to a study undertaken by the independent consultancy KPMG.”
In 2020, Lidl opened a new warehousing and logistics outpost in Santo Tirso with a semi-robotised operation which led to the creation of 200 jobs. Another logistics centre is currently being built in Loures to strengthen the supply and storage capacity of its shops in the central region of Portugal.
Lidl currently has 269 stores, four logistics centres (Santo Tirso, Palmela, Sintra, and Torres Novas). This year the company will refurbish 25 shops and open six new shops. The company currently employs 8,200. It also exports Portuguese products to 29 of the countries in which it operates, representing 2% of national exports of food products to EU countries.