Lidl’s aggressive expansion plans are continuing apace with a number of openings scheduled in the months to come, including two new stores planned for Birmingham, which already has 19 stores within 10 miles of the city centre.

The plans come just weeks after the discounter, which now has 720 stores across England, Scotland and Wales, opened its latest and largest distribution centre in Doncaster.

The warehouse, which now serves 53 stores across South Yorkshire, Lincolnshire and the Midlands, is Lidl’s 13th, with it planning to open a further four by 2025 as it continues to expand across the UK.

Earlier this month, Lidl opened a new store in neighbouring Rossington, and has plans to open four further stores, in Rotherham, Chesterfield, Nottingham and Mapplewell by the end of 2019.

The two new sites in Birmingham, secured via a long-term lease with SevenCapital, will be developed in Birmingham city centre and Erdington, just outside the main city, totalling 50,128 square feet and creating 80 jobs across both stores.

The 27,254 sq ft city centre store will replace a Tesco, which vacated the building as part of its nationwide estate rationalisation programme in 2016.

The second contract is an agreement for lease subject to planning, for a new bespoke Lidl format store in Erdington, Birmingham, that SevenCapital acquired from Sainsbury’s in late 2017.

Phil Carlin, managing director at SevenCapital, said: “Lidl has firmly positioned itself at the forefront of today’s shoppers thought process as a trusted retailer offering a quality product.

“These sites are perfectly suited for their continued growth strategy.”

Multi-site Nisa retailer Rav Garcha, who owns one store in Birmingham, said the openings were a sign of the times. “The discounters are now a significant force to be reckoned with and shoppers clearly value what they’re offering.

“The supermarkets are worried and rightly so. It’s not something that directly worries me at the moment as we have a very real point of difference but if a store opened on my doorstep it would definitely prompt me to take stock.”