USA – German grocery and food retailer, Lidl has opened its new state-of-the-art regional headquarters and distribution center in Cecil County, Maryland after investing more than US$100 million in the project.

The retailer said that the new 700,000 square-foot facility will create more than 200 new full-time jobs and serve as the backbone of its regional store network, supplying products to stores in five states.

“As we work hard to meet the surging needs of our customers during this critical time, we are thrilled to open our newest regional distribution center in Cecil County, Maryland,” said Johannes Fieber, CEO of Lidl US.

“The facility will allow us to efficiently deliver our award-winning products to thousands of customers from Maryland to New York and support our expansion across the region.”

As Lidl continues to expand in the US, the retailer said in a 2019 report that it believes it will take a decade until the retailer has established itself in this market.

In 2019 Schwarz, the German retail grop that operates Lidl and Kaufland broke through the US$100bnbarrier in sales for the first time and grew its annual sales by 7.4% to €104.3bn (US$113.37bn).

At the same time, Lidl added €20bn (US$21.74bn) in sales. Despite this remarkable success, THE Europe’s biggest retailer said that it was changing its business model once again.

The business said that it will a focus on organics and environmental credentials, increase vertical integration in all business processes around post-consumer (recycling and packaging) and continue investing in automation and digitalisation.

The retailer is also undertaking as online push, arguably still in beta phase without full board commitment, and executing an aggressive expansion in the US market, which the ratilers said is a massive opportunity for the company.

While its sales growth in the US market was healthy in 2019, the retailer said that it has unsurprisingly not reached profitability yet.

In response to the Coronavirus pandemic, Lidl US recently announced it will hire up to 1,000 temporary employees across its store network and distribution centers for a minimum of two months to help meet the surging needs of customers.