Lidl has today revealed plans to create up to 220 new jobs in Scotland over the next 12 months, through four new store openings, and investment in its existing portfolio.

The discounter said it is committed to fulfilling its store opening programme, despite disruption amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Lidl plans to expand its portfolio across the country will add to the current estate of 103 Scottish sites with new stores in Rosyth, as well Glasgow Finnieston and Robroyston.

Lidl has also pledged to optimise existing stores including Kirkwall, Kelso and Kilsyth.

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The retailer also recently revealed a list of 28 "sites of interest" across the country.

After opening its 100th store in January, Lidl has already opened an additional three new stores, and extended others in its portfolio, over the last five months.

This expansion has created over 170 new jobs so far, cementing retailer’s commitment to investing in Scotland and the communities it serves.

Ross Millar, Lidl’s director for Scotland, said: “At the beginning of 2020 we opened our 100th store in Scotland. To be able to continue that growth across the country is an exciting prospect and reinforces our commitment to creating new jobs and providing Scottish communities with quality produce at Lidl value prices.”

Staff working at the new stores will receive Lidl’s pay starting from £9.30 per hour, which is higher than the Government’s National Living Wage and it is claimed is one of the highest pay rates in the supermarket sector.

The ongoing expansion in Scotland is part of Lidl’s target of opening 1,000 stores across Great Britain by the end of 2023 and commitment to investing £1.3bn in expansion over 2021 and 2022.

The supermarket is passionate about sourcing local produce, and currently stocks over 400 products from over 60 suppliers across Scotland, ranging from quality fruit and vegetables, to dairy and bakery lines.

Retailer DFS Furniture has warned over job losses amid an overhaul of its Sofa Workshop and Dwell chains, as the group said it was braced for losses after annual sales slumped by £271 million due to coronavirus.

The group said it was making a "targeted reduction" in its workforce to secure its "future competitiveness".

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DFS said revenues slumped to around £725 million in the year to June 28 as it was forced to freeze deliveries due to the coronavirus lockdown for most of its final quarter.

It said it expects pre-tax losses of between £56 million and £58 million for the year as a result of the delivery pause.

DFS said: "Reflecting the challenging outlook for our market, we are taking necessary actions to preserve our future competitiveness.

"We have commenced an operational restructuring of Sofa Workshop and Dwell to improve the returns generated by those brands."

The group said sales had bounced back strongly since stores reopened in mid June - soaring 69% year-on-year.

"We believe this performance materially benefited from latent demand from customers that would otherwise have completed purchases in late March, April or May and, given the wider economic uncertainty, we remain cautious on the outlook for demand," the group added.

The UK economy grew by 1.8% in May as activity began to recover with the easing of coronavirus lockdown but remained a quarter below its pre-pandemic levels, according to official data.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said the economy eked out growth as manufacturing and housebuilding showed signs of recovery after restrictions began to be lifted in May.

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Despite the month-on-month increase in gross domestic product (GDP), output is still a long way from recovering from the record falls seen in March and April when Britain was in full lockdown - and was 24.5% lower compared with February before the crisis struck.

May's GDP growth is also far short of the 5% rise expected by most economists.
Jonathan Athow, deputy national statistician at the Office for National Statistics (ONS), said of the May economy figures: "Manufacturing and house-building showed signs of recovery as some businesses saw staff return to work.

Despite this, the economy was still a quarter smaller in May than in February, before the full effects of the pandemic struck.

"In the important services sector we saw some pick-up in retail, which saw record online sales.

"However, with lockdown restrictions remaining in place, many other services remained in the doldrums, with a number of areas seeing further declines."

The ONS said GDP plunged 19.1% in the three months to May.

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