The huge warehouse in Güímar will service the 12 Lidl stores in the Canaries

31.01.2010 - To bring that day a bit closer, the huge international supermarket chain recently inaugurated its new logistic centre in Güímar in Tenerife, a huge warehouse which will service the first 12 Lidl stores opening soon in Tenerife, Gran Canaria, Fuerteventura and Lanzarote.  More than 100 people will work at the centre, which has 27,000 square metres, 23 loading bays, and five distinct tem­perature zones for different products.  The shops will generate, the company be­lieve, up to 2,000 jobs, 600 of them directly.

Speaking at the inaugura­tion of the centre, Michael Aranda, the director general of Lidl Spain, referred to the years’ long battle to be granted the proper licencing to open their stores here in the islands, but, he said, “after innumerable meetings with the regional government, Cabildos and town councils...and a long and hard road, Lidl is in the Canaries at last”.

Regional director Javier Suárez said that last year the company had spent two million euros buying from Canarian producers, saying that the Lidl chain was an excellent opportunity for local producers to sell their produce internationally.  He added that the company had also opted for residents and those on the dole in their employment selection process. 

The official opening was also presided over by Ca­bildo president Ricardo Melchior, and Granadilla mayor Rafael José Yanes Mesa.  The former, who is always disarmingly frank, welcomed the opening, and stated his hope that “prices will drop and more jobs will be created than destroyed”, by the arrival of the new stores across the islands.

The opening timetable, according to official sources will see the Tenerife su­permarkets in Puerto de la Cruz and Granadilla open on February 4th, Adeje and La Laguna on February 8th and Santa Úrsula and Las Chafiras on February 11th.  In Gran Canaria stores in Agüimes and Telde will be opened on February 25th and in Vecindario and Ingenio on March 4th.  The final two stores in this initial phase will open in Lanzarote in Arrecife on March 3rd and in Puerto del Rosario in Fuerteventura on March 18th.

 


This article appears in the print edition 609 of Island Connections

Gallery: A Lidl goes a long way

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