Aldi is to hire 1,200 new employees during the rest of this year, in a rare scrap of good news for jobseekers as the coronavirus pandemic forces many UK businesses to shed staff. The supermarket chain, which along with fellow German chain Lidl have been the fastest-growing UK supermarkets in recent years, plans to open an average of one new store a week between now and Christmas. “As much as the disruption of the past few months has been challenging, it has also reminded us that there are still hundreds of towns across the UK where shoppers don’t have access to Aldi’s award winning quality products and unbeatable prices,” said Giles Hurley, Aldi UK’s chief executive. “To continue doing this and meet our goals of making Aldi accessible to even more shoppers, we will need thousands more amazing colleagues across the country. I look forward to welcoming each and every one of them to the team.” Aldi said it would open new stores at locations including Sandhurst, Bristol and Edinburgh this year, and plans to create 1,200 extra roles before the end of 2020 as its expansion continues. The retailer, which has more than 890 stores and about 35,000 UK staff, said it had already created 2,800 new permanent jobs this year after grocery sales surged during the coronavirus pandemic. Aldi, which saw sales increase by 13% over the 12 weeks to 12 July, has a target of operating 1,200 stores in the UK by 2025. However, Aldi and Lidl have not enjoyed the same level of sales rises during the Covid-19 pandemic as rivals including Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda and Morrisons, as they do not offer an online shopping service to customers. In May, Aldi struck a deal with takeaway courier service Deliveroo to offer a grocery home delivery service. The previous month Aldi launched a £24.99 grocery parcel service direct from its warehouses comprised of 22 essential products – such as rice, pasta, toilet rolls and tea – designed to help elderly and vulnerable shoppers.