New Aldi supermarket plan for Derbyshire town would create 40 new jobs

German discount supermarket chain Aldi has submitted plans to Amber Valley Borough Council for a new store off Nottingham Road in Ripley, a few hundreds metres from a rival chain.

If approved, the proposed Aldi supermarket would join Sainsbury’s (400 metres away) and Lidl (550 metres away) as the three large stores in the town.

Aldi plans to build the new supermarket on a derelict former industrial site last used as the offices for telecommunications firm Zycomm.

Through the plans, all existing vacant buildings on the plot, between the junctions with Fletcher Street and Argyll Road, would be demolished.

The supermarket, if approved, would have 141 parking spaces, including eight electric vehicle charging points, nine parent and child spaces and nine spaces for disabled customers – and create 40 new jobs.

It would also include underground infrastructure for 26 further electric vehicle charging points to be added at a later date.

A report submitted by the firm to the council said: “The area is considered to have good strategic transport networks and public transport connections, meaning the greatest potential exists in Ripley to maximise accessibility to job opportunities, shops, services and other facilities, and to create new neighbourhoods with supporting infrastructure for residential, industrial and retail uses, all of which are present in the area immediately surrounding the site.

“The principle of further economic development on the application site is evidently in-keeping with surrounding uses.

“This is reinforced by its former economic use, which was previously supported on the site.”

Aldi says the products and services it provides would not have as much of a cross-over with high street retailers as that found in other supermarkets, protecting that trade.

The retailer said: “The proposed foodstore will primarily compete with the existing national multiple retailers closest to the application site which have the most substantially similar convenience retail offers, namely the out-of-centre Sainsbury’s and the edge-of-centre Lidl.

“Evidence from both the 2020 retail study and our own healthcheck site visits of June 2026 suggest that these stores are trading strongly, such that we do not anticipate that trade diversion to the proposed Aldi would result in the closure of either.”

The firm continued: “The proposed Aldi discount foodstore will represent a high-quality development and will promote a contemporary design using an appropriate materials palette which also respects the site’s former industrial use and wider residential context, to the benefit of the wider locality.

“The scheme is considered a significant betterment in design terms compared to the existing communications buildings and overall layout, and offer the opportunity to revitalise a presently tired site and bring a prominent site back into economic use, generating up to 40 jobs for local people and providing linked trips to assist with benefiting other retailers and services in Ripley.”

A decision will be made by the council in the next few months.