A budget supermarket giant has confirmed the opening date of its delay-hit store.
The new £9 million Aldi at Neats Court in Queenborough was supposed to welcome its first customers in April.
But permission around road access meant the opening date had to be pushed back.
It also had to battle Tesco’s legal challenge during its planning stages.
The German retailer has however revealed it will finally open the store at 8am on Thursday, July 18.
Team GB gold medalist Matthew Langridge will attend the ribbon-cutting ceremony and will give away complimentary bags of fresh fruit and vegetables to the first 30 customers in the queue.
The rowing star said: “I’m so excited to be opening Aldi’s new store; it will be great to chat to customers and a lovely way for me to thank Aldi for its support of Team GB.”
Store manager David Friday and his team of 40 colleagues will also be at the opening.
This number includes 30 staff from the Sheerness shop between Pepys Avenue and Millennium Way – which will shut once the new supermarket is open – who are due to be transferred over.
Mr Friday: “We can’t wait to open the doors to the new store in Queenborough.
“It’s set to be a special day and having Olympic hero Matthew Langridge join us will make it a morning to remember.”
Home Bargains is set to take on the existing Aldi unit but declined to comment on when it would move in when asked by KentOnline.
The Neats Court branch is a third larger than the town centre store, with 134 parking spaces – 59 more than in Sheerness. It also has new cycle and pedestrian links.
Aldi is investing £18 million across the county to open new shops and renovate older ones, such as the expansion of its Sittingbourne branch in East Street which has now started.
The new store will offer fresh British meat products with weekly offers, Aldi’s award-winning Specially Selected range, exclusive beers, wines and spirits, and a Food to Go section at the front of the store.
Aldi’s Specialbuys will also be available in the middle aisle every Thursday and Sunday.
The delays around the opening of the store stemmed from legal discussions about the access to the supermarket which will be off the A249, Thomsett Way roundabout.
National Highways has worked with Aldi since around 2022 and the scheme received technical approval earlier this year with an agreement signed in May.
The supermarket has however come under fire from Sheppey residents after it legally challenged Lidl’s planning permission to build a new store at Cowstead Corner – also in Queenborough.
Aldi obtained permission from Swale council to build its new store on the Island in December 2022, months after submitting the plans in June 2019.
It had declared the 15-year-old branch in Sheerness, was “no longer fit for purpose”. Talks with authority began in 2017.
It was given the go-ahead in November 2020 but construction was halted when supermarket rival Tesco had the permission quashed in the High Court the following October.
Tesco claimed there was not enough consideration given to the impact of the proposals on Sheerness town centre, that the decision to grant permission was “procedurally incorrect” as there had been no screening to determine if an environmental impact assessment (EIA) was needed, and that there were inconsistencies in the planning committee’s decision-making.
However, Aldi maintained an EIA was not needed as the site is allocated for large-scale employment use in the borough’s Local Plan.
A spokesman for the supermarket later revealed a new retail impact assessment has been undertaken which found relocating the store would have “no impact on Sheerness town centre or other centres that would warrant refusal”.
By this point, Aldi had already put its old site on the market for £2 million, and it resubmitted plans in November 2022.
Planning officers recommended the application was refused, saying closing the current shop would have a detrimental effect on the town.
But Aldi warned the council that its existing site was too small and would be closed even if its plans for the new store were rejected.
To see more planning applications and other public notices for your area, click here.
In December 2022, councillors voted 14 to one in favour of allowing the resubmitted plans.
Aldi is one of Britain’s fastest-growing supermarkets with more than 1,010 stores and over 45,000 colleagues.