RECRUITMENT has started for people in the Wellington area who want to work at the town’s new Aldi supermarket due to open in December.

The company said it was creating up to 40 jobs on its site in Chelston, opposite the Westpark 26 business park, paid ‘at the highest hourly rates in the sector, above the National Living Wage’.

It said store managers and other workers would be recruited locally to ‘embed our store as part of the community’ and enable the firm to ‘understand and respond to local issues more quickly and effectively’.

Groundworks started in May on the £7 million, 14,000 sq ft supermarket site which will provide competition for a Lidl store nearly three-quarters of a mile away off the Cades roundabout.

Now, Emma Grant, of Avison Young, Bristol, has applied to Somerset Council for acknowledgement that Aldi had met a planning condition requiring it to prepare a ‘local employment statement’ (LES) setting out how local opportunities will be maximised, the number of apprenticeship roles, and how on-going skills development and training will be delivered.

The council said the LES was required to make sure the development ‘made use of local labour, increases local skills, and delivers benefits to the local economy’.

Miss Grant said: “Aldi prides itself on the skills and development training it offers and its competitive salaries.

How the proposed Wellington Aldi supermarket could look. IMAGE: Aldi.
How Wellington’s Aldi supermarket should look once it is built. IMAGE: Aldi. ( )

“Store assistants are enrolled into a structured training programme on day one, with career progression opportunities available for those working within the store and within the wider Aldi business.

“This includes a ‘future leaders programme’, which allows high performing staff members the opportunity to progress.

“The result is long-term employment and low staff turnover.”

Miss Grant said Aldi offered only one apprenticeship role per store, which was considered appropriate, ‘given the fast-paced nature of working at an Aldi store where the model is centred around efficient operations’.

She said: “The apprenticeship programme is an important part of Aldi’s staffing strategy since it provides a valuable resource of employees with a developing skill-set that is both broadly applicable but also specific to the Aldi operational model, reinforcing the businesses efficiency.”

There was also a ‘virtual work experience programme’ which was free of charge and designed to provide exclusive insights into the wider business and opportunities to connect with mentors across the UK.

Miss Grant said roles in Wellington Aldi included:

• Store manager

• Assistant store managers

• Deputy managers

• Store assistants

• Store cleaner

She said staff working in the Wellington store were more likely to be based in and around the local area, and, typically, all Aldi staff lived within a 30-minute commute time.

Miss Grant said jobs would be advertised with banners displayed at the construction site and through the company’s website.

A ‘positive and collaborative relationship’ would be maintained with the Jobcentre in Taunton and the firm wold do its best to attend any job fairs of which it was aware.

Miss Grant said the majority of customers were likely to come from the ‘seven-minute off-peak drive time’ catchment of Wellington.