German discount food retailer Aldi will open its first shops in Hungary in 2007, according to the Budapest Business Journal, which cited a report published by news portal HVG.
Aldi has already set up a local asset management unit, Aldi Hungary Holding Kft, after buying a 150,000 square meter property in Biatorbágy, south of Budapest. In Hungary, Aldi will compete with discount chain Lidl, owned by Germany’s Schwarz Group, which began opening Hungarian outlets late last year and expects to have 45 units by the year’s end.