Privately held German food retailer Lidl is looking to quickly establish some 60 outlets around Sweden, according to Swedish business daily Dagens Industri.

The paper cited sources in the industry claiming Lidl had already signed contracts with landlords for some 30 stores.

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Lidl is expected to operate relatively small outlets and the new competition from Germany is not yet ruffling existing players. Bodil Eriksson, information officer at Axfood, which runs the discount stores Willys, said she expected the Lidl stores to carry as few as 1,000 different product lines, compared with Willys’ close to 6,000.

René Lindholm, managing director at Lidl’s Swedish subsidiary, declined to comment. The paper said secrecy around the German group made it difficult to obtain information, but according to German trade publication Lebensmittelzeitung, Lidl posted turnover of SKr140bn last year.

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