Jempson’s says it can now prepare “for the future with certainty” after Aldi was finally given planning permission for its new store in Rye. “We will continue to review, renew and re-shape our offer,” said Stephen Jempson from the local retailer.
Aldi said it was looking forward to work starting on the site and thanked people in Rye for their support.
Rother District Council’s Planning Committee gave its unanimous approval to the new Aldi supermarket on Winchelsea Road on Thursday 12 February, subject to a number of conditions on jobs, road access and bus services.
Proposals for the new supermarket were submitted in June 2024. In the 20 months since, there has been a war of words between the local and international firms, centred mainly on a dispute over the scale of the financial impact on Jempson’s Rye store and the town centre in general.
The report to the committee last week recommended approval saying the benefits of a second supermarket in Rye outweighed the disadvantages.
Stephen Jempson told Rye News he was disappointed by last week’s decision. “We can prepare now for the future with certainty knowing what to expect. Rest assured, our ongoing commitments to all our suppliers whether local or national will not change. All our colleagues at Jempson’s, remain committed to serving our customers with the highest standards of customer service in all our outlets. This will not change either.”
He highlighted how the company was different by being local. “We remain focused to bringing the best value local and homemade food to our customers, that this special part of Kent and Sussex can offer. Our collaboration with Morrisons gives us access to over 25,000 products at everyday low prices from one of the UK’s leading supply chains. From the beginning of the company’s inception in 1935, we have never forgotten all our customers have a choice of where to shop. We will continue to review, renew and re shape our offer as circumstances change now and in the future.”
Aldi’s Estates Director Rob McClellan said he was delighted the committee had unanimously approved the plans, following a strong recommendation from planning officers. “We want to extend our sincere thanks to the people of Rye for their support throughout this process. We look forward to continuing work to deliver the comprehensive redevelopment of this site – delivering a new Aldi food store, new homes from Decimus Property and McCarthy Stone Retirement Living apartments. We hope to get started on site later this year.”
The plans for the new homes and retirement housing have been delegated for approval by RDC’s planning officers. Last week, Decimus told Rye News it hopes to start work preparing the site in May/June this year, with building work to follow later in the year.
Image Credits: Nick Forman , David Worwood .
After all the hula balloo will jempsons close ,when Aldi locate to Rye,it’s refreshing that Stephen Jempson is now acknowledging that he will continue operating in Rye.So we will all have the choice of two stores of our choice to visit in the town,with one giving us the choice to shop on a Sunday at last.
I wonder whether Jemmo’s will now pivot to a more premium partnership – more Waitrose, less Morrisons. It would at least be a point of differentiation.
It would be really good to have a Waitrose in rye!
Jempsons did all they could to stifle this competition, to the detriment in my opinion, of the community in attempting to restrict its shopping choices, and in protesting Lidl’s application, even threatening that they would close the post office concession or even the whole Jempsons supermarket which they once claimed would be rendered unviable if normal healthy competition hit town, yet now after planning is granted they just glibly say none of that is actually going to happen and it seems it was just a pressurised threat. And as for Jempson’s commitment to low prices, a regular price check between Sainsburys, Waitrose and Asda where I also shop just does not bear this out in reality. Jempsons often has the highest prices of them all which frankly seemed suspicious when they were the one-horse in town monopolist. Congratulations on Lidl which is an excellent store with great value and great products and just what the town deserves, bringing with it heathy normal commercial competitive choice.
Terence, at the risk of being pedantic, just to point out it’s Aldi, not Lidl, opening the new store.