An investment of £200 million, this is the retailer’s single biggest ever investment into colleague pay and some 120,000 hourly paid colleagues will benefit.

Becoming the largest supermarket to pay the new Real Living Wage, Sainsbury’s colleagues outside of London will get almost £2000 extra per year, and almost £2300 extra per year for those in London.

The company states that supporting colleagues with pay and benefits is a “key part” of its Save to Invest programme, focusing on making the business simpler and more efficient, allowing it to invest in areas that will make the biggest difference to customers.

Chief Executive of Sainsbury’s said: “Our colleagues do a brilliant job delivering for our customers every day and at the same time they are continuing to face the rising costs of living.

“So, in addition to investing to keep our prices low for customers, I’m delighted to confirm an industry leading pay increase again this year for all our hourly paid colleagues.

“We continue to lead our industry in the level of reward and benefits we provide for our people and this remains a clear priority for us at Sainsbury’s. We believe well rewarded, engaged colleagues deliver the best service and attracting and retaining the best talent will be crucial to our success in delivering the next phase of our business stragey.”

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The latest Real Living Wage update sees the entry rate increase from £9.90 to £10.90 per hour.

Lidl Northern Ireland today confirmed that it would match the hourly rate for more than 1,000 employees, representing an investment of more than £1.4 million by the retailer into annual wages and its second pay rise in the last 12 months – with hourly rates rising by £1 as a result.

Northern Ireland’s fastest-growing retailer, Lidl Northern Ireland was the first major nationwide employer to commit to paying the real Living Wage in 2015 and since then has matched rates year on year.

The Real Living Wage reflects the real cost of living in the UK which considers key living costs such as clothing, food, housing, health, education, transport and social or recreational costs.

Higher than the government-set ‘National Living Wage’, the pay level advised by the Foundation serves as independent guidance for employers. Its adoption is voluntary, and organisations are free to choose whether to implement it.

Maeve McCleane, Chief People Officer at Lidl Ireland and Northern Ireland said:“Our people have always been pivotal to our success which is why we continue to make sure that Lidl Northern Ireland is not only an exceptional place to work but also provides an unrivalled inclusive, rewarding and fulfilling culture for every employee.

“As part of our commitment to our employees, we are delighted to confirm a new pay rise for more than 1,000 team members across the region which matches the rates advocated by the Living Wage Foundation. Lidl Northern Ireland continually reviews its pay rates to ensure it offers the most competitive compensation and benefits to attract, train and retain its best employees to help serve more than 300,000 local shoppers every week.”

According to latest figures released by Kantar Worldpanel, Lidl is consistently confirmed as ‘NI’s fastest-growing supermarket’ with 12.6% market share growth over the last two years and holding a 7% market share of the region’s overall grocery market.

For more information visit www.lidl-ni.co.uk

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The reward comes as Sainsbury’s continues to recognise its colleagues for their extraordinary efforts and seeks to help people deal with the increasing cost of living.

The vast majority of store colleagues have received at least the Real or London Living wage since March. From 1^st May, retail colleagues in outer London will see an increase in their base rate of pay from £10.50 per hour to £11.05, meaning they will join colleagues both in inner London and the rest of the UK in being paid the relevant Real Living Wage for their location.

Sainsbury’s said it is proud that its pay rates are higher than its main supermarket peers, with the move coming on top of the £100 million investment announced in January when Sainsbury’s became one of the first UK retailers to pay colleagues a basic hourly rate of £10 per hour.

Since 2017 Sainsbury’s has increased colleague pay by 25% and increased Argos colleague pay by 39%, as well as removing age-related pay.

Simon Roberts, CEO of Sainsbury’s, said: “Our strategy is about investing in what matters most for both customers and colleagues. We know times are tough for everyone. That’s why we were one of the first in the industry to pay over the Real Living Wage at £10 per hour and brought forward the announcement of our annual pay review to early January, as we wanted to help colleagues plan and manage the cost of living in the year ahead.

“We are proud to pay the Real Living Wage and the London Living Wage in inner London and we have been spending a lot of time considering how we can help our customers and our colleagues as the cost of living crisis intensifies. We are always looking at what more we can do and have therefore decided to increase pay rates for outer London to £11.05 so that Sainsbury’s and Argos retail colleagues are paid the Real Living Wage and London Living Wage from May.

“We will continue to listen to the views of all our stakeholders as we balance delivering for customers, colleagues, communities and shareholders. We are committed to paying above the National Minimum Wage and, when setting pay each year, will consider the Real Living Wage, London Living Wage, the National Living Wage, competitor pay and the financial performance of the business.”

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The retailer filed financial results for the period March 2020 to February 2021, hailing its exponential business growth during a period of unprecedented challenges.

J.P. Scally, Chief Executive of Lidl Ireland and Lidl Northern Ireland, said: “Lidl Northern Ireland has delivered an impressive trading performance over the full year period and this substantial year-on-year sales growth is testament to our established business model which continues to deliver for us and for our more than 300,000 weekly customers across the region.

“Despite unprecedented challenges, we’ve held our position as Northern Ireland’s fastest-growing supermarket, achieving 24% sales growth in 2020, and we’re focused now on growing that even further.”

Lidl Northern Ireland credits its growing market share to investing in its local store and supplier network and maintaining a robust supply chain to bring its Big on Quality, Lidl on Price proposition to even more shoppers across the region.

“Our last financial year marked a period of solid investment in delivering on our ambitious growth plans for the region. We opened two new stores in Belfast and Holywood and revitalised a further five stores across the region in line with our modern ‘concept’ store designs which prioritises space and sustainability and offers our growing customer base a more comfortable shopping experience. We’re well placed to deliver on our ambition of 50 stores by the end of this decade,” Mr Scally said.

Last year, Lidl Northern Ireland confirmed a £32 million investment for the Greater Belfast area in opening three new stores at Crumlin Road, Boucher Road and Holywood Exchange as well as revitalising its premises at Castlereagh Road and Shore Road.

Investment

The retailer also announced a further £26 million investment into the North West region including opening a brand-new state-of-the-art store in Buncrana Road in Derry~Londonderry, progressing with plans for an additional nearby store in Crescent Link and Strabane.

Buoyed by a long-established strategy to build a strong local supply chain, Lidl Northern Ireland continues to develop its growing network of more than 50 local suppliers from which it sources almost £300 million worth of goods each year.

“Lidl Northern Ireland is proud of its robust and agile local supply chain. We’ve worked to develop this over two decades and our approach to sourcing locally has helped to shield us from some of the supply issues that other retailers faced over this period. Sourcing such a large volume of our products locally has meant that we haven’t been as reliant on imports. We were pleased to be in a strong position and able to maintain supply of great quality and great tasting, local products over the past 12 months, and look forward to continuing to do so for many years to come”, said Mr Scally.

“We remain committed to supporting local food and drink producers and we plan to continue to invest in the local agri-food industry through our dedicated Kick Start Supplier Development Programme which aims to support small and medium sized producers and open up export opportunities for wider industry growth.”

Lidl Northern Ireland has grown staff numbers to more than 1,000 employees for the first time across its 41-strong store network and Regional Distribution Centre in Nutt’s Corner, Co. Antrim.

Earlier this year, Lidl Northern Ireland was named a Top Employer for 2021 by the Top Employers Federation.

CAPTION:  J.P. Scally, Chief Executive of Lidl Ireland and Lidl Northern Ireland and Conor Boyle, Regional Director Lidl Northern Ireland. 

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Recently named Retail Company of the Year at the Business Eye Awards 2021, Lidl Northern Ireland is the first supermarket in the region to confirm it is exceeding the recommendation, committing to a new entry hourly rate of £10.10, twenty pence higher than the recommended £9.90 rate announced earlier this week by the Living Wage Foundation.

The move sees the entry rate increase from £9.30 to £10.10 per hour with rates for longer serving staff also increasing accordingly. This means an 8 per cent increase for more than 450 employees across the region from 1^st March 2022 and represents an investment of more than £1.2 million by the retailer into annual wages.

The Real Living Wage reflects the real cost of living in the United Kingdom, taking into account key living costs such as clothing, food, housing, health, education, transport and social or recreational costs.

Higher than the government-set ‘National Living Wage’, the pay level advised by the Foundation serves as independent guidance for employers. Its adoption is voluntary and organisations are free to choose whether to implement it.

Lidl Northern Ireland has been named as a Top Employer by the Top Employers Institute in 2021, and also came number 29 in the top 100 Northern Irish companies by Ulster Business magazine earlier this year.

Maeve McCleane, Director of Human Resources at Lidl Ireland and Northern Ireland said: “Our most important asset has always been our people which is why we have prioritised building not only an exceptional place to work, but also an inclusive, rewarding and fulfilling culture at Lidl for our employees. We continually review our pay rates to ensure that we are offering the most competitive compensation and benefits packages in the industry to attract and retain the best employees and, in turn, serve our 300,000 weekly customers in the best way possible.

“We’re delighted to confirm a pay increase for 450 team members across Northern Ireland which surpasses the rates advocated by the Living Wage Foundation and boosts the already wide-ranging benefits package we have put in place for our outstanding local team.”

Lidl Northern Ireland’s generous compensation package is in addition to several initiatives introduced to its workforce of more than 1,200 employees across the region in recent years, including paid maternity and paternity leave; compassionate leave for early pregnancy loss and miscarriage; flexible contracts; Covid bonus payments; employee assistance programme; paid volunteering and paid health insurance.

In conjunction with Lidl Northern Ireland’s move, Lidl Ireland has also taken the market lead in committing to match the rate of €12.90 recommended by the Living Wage Technical Group from 1 March 2022.

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