Lidl coming to the U.S

Another German hard discounter is coming to the U.S. Lidl, rival retailer to Aldi in Europe, is coming to American shores, says this report. It doesn't seem Aldi was seeing much U.S.-grown competition, so this move by Lidl makes sense. From the story:

Lidl is Germany's second biggest discounter, after its archrival Aldi. It aims to get a US foothold by 2012 while it builds up its European business, Gehrig said.

He said the company also had Switzerland in its sights and planned to have 80 supermarkets there by 2009.

Lidl plans to add 1,000 new stores in Germany, bringing it up to a total of 4,000 -- nearly the same number of stores Aldi has. Gehring did not provide a timeframe, however.