Family-owned Wakefield business set for £5.5m turnover boost with new Aldi contract

Family-owned woodworking firm HARTE is set for a multi-million pound turnover boost and workforce expansion after securing a contract with Aldi.

The Wakefield-based business will create 15 jobs, and see turnover leap by £5.5m, as it works on a project to provide shelving for the supermarket chain’s Project Fresh store refurb programme.

Aldi is investing £300m to upgrade all its stores with the new format by the end of 2020.

HARTE is tasked with manufacturing custom shelving units for the retailer’s beers, wines, spirits, and health and beauty products.

The selves will be installed in over 530 Aldi supermarkets in the UK during the next three years.

HARTE said the deal will make Aldi its single biggest customer, accounting for around 25% of the firm’s turnover and boosting revenues by £2.5m in 2018 alone.

HARTE commercial director Fraser Thomson said: “In the first six months of 2018 we provided shelving units for 79 of Aldi’s Project Fresh stores, with another 81 stores scheduled for the rest of the calendar year.

“Our relationship with Aldi is a huge boost to our business, enabling us to increase our turnover, expand into new premises, and create more jobs for people in our community.”

Aldi’s managing director of logistics and services, Fritz Walleczek, commented: “Our Project Fresh store format follows our biggest ever customer listening exercise and years of development, so we are working with partners such as HARTE to bring this vision to life, and to deliver an exceptional shopping experience for our customers.”

HARTE was founded in 1973 and currently employs 115 full-time staff.