POPULAR discount supermarket Aldi is searching for a site to house Bolton’s EIGHTH store.

The German giant is on the lookout for a new store location in the north of the borough, as the firm sets its sights on opening 20 new shops across Greater Manchester.

Nearby Radcliffe, Swinton, and north Wigan have also been earmarked as target locations.

Ciaran Aldridge, national property director at Aldi UK, said: “Aldi is growing rapidly and we are welcoming around a million new customers into our stores every year.

“But there are also hundreds of towns across the UK where there is not an Aldi, meaning there are hundreds of thousands of people who can’t easily access the high quality, affordable food our customers love.

“We are willing to explore all opportunities, including developer-led schemes or existing retail units.”

The UK’s fifth largest supermarket has been on an expansion drive in recent years, with hopes of having 1,200 stores open by 2025.

Aldi, which currently has more than 880 stores across the country, is looking for a freehold town-centre or edge-of-centre site suitable for the new development.

The site should be around 1.5 acres and able to accommodate a 20,000 sq ft store with around 100 parking spaces, ideally on a prominent main road and with good visibility and access.

Once again, the new store will recruit local candidates, creating around 30 new jobs for the community.

The borough’s seventh store on the corner of Manchester Road and Raikes Lane opened on June 11, employing 27 people.

There are already two Aldi stores on the edge of the town centre, in Trinity Street and Higher Bridge Street.

Four more stores are currently open in Breightmet, Horwich, Over Hulton, and Westhoughton.

The firm also has a distribution centre in Logistics North industrial estate, Over Hulton.