Lidl store to open at Shipley Wharf Retail Park on January 20

The store, located at Shipley Wharf Retail Park, Salts Mill Road, will officially open to customers on Thursday, January 20, at 8am.

The Shipley site includes a dedicated in-store bakery, opening week offers, weekly Middle of Lidl offers, customer toilets and six rapid electric charging points.

The retail park has been built on the former Airedale Mills site and is located at where Shipley meets Baildon.

Planning permission for the retail development was approved in 2018, and as well as the two high street names developer Morbaine is marketing 'phase two' of the site to potential retailers.

The Lidl has created 40 full and part-time jobs at Shipley.

The Shipley Lidl store will be open Monday to Saturday between 8am and 10pm and Sundays from 10am to 4pm.

The new store will be providing surplus produce and customer donations to several local charities, including Rethink Food, Aldo House Bradford, Hope Yorkshire Food Bank and Better Eat Food Service CIC who redistribute food to local families and individuals in the community in need.

The new Shipley branch of Lidl is due to open next week

This is delivered through Lidl’s Feed it Back scheme, which is run in partnership with Neighbourly and connects Lidl stores up and down the country with charities, foodbanks, community cafes and kitchens, putting quality food surplus to good use every day.

A Lidl spokesman said: "It is fantastic that we are able to open our doors and welcome local residents into our highly anticipated store in Shipley.

"We have received overwhelming support from local residents, and we would like to thank everyone who has played a part in delivering this new store.

"We now look forward to serving our multi-award winning products to the local community."

Lidl is one of the two first sites to open at the retail park, which also includes a drive-thru Costa Coffee.

The site is the former home of Cardinal, a Bradford-based commercial interiors company that moved from the location in 2016. The company’s buildings and warehouses were demolished shortly after.

An artist's impression of the Shipley Wharf development

The scheme was previously criticised by Shipley Town Council, which feared the development would draw shoppers out of the town centre.

But the planning application claimed the retail park would: “Help improve consumer choice in the area, bring back into active use a previously developed site, and support a greater number of jobs than the previous use of the site.”