Supermarket company Lidl has built a new warehouse in Ireland that is so energy efficient, the company has pledged that the energy cost savings will finance price cuts on 500 items in its stores.
Lidl’s new distribution centre in Newbridge Co. Kildare supplies 90 stores with fresh fruit, vegetables and other produce. A quarter of the energy for the building is supplied by 4000 solar panels on the roof, which cost €1m (£850,000) and covers two acres. Lidl’s care for the environment is also seen in the six acres of woodland and wildflower meadows that surround the facility.
The new logistics centre cost €100m (£85m) to construct and was opened by the Irish Minister for Finance, Pashal Donohoe. It will provide employment for 350 workers.
The managing director of Lidl in Ireland, JP Scalley, says that the energy and efficiency savings from the new building will be used to reduce the price of 500 products in Lidl’s Irish stores from January 2020.
A heavy duty trolley manufacturer supplies warehouses with the trolleys that businesses rely on. These and other manual handling equipment require no energy to run apart from human energy, but large warehouses use lots of energy for lighting and to power the computers and automated systems that make warehouses efficient.
Many warehouse owners, like Lidl, have invested in solar panels mounted on warehouse rooves. Energy savings help businesses to remain profitable, although this is a rare example of a business directly claiming to use energy savings to fund price cuts.
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