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Discount supermarket Aldi aims to open a new supermarket in every Kent town over the next few years.

With the credit crunch making more shoppers switch to discounters, the German-owned family company has unveiled ambitious plans to invest £100m in the county and create around 500 jobs.

It already has permission for a £40m distribution depot on the Isle of Sheppey and new stores in Strood and Maidstone to add to its existing 10 stores across the county.

Graham Hetherington, Aldi’s London and South East director, said: "We want an Aldi in every town in Kent and more than one store in most of the towns. So we are talking not just about one store in Maidstone but probably three in the longer-term."

He added: "We need 20,000 people for an Aldi store so if a town has got 60,000 people, we will have three stores."

Speaking at the Sittingbourne store, Mr Hetherington said that the typical 1,000 sq ft size of an Aldi store meant that it had no difficulty securing sites and planning permission. "We are having great support from the local authorities and we’re not having any difficulties in identifying sites and getting planning permission."

"The credit crunch has taken out all the residential developments so thre are very few perators looking for our size of site now."

Aldi sells about 1,000 product lines, mainly under its own brand names, but many made by manufacturers of the well-known brands. It has a UK sourcing department which buys most of the lines from British manufacturers and claims to maintain margins much lower than bigger competitors like Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Morrison and Waitrose.

Mr Hetherington says it how has about three per cent market share, well below Tesco’s 30 per cent, but is aiming for 12 per cent over the next few years.

"Our like-for-like sales had been growing already for the past three years at around 12 per cent. This year’s increase of around 30 per cent has come as a result of the credit crunch and that has shifted customer shopping habits by the most I’ve ever seen and I’ve worked for the company for 17 years."

Alice Cranah, from Teynham, a customer at the Sittingbourne store, said: "It’s a good standard and a lovely range. I can get most of the things I need here."