Discount supermarket Aldi is to create around 500 new jobs across the county over the next few years.

Rising sales nationwide have prompted this family-owned company, founded in Germany, to unveil massive expansion plans, with a £40m depot on the Isle of Sheppey and new stores in places like Strood and Maidstone.

The new depot will serve 110 stores and employ up to 200 people by 2015, said Graham Hetherington, London and South East director.

"Kent is really key for us. We’ve got big plans for Ashford and Whitstable, and there are masses of opportunities in Kent for us."

At a time of rising unemployment, Aldi plans to add between 80 and 100 jobs a year in Kent over the next few years as part of a £100m investment.

"There should be a similar figure for every year for the foreseeable future," Mr Hetherington said. Over the next five years, he expects Aldi to increase its workforce by 300 in retail and 200 in distribution.

Nationally, Aldi’s target is to operate 1,500 stores and grab a 12 per cent market share. "Our plan is to have a store in every town in the country as soon as possible. Lidl has more stores than us, but we’re reported to have higher market share."

He added: "With big investment, a lot of jobs, Kent is definitely the centre for our south east programme of development."

Discount supermarkets like Aldi, Lidl and Netto are grabbing market share in harder times as shoppers look for new ways of stretching household budgets.

But Mr Hetherington insists that the credit crunch and other economic woes have only accelerated a trend that was already emerging at Aldi before the downturn.

He says sales are up 15 per cent at many of the 10 stores in Kent and Medway as Aldi nibbles away at bigger players like Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Waitrose and Marks and Spencer, with a million more customers going through its doors every week.

"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."