IT’S one of the biggest buildings and one of the biggest employers in Southampton area.

Lidl’s huge new depot on the outskirts of the city has opened for business.

The cut-price supermarket chain’s £55 million warehouse at Nursling is the size of ten football pitches and is the biggest of the German retailer’s ten UK regional distribution centres (RDCs).

The opening of the depot in Brownhill Way, which employs 400 staff, is part of £1.5 billion investment in the UK by Lidl over the next three years.

The Nursling RDC will serve serve an area stretching from Poole and Bournemouth in the west, northwards to Newbury, and east to Brighton.

Marco Ivone, regional director at Lidl UK, said: “The opening of our new Southampton RDC marks an incredibly exciting time for the business, particularly in the south.

"Not only is it necessary to accommodate the scale of our existing and future operations in the area, we have been able to create significant job opportunities as a result of the new warehouse and will continue to invest in the south as we move forward with our expansion plans.”

Since coming to the UK in 1994, Lidl has grown consistently and today has more than 640 stores in England, Scotland and Wales.

More than six million Britons now shop at Lidl each week – up half a million last year.

While its roots may be in Germany, Lidl UK says it is passionate about working with British producers and two thirds of its products are sourced from the UK.

Lidl had originally proposed to build the distribution centre on land next to the New Forest National Park at Wade Park Farm in Ower but withdrew this scheme after protests from residents and a ruling from a government planning inspector.

The switch to Nursling, to a site which was part of Barker-Mill Estates, was welcomed by the then Southampton City Council leader Royston Smith, who saw it as a boost for employment.

Nursling and Rownhams Parish Council feared heavy traffic created by huge depot would have a negative impact on the area.