Bosses at budget supermarket chain Aldi have released the full 'wish list' of where the retailer would like to open across Dorset.

Locally, the chain wants to open stores in Shaftesbury, Sherbourne and Sturminster Newton.

They plan to open 14 new stores in Dorset, and the move is likely to create more than 400 new jobs.

Aldi already has 880 stores across the UK but hopes to have 1,200 open by 2025.

It comes after rival supermarket Lidl published details of where they hope to open new stores in the coming years.

An Aldi spokesperson said: "Our sustained growth means we are continually expanding our property portfolio to help achieve our ever-growing goals for 2022.

"We have ambitious acquisition and development plans beyond that and are looking to acquire sites that meet the following property criteria for our standard store format."

Ciaran Aldridge, national property director at Aldi UK, said: “Aldi is growing rapidly and we are welcoming around a million new customers into our stores every year.

“But there are also hundreds of towns across the UK where there is not an Aldi, meaning there are hundreds of thousands of people who can’t easily access the high quality, affordable food our customers love."

Discussing site preferences, Aldi bosses said: "We prefer to purchase freehold, town centre or edge of centre sites suitable for property development in towns with a population of 15,000 or more.

"We are willing to explore all opportunities including developer led schemes and existing or new retail units.

"Our yield profile is increasingly adding value to developments."

Other locations in the county that the supermarket wishes to expand to include Blandford, Bournemouth, Bridport, Dorchester, Ferndown, Poole, Swanage, Verwood, Wareham, Weymouth and Wimbourne.