Stelios taking on Aldi and Lidl with new grocery concept

The German discounters were about to have a fight on their hands on Tuesday, with the news a serial British entrepreneur was finally opening his grocery concept to the public.

Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou - founder of easyJet - had originally revealed his easyFoodstore brand in 2013, and went as far as showing a mock-up to the press, in a bid to take on the might of Aldi and Lidl.

The store in Park Royal, north west London, would sell a range of grocery items including beans, biscuits and pasta, though it would not sell fresh items such as meat or fruit and vegetables initially.

Haji-Ioannou would sell items for 25p each during February in a bid to lure customers to his orange store.

"This is another way the easy brand can serve the less well-off", the Greek-Cypriot said.

"Given my experience in distributing food for free in Greece and Cyprus, this is a more commercial attempt to sell basic food for 25p per item to those unwaged or low waged living around Park Royal", he added.

Haji-Ioannou was trying to position the grocery brand at the very lowest end of the market - even below the German discounters, whose ruthless price cuts on own brands have been blamed for the struggles of the big four supermarkets in recent years - Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury's and Morrisons.

"I have a feeling there is a gap on the food retail market - a niche below some of the current budget operators", he said.

"I hope that a commercially viable venture offering affordable food will help many people in need, as well as producing a viable return for the capital employed".

Stelios Haji-Ioannou owned the easy brand, and with his family still retained 35% of the listed easyJet.

He had already expanded the easy nameplate to a number of industries, with easyBus, easyHotel and easyGym already seen around the United Kingdom.

Other ventures, such as a cut-price pizza delivery restaurant easyPizza and a no-frills movie theatre easyCinema, had not done so well and had shut up shop.