SPAR and EUROSPAR plan to add 60 new stores to their combined network in Ireland by 2025, taking the total number of stores across the country to 525.
The project will see an investment of €65 million from BWG Foods, as well as independent SPAR and EUROSPAR retailers.
Retail sales exceeded €1.6 billion (up 4.5% year-on-year) in 2022 across the combined network of SPAR and EUROSPAR.
In 2023, SPAR and EUROSPAR hope to achieve sales of €1.67 billion due to increased consumer spending and income from new stores opening in that period.
'Exceptional Sales'
Leo Crawford, group chief executive of BWG Group, said, "Our SPAR and EUROSPAR brands continue to perform very well, and our exceptional sales are a tribute to the strength of the SPAR and EUROSPAR brands which have been at the forefront of the grocery sector in Ireland for the past 60 years.
"We are very confident about the opportunities for future growth and look forward to supporting our retailers to further develop and expand their businesses over the coming years. Changing consumer behaviours are transforming the retail landscape and we will be ensuring that our SPAR and EUROSPAR stores respond with innovative solutions to meet the needs of the more than 1 million customers who visit our stores every day."
Expansion Plans
BWG Foods has identified several potential greenfield and brownfield sites for the new stores and will be focussing on the emergence of new communities in the vicinity of Ireland’s major cities as new housing developments come up.
The new stores will create over 1,100 new jobs, the retailer noted.
SPAR and EUROSPAR also plan to upgrade more than 100 existing stores across Ireland.
The renovation plan includes the rollout of a new store design for the EUROSPAR supermarket format featuring a number of carbon-reduction measures.
These include refrigeration technologies, solar panel installations and recycled fixings.
In 1963, SPAR entered the Irish market with its first store in Artane, Dublin, in conjunction the Ralph family, who are still associated with the brand.
The daily combined customer transactions in SPAR and EUROSPAR stores across Ireland exceed 1 million.
© 2023 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Dayeeta Das. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: European Supermarket Magazine.
