Symbol franchise group SuperValu reported an 11 per cent increase in sales last year, boosted by new store openings and higher demand for local Irish produce.
Across the whole group, sales totalled almost €2 billion in 2006, a figure Donald Horgan managing director of Musgrave Group, which owns the firm, says gives the company just over a 20 per cent share in the retail grocery market in Ireland. He said the 11 per cent increase in sales had been achieved against 5 per cent growth in the sector and that while he is hoping for significant growth this year, such a high level would be difficult to replicate.
According to the latest market share statistics from data research company TNS, SuperValu had a 20.3 per cent share of the Irish retail grocery market at the end of February this year. This is little changed from a share of 20.2 per cent at the end of February 2006.
On a month-by-month basis however, sales in February 2007 were only 6.4 per cent ahead of where they stood in February 2006, according to TNS. During the same period, Tesco saw its market share increase marginally from 25.6 per cent, to 26 per cent, while Dunnes Stores' share was up at 23.5 per cent, from 22.4 per cent a year earlier.
Mr Horgan said that the TNS data does not offer a fair representation of grocery sales across the country and said that combined SuperValu and Centra - both are owned by the Musgrave Group - had sales of about €3.2 billion last year.
Mr Horgan said that this year SuperValu is planning expansion on a par with 2006, when it opened 11 new stores, revamped 16 outlets and created 1,054 new jobs. This time round the company plans to add eight new stores, with an additional €49 million being spent revamping 15 outlets. This will create a total of 580 new jobs across the SuperValu network, he said.
Speaking at the group's national conference yesterday in Galway, Mr Horgan highlighted the increased focus on Irish produce, saying that this had played a large part in boosting the group's sales over the past year.
