Spar Ireland will invest €90 million in new stores and revamping existing outlets as it targets the fast-growing premium convenience foods market.
Spar, which is part of the BWG Group, also revealed today that it recorded retail sales of over €1.1 billion in 2005.
"Our expansion programme for 2006 will be based around our new food strategy and will see the launch of up to 40 new stores and the creation of over 500 new jobs across the country," said Leo Crawford, chief executive of BWG and chairman of Spar Ireland.
Spar has also opened pilot stores on Merrion Row and Abbey Street in Dublin and a Spar Express store in Castlebar, Co Mayo.
The pilot stores feature innovative touch screen technology in the store to enable customers to order their sandwiches in advance. This has been developed in association with Irish company Presentation Technology Ltd.
Spar Ireland represents a chain of over 430 retail outlets operating the Spar, EUROSpar and Spar Express formats.