German-based discount retailer Lidl has announced that, as it reopens its Fortunestown store, the group hopes to add an additional 40 stores to its Irish network.
According to the Irish Times, the group is seeking to expand its business in the Republic of Ireland over the next five years, but added that it is not considering any convenience formats.
Property director Alan Barry confirmed that no such plans were in place for Dublin city.
Lidl boasts a store network of 156 outlets in Ireland, owning 11.9% of the market share.
Its Fortunestown store in Tallaght reopens after a multi-million euro redevelopment that was required to fix the store that was destroyed by looters during Storm Emma in March.
Barry was speaking on the Inside Business podcast in the build-up to the reopening and said that Lidl’s “ambition is to have 200 stores. but hopefully, by the time we get to 200, our ambitions will have grown even larger. We have an ambition to continue to grow.”
When asked on the podcast about convenience retail formats in the nation’s capital, he said that the group cannot risk increasing market share at the cost of reducing its efficiencies.
“It’s not something we’re overly aggressive on at the minute,” he said.
© 2018 Checkout – your source for the latest Irish retail news. Article by Aidan O’Sullivan. Click subscribe to sign up for the Checkout print edition.
