Discount grocer Aldi has announced plans to significantly increase its presence in the Irish market.
The German group will invest £286m in opening 35 new stores across the country and a distribution centre in Mitchelstown, Co Cork, over the next three years, creating 650 jobs in the process.
Seventeen stores will open for business by the end of 2009 with management focusing on new developments in the areas of Drogheda, Co Meath, Wexford town, Dublin and Mallow .
Some 490 jobs will be created in the stores while 160 people will be employed in the new distribution centre to support Aldi’s expansion in the south of the country.
The popular supermarket chain opened its first Irish store in 1999 and now has 59 outlets in the country. Previous plans for expansion were hampered by the Groceries Order, which was abolished in 2006.
Paul Foley, Aldi UK and Ireland managing director, said sales at its Irish stores were up 20 per cent on the same periods last year, giving the retailer a 4.5 per cent share of the Irish grocery market.
“We are very pleased with the performance of our business in recent months and are poised to grow even further,” he said.
“New customers are trying Aldi because they’re more conscious of seeking out value for money.”
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