Shoppers spend €1.6bn in Spar stores as group plots expansion

Consumers spent more than €1.6 billion in Spar and Eurospar shops across the Republic in 2022, an annual increase of 4.5 per cent, the brands’ owner, BWG Foods said. The group has also announced plans to add 60 new stores to its combined network over the next two years.

BWG said it had benefited from the normalisation of shopping habits last year following the end of emergency phase of the Covid-19 pandemic, which led to an increase in footfall at its city centre and business park locations.

On Thursday, BWG, which also owns the Londis, Mace and XL store brands, said it will invest €65 million in an expansion plan that will see its overall footprint grow to 525 shops across the State by 2025.

The group said it has identified a number of greenfield and brownfield sites and will focus on new housing developments where it can gain strong foothold.

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Spar and the larger-format Eurospar have grown their Irish presence in recent years, adding more than 30 stores to their network since 2021, including prime sites at new residential schemes such as Clancy Quay in Islandbridge, Dublin 8 and the Strand View development on the Bray seafront in Co Wicklow.

BWG will also upgrade more than 100 existing stores over the next two years, rolling out a new store design for its Eurospar format with renewed focus on sustainability and energy efficiency.

Looking ahead, BWG said the expansion coupled with strong projected consumer demand this year will help it to achieve a total sales target of close to €1.7 billion in 2023.

In a trading update last month, BWG’s listed South African parent, The Spar Group, reported an 8.9 per cent increase in the Irish group’s turnover over the 18 weeks to the end of January 2023, compared with the same period in 2021 and 2022.

Hailing “an excellent trading performance” over the period, The Spar Group said it was “boosted by strong performances in Ireland across all retail brands and a full recovery in the hospitality sector which was restricted in December 2021 due to a new variant of Covid-19″.

BWG is wholly owned by The Spar Group, which first invested in the business in 2014 when it paid €55 million for an 80 per cent stake to help it to restructure boomtime property debts. Its management team, led by chief executive and former Ibec president, Leo Crawford, sold the remaining 20 per cent to The Spar Group for €102 million in a performance-related deal, with the final tranche changing hands at the end of 2020.

Commenting on the update and the group’s expansion plans, Mr Crawford said: “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.

He said: “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.”