Supervalu, the franchised supermarket arm of the Musgrave group, has increased sales in 1998 by almost 13 per cent to £737 million (€935.8 million) and now accounts for 17.5 per cent of the grocery market in the Republic, the group's national conference has been told.

Last year, SuperValu made an agreement with Roches Stores to supply Roches's food business, a move that involved the rebranding of the nine Roches outlets as SuperValu at a cost of £15 million. The Roches deal brought the total number of supermarkets serviced by SuperValu to 203, with 29 of these in Northern Ireland. In Northern Ireland, turnover for the 29 SuperValu and Wellworth SuperValu stores totalled £136.7 million sterling (€204.5 million) and the chain accounts for 10 per cent of the grocery market in the North.