BWG group, holder of the Republic's lucrative Spar franchise, today forecast retail sales growth of 12 per cent for 2003.
At a meeting of over 300 Spar retailers gathered at the company's 40th retailer convention in Dublin, Mr Crawford, chief executive of BWG, claimed retail sales in the 400 Spar outlets in the State were on course to exceed €850 million.
In May this year the retailer said it intended to 1,000 jobs in a €200 million expansion that will see 100 new stores open by the end of 2005.
Mr Crawford said today the company was on target to open 35 outlets stores this year "bringing total store numbers past the 400 mark".
Mr Gordon Campbell, managing director of Spar International, pointed out that Spar's Irish outlets are the most profitable of all the 32 countries in which the company operates.
"Spar Ireland is now recognised as one of the most successful players. The Spar retailers in Ireland produced the greatest sales per square foot across all 32 Spar member countries in the last 18 months."