Tiger To Open 12 New Stores

 

The much loved high street brand will open 12 new Irish Stores and be re-branded under the moniker ‘Flying Tiger Copenhagen’. The Irish arm of the Tiger brand is operated by Gillian Maxwell and Niall Stringer, with Tiger Retail Ireland currently operating 24 retail stores across Ireland. They plan on opening 12 new Tiger stores by 2017 and will re-brand the group as ‘Flying Tiger Copenhagen’ from next month. The name change will be part of a global re-brand from the Danish parent company.

Tiger employs 250 employees in Ireland and had an annual turnover of €14 million in 2015. All profits are being reinvested within the new store openings. Tiger originated in Ireland as a pop-up store in Dun Laoighaire back in 2011.The Maxwell’s came across the Tiger brand in London and were influential in bringing it to the Irish market. The Irish company is owned 50/50 by the Maxwell’s and Tigers Danish parent.

Dalata plan new 137 bed City Centre Hotel in Dublin 8

 

Dalata have acquired a hotel development site in Dublin 8 for €8.1 million. The site, located at the junction of New Street South and Kevin Street upper will see a development of 137 bedrooms, café, bar, restaurant and car park over 5 floors. Dalata, Ireland’s largest hotel group will begin construction of a Maldron Hotel in the last quarter of 2016, with the desire to have the hotel operating by mid-2018. The construction phase will cost €26million and employ 70 people.

Dermot Crowley CEO of Dalata group said it is “a very exciting opportunity for the company”. He furthered “The Dublin hotel market continues to perform very strongly in 2016, and we look forward to this Maldron Hotel contributing significantly to the Company performance in the future.

Ireland’s most popular brands revealed

 

Avonmore has been revealed as Ireland’s favourite brand. Kantar Worldwide have revealed their annual barometer of consumer brands, which illustrates the most popular brands by Irish consumers. Half of the country’s 50 most popular brands came from traditional local names. The study reported on sales between October 2014 to October 2015 using a metric called ‘consumer reach points’.

Interesting statistics

  • Over 12 months, 75% of Irish households purchased an Avonmore product.
  • Those who did buy Avonmore jobs, did so an average of 27.4 times a year.
  • Avonmore sold 35 million products from supermarkets throughout the course of the year.
  • Four Irish brands are in the top 10.
  • Coca Cola retained first place in worldwide ranking.
  • 25 Irish brands made it into the top 50 brands domestically.

 

Most popular Brands

David Berry, KantarWorldwide Director said that Irish brands “continue to represent a strong contingent in our shopping baskets”.

Sports Direct buy Boyers building

 

Sports Direct have bought the former Boyers building just off Dublin’s O’Connell Street. The building on North Earl Street had been home to Boyers for the past 110 years, closing earlier this year. Sports Direct is owned by UK billionaire Retailer Mike Ashley, who recently bought a remainder of shares to outright own the Heaton’s Stores across Ireland. Ashley also owns Newcastle United FC.

It is believed Sports Direct paid within the region of €12 million for the property, which also attracted the interest of German discount retailers Lidl and Aldi. DTZ Sherry FitzGerald handled the sale of the premise at 19-22 North Earl Street, Dublin 1.

Ikea will open second Irish Store in Carrickmines

The Swedish retail giant Ikea will open a second Irish store in Carrickmines, South Dublin. The second Irish Ikea store will be a scaled down version of the Ballymun unit. The Park, a shopping and business park just off exit 15 on the m50 will offer Ikea a 15,000 sq ft premise and also see Ikea introduce their first order and collect point in Ireland.

Ikea have agreed a lease with property group Iput, believed to be for ten years. The store will also include a café. The smaller sizing that Ikea had previously revealed they were gearing towards will allow customers to collect orders made online. Niall Ringrose, Head of Property Management at Iput said the deal would significantly enhance the “already high-quality” retail offering at The Park.

70 Tesco Stores To Go On Strike

 

At 7am Monday May 16th over 70 Tesco Stores will be closed as staff enter the picket line. The Tesco employees are protesting changes in conditions of employment that will affect 300 staff of the Grocery Retailer, who have been working for Tesco since 1996 and before. Mandate Trade Union have said that strikes will go on indefinitely until staff are willing to accept proposals made by Tesco.

The changes that have led to protest include:

  • Change to rosters
  • Annual Bonus reduction
  • 15% – 35% pay cuts
  • Sunday hour pay being reduced

However, the exact location of the protests are not yet known, with Tesco Ireland stating that all stores and online services will be available. It is believed the stores that are due to picket will be announced in the upcoming days. Gerry Light of Mandate Trade Union said ‘’We remain committed to reaching agreement on this issue and earlier this week we formally tabled a generous proposal for compensation for colleagues in scope. We need to make this change in order to improve our customer service at our busiest times of the week.’’

 

Lidl plan their US expansion

 

German grocery retailer Lidl will expand to the US market, opening their first stores in 2018. Last year Lidl announced they had established their US headquarters and distribution facilities in Arlington – Virginia, which had a combined cost of €200 million. Lidl have pledged to create “A unique experience for American consumers that will be unlike anything else in the market.”

Lidl and rival discounter Aldi, continue to upend the grocery retail market throughout Europe. The latest KantarWorldwide statistics illustrate this, with Lidl recently having the strongest sales increase in the Irish Grocery market.

In a statement, Lidl said that they will offer the US market ‘’fresh meat, produce and bakery items, as well as a wide selection of household goods. We will carry Lidl’s own premium quality brands as well as familiar branded goods, available at the lowest possible prices.”

Musgrave announce 2015 profit and figures

 

Musgrave, Ireland’s leading food retail and wholesale company announced a pre-tax profit of €67.5 million for 2015. The Musgrave brand which encompasses Musgrave and Musgrave MarketPlace, employs 45,000 staff across Ireland and Spain.

The Musgrave brands

  • SuperValu – 223 stores Ireland and 34 Northern Ireland
  • Centra – 461 stores Ireland and 76 stores Northern Ireland
  • Musgrave MarketPlace – 7 branches Ireland and 3 Northern Ireland
  • Daybreak – 200 stores Ireland
  • Mace – 117 stores in Northern Ireland
  • Dialsur – 17 branches in Spain
  • Dialprix – 80 stores in Spain

Throughout 2015, Musgrave reported culminate sales of €4.4 billion across the brands. 2016 see Musgrave enter their 140th year of business since being founded by Leitrim brothers Thomas and Stuart Musgrave in 1876. All of the Musgrave Irish brands are in a leadership position in their respective markets.

Key Figures

  • SuperValu weekly footfall stands at 2.5 million
  • Centra’s weekly footfall stands at 3.3 million
  • SuperValu announced record retail sales of €2.6 billion in 2015
  • Recognised with over 100 awards throughout 2015