Irish shoppers seventh in world

Conor Keane, Business Correspondent

The Deloitte 2005 survey shows that the Irish retail market has emerged strongly from a global Deloitte report, with per capita sales in 2003 ranking it seventh in the world, just ahead of Britain.

Ireland had per capita sales of E4,707 compared to the leading country Japan E7,133 and the US E6,546. Britain had per capita sales of E4,550.

Denmark and France have outpaced Ireland at the tills, taking fifth and six place respectively.

Deloitte said that the strength of the Irish market is exemplified by the significant presence here of 21 of the 250 largest global retailers, in terms of sales.

Musgraves, who operate the SuperValu and Centra franchises, emerged as the strongest Irish retailer and the only one to be included among the top 250 retailers worldwide. It ranked 155th overall and 39th in the list of the 50 fastest growing retailers from 1998-2003. Deloitte said the success of the hard discount format in Ireland is mirrored internationally. “The hard discount format, which emerged from Germany, is proving successful in most countries that it has penetrated. In France, for example, hard discount formats are taking one or two market share points each year and have already reached 14% in a market with no growth.

Consumer Business Partner at Deloitte Cormac Hughes, said competition has intensified, adding that no one dares to stand still.

“Irish companies in the retail market are impacted by these global trends. Superquinn, for example, recently stated that it sold the company to gain new investment which would help ensure its long-term viability in the face of pressures from the global and Irish market,” said Hughes.

The report’s authors noted that the European Central Band faces a quandary as it bids to stimulate a significant revival of economic growth.

“It could loosen policy (reduce short-term interest rates) in order to help weak and deflationary economies like Germany and France. Yet in so doing, it might over-stimulate strong economies like Ireland, thus creating inflationary pressures.

“Consequently, partly in the interest of maintaining credibility with financial markets, the ECB has erred on the side of tightness. The result has been relatively high interest rates, a strong currency, retarded export growth, and overall economic stagnation,” they said.

The reported noted that Ireland had a per capita income roughly 60% that of the EU and that, today Ireland has a per capita income roughly 120% that of the EU.