Musgrave plans 50 new stores

Musgrave Group today announced plans to open 40 new Centra and 10 new SuperValu stores between now and the end of the year.

They would also be extending and refurbishing a further 50 stores, group managing director Hugh McKeown told the Evening Echo newspaper.

The investment would result in the creation of an additional 850 jobs.

He made the announcement at the same time as he disclosed company results for 2003, announcing that the Cork family-owned firm had sales of €3.3bn last year.

Mr McKeown said Budgens, the UK supermarket and convenience chain of stores which it owns, contributed €727m (22%) of group turnover in 2003.

There are 230 stores in the chain which has 6,000 employees.

Its Spanish division, Spain Dialsur, grew its sales by 1.5% to €161m.

The group had profit before taxation of €59.3m, up 3%.