Irish online shopping centre expands in US

Buy4Now, Ireland’s online shopping centre, through its trading arm Buy4Now e-tail solutions, has announced an expansion of its business in the US.

The firm has launched Waldbaums online grocery store on Long Island New York.

This is the third chain of grocery stores that Buy4Now has launched with online shopping in the past 15 months.

Waldbaums, a supermarket chain with 53 stores on Long Island in Nassau and Suffolk Counties, is operated by The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company.

Online grocery shopping accounts for 1% of total grocery volume in the US.

Ali Murdoch, Chief Executive of Buy4Now said: “In a short period of time, a small independent Irish company has positioned itself as a significant player in the US e-Grocery market. We are working with a number of additional grocers across the USA to plan further launches.”

The company also announced today that it has revised year end (31 March, 2006) revenue and profit expectations upwards to €5m and €615,000 respectively.

This will represent revenue and profit growth of 45% and 287% respectively on last year’s performance.