Musgrave profits up for ninth year running

Musgrave Group have today announced its ninth year of consecutive profit growth for the year ended December 2007, with sales of €4.9bn up 6% and profit before tax of €49m up 16%.

In 2007 Musgrave and their retail partners created 2,000 new jobs in Ireland jobs, bringing to 35,000 the total number of people employed by the group.

Group chief executive of Musgrave, Chris Martin, said: “We delivered a satisfactory set of results for 2007 with retail and wholesale sales increasing. Through our strategy of developing our business for the long term we have worked hard with our retail partners to develop strong brands and a differentiated offer which consumers have responded to.

“This has resulted in strong sales growth in the Republic of Ireland while there were also a number of important developments in the United Kingdom. These included the completion of the sale of Budgens stores to independent retailers 12 months ahead of schedule and the acquisition of J&J Haslett in Northern Ireland. Both are important milestones in the development of the business in the UK.

“Our cash and carry and delivered foodservice business continues to meet the needs of the independent retail and growing foodservice sector through investment in our ‘Market Street’ concept in Dublin, Cork and Belfast. We will continue to support the growth and development of our cash and carry and delivered foodservices business in 2008.”

Musgrave Group now supports 3,400 stores and nine retail brands across the combined markets of the Ireland, the UK and Spain.The group’s retail partners operating under these brands reported strong growth in 2007 with combined turnover of €7.2bn, up 7% on the previous year.