Centra plans to open 20 new stores as sales increase

Centra boss Martin Kelleher said the chain, supplied by Musgrave, plans to open 20 new stores this year to tap growing sales.

Sales increased 4% to €1.7bn in 2019 as it navigated last year’s hard Brexit deadlines, having invested millions in refurbishing stores and refocusing to sell healthier product ranges, Mr Kelleher said.

Part of the transformation also involved opening its Frank and Honest coffee outlets in most of the stores.

“We could see back in 2016 that things we would have sold a lot of, in the traditional convenience store, like tobacco and alcohol and newspapers, were coming under pressure,” he said.

With a total of 473 stores, the Centra business direct rival in the Republic is with BWG, which supplies a number of convenience store chains, including Spar and Mace.

In the North, Centra also operates 89 store franchises.

Most of the 20 new stores will be in Dublin because of the city’s growing population and the others are spread around the country, including conversions from competitors and new sites.

Asked about the election, Mr Kelleher said he would urge politicians to do all they could to help cut insurance costs, rates, and tackle crime that can affect local stores.

On Brexit, he said Centra had managed sterling’s fluctuations and had planned well for last year’s hard Brexit deadlines, in March and October.

But Mr Kelleher said that the eventual trade deal between the UK and the EU could still have effects on retailing in Ireland.

He also runs SuperValu, one of the big three supermarkets by sales.

“In very simple terms, the tariff question is still there and could and will have a significant impact on the price of goods here,” he said.

But we need to let that play out and see what agreement is made. Then it is the movement of goods which is the next thing which we have been planning around.

Some of its British suppliers might supply Centra from factories on the continent where they also have factories but “there is still work to be done to solidify that”, he said.

“At the least, the ticking time bomb that was there has passed,” Mr Kelleher added.