Discounter Lidl ramped up pressure on the major UK supermarkets today by announcing it will spend £220m on 20 new stores, creating 2,500 jobs.

Discount supermarket chain Lidl wants as many as 1,500 stores in the UK under plans to build on its rapid growth of recent years.

The Irish retail market has been ranked seventh in the world in terms of per capita spend in a global Deloitte report.