Retailers ‘must lift secrecy’ on profits

Independent grocers’ group RGData has called on the Government to lift the “veil of secrecy” from the profits made by large multiple retailers.

The association’s director general, Tara Buckley, told an Oireachtas committee that large retailers went to inordinate lengths to conceal information on the turnover and profits generated by their activities in Ireland.

“Money spent in Irish-owned shops on Irish products is worth four times more to the local economy than that spent in the German or UK multiples,” Ms Buckley told a meeting of the joint committee on agriculture and food yesterday.