Lidl marks 15 years of transforming Ireland’s grocery shopping habits

Three times as many people visited an Irish Lidl store as passed through Dublin Airport in 2014.

The German supermarket giant arrived on Irish shores 15 years ago yesterday — opening seven stores in 2000. Since then, the Irish love-affair with the no-frills discounter has grown, with Lidl employing 3,200 people in 143 stores.

We're toasting to 15 years in Ireland! Thank you to all of our loyal customers, suppliers & employees :) pic.twitter.com/8lni8nkkat

— Lidl Ireland (@lidl_ireland) August 18, 2015

According to consumer monitoring company, Kantar Worldpanel, 66% of all Irish householders visited Lidl during the last three months. The German chain continues to grow, and holds 9% of the Irish grocery market, although Tesco maintains the lion’s share, with 25%, followed closely by Supervalu.

Celebrating their anniversary, Lidl revealed some startling facts about the shopping habits of their Irish customers, who get through 2,800 tonnes — that’s 235 buses full — of granulated sugar each year; enough toilet paper to wrap around the Earth nine times over; as well as 8m small, white bread rolls.

Irish customers use twice more full-fat milk than low-fat or skimmed, and we buy enough flour and eggs to make 17m pancakes.