Tesco Ireland to invest €50m in new stores and upgrades this year

James Cox

Tesco Ireland has announced it is to spend €50 million this year in store upgrades, maintenance, and new openings.

It comes as the company marks the launch of its latest store at South Lotts Road, Dublin 4.

The €50 million investment will include new stores, store upkeep and upgrade projects.

There is also a separate rebrand and redesign programme getting underway with Tesco’s recently acquired portfolio of nine stores across Galway city and county owned by the Joyce family, which was completed in June.

In Dublin, two new Tesco Express stores recently opened in Spencer Dock and South Lotts Road, with two further Tesco Express stores opening in Smithfield and Charlemont Square before the end of the year.

Tesco also opened its new 11,000 square foot large store at White Pines in Rathfarnham in February. A similar size store will also open its doors at Adamstown in West Dublin later this year.

In addition, a major refurbishment and extension of Tesco’s Artane Castle store has been completed and a refit programme of older stores is also continuing across the country.

The South Lotts Road supermarket which opened this week marks the 154th store in the Tesco Ireland portfolio and spans over 6,000 square feet of retail space.

Tesco Ireland CEO, Natasha Adams, said the "strong pipeline of store openings and refurbishments" planned over the immediate and medium term, spells good news for consumers.

“For 25 years, Tesco has been committed to delivering real value to customers and our ambitious development strategy sets us up for the next chapter of investment in our business in Ireland. We are continuously expanding and maintaining our estates, and we are adding new employment with every store opening.

"White Pines, Rathfarnham which opened in February was our first new store in almost four years and has delivered 60 new jobs. Our Tesco Express model, which will see four stores opening in Dublin this year, is proving very successful in urban settings and reflects evolving consumer demand for greater convenience shopping opportunities in high footfall areas.

"We anticipate these new store openings and with the addition of Joyce’s supermarkets in Galway, we will bring our overall number of stores to 165 this year, which is really good news for our colleagues, customers and the communities in which we operate.”