Manufacturing & Supply Chain

Lidl has announced that it will be creating 600 jobs in Ireland over the next two years. The German supermarket chain also announced that it will be pushing ahead with its €110 million capital investment plan of store improvements and greenfield expansion.

The company is expanding due to significant growth in market share and needs new staff to support a growing supermarket network. The new jobs will be based in its head office as well as new positions for store workers and managers.

The company has opened stores at 146 locations across the country, since it first arrived 16 years ago.

With 1.5 million customers coming through its doors in Ireland each week, its market share is now almost one-eighth of the Irish grocery sector.

JP Scally, managing director of Lidl Ireland, has said the group is eventually targeting up to 50 new stores in the State, although it expects to open fewer than 10 a year for the next couple of years.

There will be a further recruitment drive for staff for a new warehouse in Newbridge, Co Kildare, which will be the company’s largest in Ireland.

Lidl says it has contributed €1.5bn to the Irish economy since it opened its first store in Ireland in 2000.

Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation Mary Mitchell-O’Connor welcomed the jobs announcement as a vote of confidence in the Irish economy.