A strong performance over the festive period has SuperValu challenging Tesco to become Ireland’s biggest food retailer. This came after the acquisition of 24 former-Superquinn stores.
According to the latest figures Tesco’s lead over the Irish chain has shortened to 0.3 percent as SuperValu's sales rose to almost €2.6bn in 2014.
SuperValu now serves 2.6m customers every week - and it plans to invest €18 million in opening four new stores in 2015.
Irish Independent report that the company's managing director Martin Kelleher told the SuperValu national conference in Killarney that the company is satisfied with its current trading performance.
He says: "SuperValu can continue to go from strength to strength in 2015. We will continue to drive the momentum behind SuperValu into 2015 through our food leadership programme, commitment to local suppliers through initiatives like Food Academy and exceptional value."
The Food Academy programme is a joint initiative between SuperValu, Bord Bia, the Local Enterprise Office Network that will support small food companies in Ireland.
SuperValu says that it spends almost €2bn buying goods from Irish suppliers and the company directly employs close to 14,500 people.
