Irish world's seventh-highest spenders
The Irish retail market has been ranked seventh in the world in terms of per capita spend in a global Deloitte report.
Per capita sales in 2003were $6,142 (€4,73), compared to the leading country Japan ($9,309 / €7,172) and the US ($8,542 / €6,582). The UK had per capita sales of $5,924 (€4,565).
Deloitte also said that the strength of the Irish market is highlighted by the significant presence here of 21 of the 250 largest global retailers (in terms of sales).
More than 50% of these companies are from the UK, eg Tesco and Kingfisher (B&Q), with German discount stores also having a strong market presence, eg Aldi and the Schwarz Group (Lidl).
The strongest Irish retailer and the only one to be included among the top 250 retailers worldwide is Centra, Super Valu and Spar-owner Musgraves, which is ranked 155th overall and 39th in the list of the 50 fastest growing retailers from 1998 - 2003, a significant achievement for the company.
Musgraves had group sales in 2003 of $3.8bn (€2.9bn) and its compound annual growth rate (CAGR) between 1998 and 2003 was 17.5%. The leading global retailer was Wal-Mart with sales of $258.7bn (€199.3bn) in 2003.
