Spar-owner BWG increased sales by 7% in four-month period to end of January

Spar-owner BWG increased sales by 7% in four-month period to end of January

BWG, which is on course for annual sales of close to €1.7 billion this year, said the reintroduction of anti-virus restrictions in Ireland in November and December had led to “mixed results” across its retail network.

The group also includes the Londis, XL, Mace and Eurospar stores, as well as a foodservice division that supplies products to hotels and restaurants. It also owns the Appleby Westward group that operates Spar in the southwest of England, and represents about 13 per cent of BWG’s business.

The Spar Group said the larger-format Eurospar network was negatively affected early in the trading period by customers who chose to socialise more as the hospitality sector opened up, spending less on their weekly grocery shopping. Its food service division, meanwhile, suffered after restrictions were reintroduced.

Overall, however, The Spar Group described BWG’s performance for the period as “impressive” in the face of the restrictions. It was 11.5 per cent ahead of the same period two years ago, prior to the pandemic.

The Spar Group, which reports its interim results next month, posted overall sales growth of 5.8 per cent to 45.5 billion Rand (€2.65bn) in the trading period to the end of January 29th. In addition to its operations in its home country and Ireland, it operates retail units in Switzerland and Poland.