The reception area of Lidl’s Irish headquarters building in Tallaght hosts reminders of celebrations from earlier this year of its 25-year anniversary in Ireland.
“We have a Lidl throughout-the-years wall and the remnants of our celebrations from the summertime,” Robert Ryan, the chief executive of the firm’s Irish business, says before leading me upstairs towards the tasting kitchen.
This is where the quality of various meat, poultry and other food products are road-tested by a team of chefs and buyers to ensure they hit the mark on quality and that the cooking instructions are accurate.
“We haven’t quite figured out an air fryer recipe for steaks yet. I don’t think we’ll get there,” Ryan jokes, before inviting me to taste a variety of beef and steak products, the “vast majority” of which are supplied by Liffey Meats in Ballyjamesduff, in Co Cavan.
RM Block
Irish grocery prices climbed by more than 6 per cent over the summer, with the rate of increase now more than three times higher than the general rate of consumer price inflation within the economy.
Figures out this week from data company Worldpanel by Numerator also reveal a sharp uptick in supermarket spending in the four weeks to September 7th.
The price of beef and other meat items have risen sharply over the past year, although Ryan argues that Lidl has managed to cushion the blow for consumers by taking a hit on its margin.
Lidl’s beef products have been subject to 20-25 per cent price inflation in the past year, according to Ryan.
“The price increases from our competitors have been significantly more and the farm gate prices have gone from €5.50 a kilo to close to €8 a kilo. That’s close to a 50 per cent increase in terms of what’s out there.
“We’re taking a significant [financial] hit but that’s something we’ve always been prepared to do when it comes to price. Irish beef is such an important category in the market and we won’t be found wanting when it comes to our prices on that [product].”
Ryan claims there is a 15 to 20 per cent “price gap” on these products between Lidl and “most of its competitors”.
“We’re prepared to maintain that at our expense and we’re quite proud of that,” he says.
For sure the deluxe range of products I got to taste (which included fillet and tomahawk steaks and chateaubriand) tasted delicious and were perfectly cooked by the in-house chef.
“Restaurant quality steak without the prices,” is how Ryan likes to put it, and he claims that the German discounter is poaching customers from rivals for its beef products.
He says Lidl has a 17.2 per cent share of beef sales, according to the Worldpanel figures while its overall share of the grocery market is put at 14.2 per cent.
“We sell more kilograms of beef than any other retailer within the island,” is his boast.
[ Lidl appoints Robert Ryan as CEO of Irish businessOpens in new window ]
Of course, it’s not just beef prices that have shot up recently. The price of coffee and butter have rocketed, and most other products have risen, too.
“As a retailer we can’t absorb all those but we absorb as much as we can. We’re prepared to sacrifice margin. We are a privately-owned business and the pressure for us is maybe not so much as others.”
Lidl doesn’t publish its financial accounts for the Republic, though its annual sales are reported to be well north of €1 billion. In the North, it’s accounts show a margin of about 2.5 per cent, and Ryan says the performance south of the Border would be in a similar ballpark.
He says Lidl can apply economies of scale from being part of a large global retailer. “We have access to one of the biggest wineries in Spain and our own production of coffee and ice cream. That’s what we offer the customers that our competitors don’t.”
Its Parkside range of DIY products is the biggest of its kind in Europe, Ryan adds.
We’re taking a significant [financial] hit but that’s something we’ve always been prepared to do when it comes to price
— Robert Ryan
Lidl has 188 stores in the Republic, with a stated aim to get to 200 by the end of 2026. New outlets have been announced for Killorglin in Kerry, Ballybough in Dublin, Carlow, and two stores in Galway (Portumna and Loughrea).
Meanwhile, a new shop will open in Maynooth in November at a cost of €10 million. Ryan says it will be Ireland’s first net zero store.
“That will be a template for how stores will be across the rest of the country,” he says, throwing in the fact that Lidl is the “owner of biggest number of solar PV rooftop panels” in the country.
“We invested in that a number of years ago.”
Each new store will have 35-40 full time staff and overall employee numbers will rise to about 6,000 by the end of 2026, if its growth goes to plan.
In February, Lidl committed to investing a further €600 million over the next five years, adding up to 35 new stores, and a €200 million new regional distribution centre in Cork.
[ 25 lessons from Lidl’s 25 years in IrelandOpens in new window ]
To borrow a company slogan, is Ireland approaching Full Lidl in terms of coverage?
“Things evolve with population growth,” Ryan says. “I’d be confident there’s room for growth beyond [2030] but that’s the target at the moment.”
Could Lidl get to 300 stores in the Republic? “Never say never but it would be a stretch.”
Ryan also has responsibility for the whole island, with both run out of the Tallaght HQ. Lidl has 1,500 staff in 43 stores in the North.
In terms of innovations, Ryan cites recent changes to its Lidl Plus loyalty programme – which he says has just under 2 million registered active users – where customers can now collect points that they can use to reduce their bills in store.
I grew up on checkouts from a young age and it’s in my DNA
— Robert Ryan
“In the tough market we have right now in terms of price they’re getting a little bit more [value] with their points.”
It has also just launched a click and pick up service for non-food items (the famous middle aisle products), that will be available across its network.
“You click, reserve online and then come to store to pick it up. We’ll see how it goes and look at further developments if that’s a success.”
In Britain, he says the collection rate has been in the “high 90s” percentage wise and he expects a similar rate here.
Self-checkouts will have been installed in half of its stores by the end of this year and will be in place in all of its new supermarkets.
“The demand [for these] has been phenomenal,” he says.
A charge levelled at Lidl is that you can’t do your full shop there, hence the discounter’s Full Lidl campaign.
Ryan says it has the top 100 consumer brands in store, and branded products account for about one-third of its sales. He declines to put a percentage figure on sales of middle aisle goods versus grocery products for “competition” reasons.
It uses more than 400 Irish suppliers, spending €1.2 billion on goods and services, he adds.
Retail is in Ryan’s blood. His grandmother moved to Dublin from Tipperary to open a shop in Rialto, just south of the city centre.
Retail is challenging but I have a grá and a passion for it
— Robert Ryan
His father Michael and an uncle later took over the business, comprising a Centra convenience store, an off-licence and a “couple of newsagents”.
“I grew up on checkouts from a young age and it’s in my DNA. I grew up in that environment and it teaches you so much about efficiencies, waste and getting value for the customer. I was on the checkout from nine or 10 years of age right up to leaving university.”
Ryan did a business degree in what was then the Dublin Institute of Technology “to keep the options open” and expected to go into the family business until Lidl entered the Irish market and caught his eye.
He’s been with the German company for 22 years, apart from a three-year stint with Superquinn after Feargal Quinn had sold it to a consortium of investors.
“I expected to go into the family business but then Lidl opened in Ireland and I’ve been here ever since apart from a short stint in Superquinn. It was probably written in the stars.”
What was Superquinn like? “It was chaotic but a great learning curve,” he says.
His time with Lidl includes three and a half years with the British business, including a stint as chief operating officer (COO). He was COO in Ireland for more than five years before stepping up to the top job.
Retail is a tough industry, often involving long days and unsocial hours.
Ryan says he “loves the cut and thrust” of the job. “To this day, my favourite part of the week is getting out to meet customers across the country. We do market research of course but the best research is shaking hands with customers and asking them what’s missing in our range.
“And they always mention what they can’t get and that’s what I’ll take back to my buying team and we’ll look at the figures and numbers and see what we can do.
“Retail is challenging but I have a grá and a passion for it.”
Is there much oversight from its German owner?
“In Ireland we make our own decisions and we run the business as we see fit. They are close to the business here as you would expect but ... we get great freedom to run the business.”
“Efficiency is in our DNA. As a board we begin each week in store on the shop floor, we speak to customers as a board. I’ve never yet come back to the building without a to-do list for our teams from speaking to customers. That’s generally around efficiencies ... how we get something at the best value.
“A number of years ago we reduced the lux levels in our stores by just a fraction but that meant a direct saving correlating to the customer on products.”
Founded in 1930 as a food wholesaler, Lidl now operates in more than 30 countries with 12,000-plus stores. It is owned by the Schwartz group.
[ Grocery price inflation tops 6% as back-to-school shopping drives sales surgeOpens in new window ]
Irish executives percolate through the senior ranks of the German retailer. Its global chief executive is an Irishman, Ken McGrath, while Ryan reminds me that four other countries are run by Irish people, including the French operation, which is run by JP Scally, his predecessor in Tallaght.
“That doesn’t happen by chance. It’s because we do retail very well in Ireland. We regularly see people come from international [business] to look at our offering and the competition in the market and they leave saying ‘yeah, Ireland is at a very high level’.”
Ryan is just 43 and has been in the top job in Ireland for a year now. Might he one day spread his wings to another part of Lidl’s global operation?
“The beauty of Lidl is that it does offer opportunities internationally. But I’m very happy in Ireland. We’ve a lot more to do here. We have significant expansion plans and I’m ready to keep the business moving forward and chasing down our competitors. That’s enough for now.”
CV
Name:
Robert Ryan
Job:
Chief executive Lidl Ireland & NI
Age:
43
Location:
Lucan, Co Dublin.
Family:
Married with three daughters, aged 14, 11 and nine.
Hobbies:
“Triathlon when I can. Avid reader, everything from leadership books to autobiographies to fiction. And coaching my girls’ football team. It’s a great way of getting free from the stresses of the week.”
Something you might expect:
He does all his shopping in Lidl. “There are a number of pantry items that once or twice a year we buy elsewhere but 99 per cent of our shopping comes from Lidl. My kids have grown up on Crownfield cornflakes and Fallon’s tea [which is a collaboration with Bewley’s].”
Something that might surprise:
“I recently did a white collar boxing event for the local Lucan Sarsfield GAA club. Getting punched in the face is not something I particularly enjoyed. I did about six weeks training and there were 700 people at it. It took me right out of my comfort zone.″ He lost.
