It was interesting to read in Checkout magazine that one of Dunnes Stores's main rivals, Lidl, has appointed John Paul Scally as the new head of its Irish arm.

Scally, who starts on September 1st, is currently the operations directions director at Lidl France. Someone should tell him to stuff his bags with plenty of cheap wine before he flies home to take up the job.

Scally replaces Brendan Proctor (inset) , who is spearheading Lidl's push into the US, where Aldi is already established. The discount grocer is investing $200 million in the plan, using Virginia as a beach head. It will probably be 2018 before Proctor cuts the ribbon on his first store. Ken McGrath, another Irish former Lidl executive who did some of the preliminary work on the US plan, was recently hired by Denis O'Brien as chief executive of Digicel in the Caribbean region. They get around, these Lidl Irish folk.