I thank Deputies and Senators for the opportunity to address them. As a retailer we are committed to offering consumers quality products at the best prices with the widest choice. This is achieved through a range of store formats that are appropriate to the local communities we serve. They range from Extra stores to our main street Express stores like the one in Camden Street, not too far from here.
In total, Tesco Ireland operates 117 stores and our business has grown every year since 1997. We now employ 14,000 people directly in stores, offices and depots throughout the country, while an additional 14,000 people are indirectly employed to supply and support the business. We look after customers through 2 million shopping trips every week and we contribute more than €2.5 billion to the Irish economy annually. We also export more than €655 million of Irish food and drink to the Tesco Group every year.
Since we last appeared before this committee four years ago, we have opened more than 40 new stores in communities around Ireland. In the last 14 months alone we have created more than 1,500 new jobs. This has included more than 400 new jobs in Mayo, 200 new jobs in Louth, more than 180 new jobs in Kildare, 100 in Meath, 80 in Cavan and some 100 in Carlow.
We are the largest employer in some towns and many communities see a Tesco store as the best chance they may have to get an inward investment project that creates jobs, protects other jobs in the community and drives the development of the town. We are often approached by communities asking us to open in their area because people see it as good for competition, jobs and so forth. We listen to these consumers and communities and we see if we can invest in land and buildings in their areas by opening new stores.
Some members might have seen the Roscommon Herald of two weeks ago. It reported that a local councillor in Castlerea, along with housewives from the town, had gathered 1,200 signatures in a petition for a Tesco for the town. Towns like Abbeyfeale, Mitchelstown, New Ross, Youghal, Roscommon, Bailieborough, Nenagh, Cashel, Kilrush, Carrick-on-Shannon, Wexford and others that have been the recent beneficiaries of Tesco shops have all told us of the positive difference they have made. Prior to our arrival, people would travel 30 km or 40 km to do their weekly shop. A good store has the potential to regenerate a town, keeping shopping local, making a town sustainable and benefiting the environment by reducing travel distances.
I would like to share a testimonial with members which we received from Mitchelstown, County Cork, about the benefits Tesco has brought to that community. Tom Whelton of the Mitchelstown Forum said:
There was concern about the potential impact on the future of other smaller retailers and while this argument has not completely gone away, the overall positive impact on the economic life of Mitchelstown cannot be refuted.
Tesco has proven to be a good employer, the leakage of retail sales out of the town has been significantly reduced and two further food multiples have invested in Mitchelstown since Tesco's arrival. Indeed, as the body representing community, commercial and other organisations, the Mitchelstown Forum would welcome further retail development.
As Tom Whelton said so well in his words from Mitchelstown, new Tesco stores bring competition and choice. More importantly, new Tesco stores help people to shop locally. New stores localise shopping and reduce the leakage of consumers to other towns. They cut down on travel distances — and therefore carbon emissions — for weekly shopping.
In December 2008 we opened a new store in Cashel, County Tipperary. On opening the store, an exit survey of 1,000 customers highlighted the fact that, prior to the opening of the store, 60% of them had previously shopped in Clonmel, Tipperary or Thurles. More than 40% of them used to travel more than 32 km to complete their weekly shopping. With a new store on their doorstep, people in Cashel can shop locally and avoid travelling long distances for their weekly shopping. By investing in towns like Cashel, Mitchelstown, Bailieborough or Claremorris and providing the modern shopping facilities consumers need, we can localise shopping and help revive these towns as trading centres. At the same time, we can positively change current travel patterns and reduce the length and duration of car journeys.
Irish rural populations who use these stores depend almost wholly on private cars for shopping, particularly for food shopping. They use these supermarkets for weekly or fortnightly shopping where they are looking for maximum value. Our Express stores like those in Parnell Street or Camden Street in Dublin are also part of the equation but the diverse nature of the market in Ireland requires a mix of stores to meet different consumer and community needs.
Last autumn we opened our first eco store in Tramore, County Waterford. Designed to the highest environmental standards, it is a blueprint for the stores of the future. A timberframe store, it uses 45% less energy than a conventional supermarket of a similar size and will save 420 tonnes of carbon each year, the equivalent to the amount that 2,500 homes would produce in a single year. This is a significant signpost for our plan to reduce our carbon footprint, through which we can also help consumers reduce their carbon footprint.
It is with that background of new store openings that we have been invited to appear before the committee to give our views on the retail planning guidelines and their impact on our new store development. We develop our stores by looking at consumer needs, local demographics, site availability and land costs. Once we open, there is no town where we do not increase consumer choice and competition resulting in lower prices. We also bring benefits in facilitating recycling. We engage actively with local planners and communities to determine what will work best for the locality and we work within the planning regulations and structures.
It may come as a surprise to the committee, despite what others may say, that the majority of our existing stores, some 68%, are located in town centres, that is seven out of every ten of our stores. This is more than any of our competitors. In fact, 95% of our stores are either town-centre, edge-of-centre or out-of-centre, and not out-of-town as many believe.
We welcome the opportunity to continue to develop new stores in town centres and wherever we develop, we do so in consultation with the local planning authority. We would seek to continue to develop in town centres where sites can be found and provided it does not add to existing traffic congestion problems, both of which can be severe limitations. That is why there also needs to be scope for edge-of-centre and out-of-centre developments.
Without this scope, some communities and consumers will not benefit from retail investment and all the positives this brings, such as new competition for long-standing incumbents, consumer choice, lower prices and most especially in these challenging times, jobs. Proximity, accessibility and convenience for consumers are important factors to consider. Communities and the economy generally would benefit from resources being directed to improve the pace of planning decisions. However, with a reported slowdown in planning applications, this may well arise.
I urge the committee to reaffirm policies that foster and promote these outcomes. Any move towards further restriction on size or location in the guidelines will inhibit investment, job creation, consumer choice, and lower prices.
Consumers and communities would benefit from a refocusing of the existing guidelines which might allow for speedier decision making, more suitably zoned sites in and near towns, more weight given to the views of local professional planners, more recognition for the role of consumers in the process, and recognition of many planning objections for what they are — in many cases purely commercially and competitively driven.
I would now welcome any questions.
