Lidl agrees €60m deal with O’Brien Fine Foods

Lidl Ireland has announced a €60 million tie-up with Kildare-based O’Brien Fine Foods to distribute the company’s cooked meat products to its stores on the island of Ireland, in the UK and across mainland Europe.

The supply arrangement will expand the German-owned retailer’s existing relationship with the Irish company, which has supplied Lidl’s own-brand Glensallagh and Deluxe ham and beef lines since 2011.

O’Brien Fine Foods is also a member of Lidl’s supplier engagement programme, aimed at developing long-term sustainability plans for the supermarket chain’s suppliers.

Kevin Duffy, senior buying director at Lidl Ireland, said O’Brien’s is a “valued and trusted” member of the group’s network of more than 400 Irish suppliers.

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He said the supply deal will showcase “the best of Irish produce on the global stage”.

John O’Brien, managing director of O’Brien Fine Foods, said the long-standing partnership with Lidl had helped the family-owned business “thrive immensely” over the years. “It has enabled us to invest in our business and grow our team substantially. Lidl has given us the opportunity to enter new international markets for the first time and bring our quality Irish products to customers across Europe.”

Lidl Ireland sold some €682 million worth of Irish agri-food products in its stores in the Republic last year, exporting about €318 million to its outlets in other countries.

The group has also been in expansion mode here over the past number of years.

Earlier this year Lidl announced plans to create more than 700 new jobs and open four new outlets across the Republic after growing its market share to 12.2 per cent to 9.9 per cent last year.

The grocery retailer also opened of the State’s largest distribution centres earlier this year in Mullingar as part of a €550 million expansion plan announced in 2021.