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RETAILER PENNEYS IS to create 700 new jobs as part of a 250m euro investment in stores in Ireland.
The company will significantly increase its total retail space and plans include a new store in The Square in Tallaght, which will open in autumn next year, employing 300 people.
It also includes a 60 million euro investment in the redevelopment and extension of the Patrick Street store in Cork city, and an extension at the Eyre Square outlet in Galway.
A new distribution centre in Newbridge, Co Kildare, is due to open in 2024.
Speaking at Penneys’ headquarters in Dublin, Tanaiste Leo Varadkar said it was an “enormous vote of confidence” in the retail sector in Ireland.
He added: “I’m really pleased to be here in Primark/Penneys’ headquarters here in Dublin, where the company has just announced that they’re going to create 700 new jobs, 100 here in Primark HQ and 600 in Penneys stores across the country.
“That’s linked to an investment of a quarter of a billion euros in their stores around the country. So a phenomenal investment.
“The jobs are really good jobs. I think it’s also an enormous vote of confidence in the retail sector.”
He added: “It’s creating significant employment with 700 new jobs and will also help to secure footfall in our towns and cities once we emerge from the pandemic.
“Penneys is one of Ireland’s best-known retailers and also an international success story, having driven significant global expansion over the last few years.”
Minister of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Damien English, added: “It’s fabulous that we have a company like Penneys, a brand that is so well known, investing in the future of retail.”
Paul Marchant, chief executive of Primark, said the investment represented their faith in bricks and mortar stores.
He said: “This is a day to feel really proud and excited about the investment in Ireland. Seven hundred jobs, 600 of them in our retail stores and right across the country and 100 in our head office.
“We continue to expand the Primark business across the world.
“I think this is because of our belief in bricks and mortar, we are real believers in stores.
“We feel it is the right time for us to invest in Ireland. We have got a very loyal customer here, the customers love the Primark/Penneys proposition and we want to continue to invest in stores across the country.”
He added: “We hugely value our incredibly loyal Irish customers who have supported us over the years.
“Our investment plans demonstrate the confidence and commitment we have to Penneys in Ireland – we plan to remain at the centre of Irish retail for a long time to come.”
Penneys already employs 5,000 staff in Ireland.
Globally, Primark has about 399 stores and 70,000 staff.
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No one seems interested in the basic function of farming, creating food.!Any suggestions on what we should eat when all the rewilding is complete!
@Tommy Lennon: Nearly all the food we produce is exported though, so rewilding vast swathes of land wouldn’t affect our access to food.
@Tommy Lennon: Heather!! This hogwash is really going overboard. 5.2 Million people have to eat something!!
Few years ago they couldn’t give away enough money to reclaim land, bogs were drained, ditches bulldozed to make fields bigger now give more money to put it back, what next
@Andy Murphy: it’s as if priorities can change over time.
Mad, Ted!
@Ciaran Foster: or money changes hands ?
Totally agree. I bought the book from Eoghan back in December as a present but could not stop reading it.. great eye opener when walking around any nature area and looking at our human shaped environment.
Bought the book. Eoghan knows what he is talking about, we should listen
Lord save us from this stuff, so we return good farmland to the so called wild bush,
I have known so called farmers like this and they were to lazy to work their land and produce food, this was their cop out for not working their inheritance farm,
The boyo who wrote this article seems like one of them.
@Ned: You sound bitter. Were they “to” lazy to learn to spell also?
Every day I read or hear about another demand from the “Green Agenda”. Previously I would have considered myself environmentally conscious but I have rapidly become less so due to the polarised views presented.
More tree planting, ditch fertiliser (go organic) , drop bovines and ovines 20% in favor of grains and vegetables. Pay farmers to do so. Targets met… Simple..and it will be done.
Folks, do yourselves a favour and read his book.
Great book, highly recommend!
I’ve no problem to pay farmers to rewind their farms
But let’s house the homeless fix our health first eh?
We should change our approach to land use. A farm should be an inclosed area where sheep / goat / cows won’t go outside to graze on every little tree sapling. Same for sikka deer that has gone out of control in recent years. Nature and biodiversity has no chance in this country atm.
There are 8 Billion people on this planet that have to be fed every day and this idiot wants us to grow weeds. Enough of this nonsense. No matter what we do on this little island it will make little or no difference to global warming. We’re not the cause of the problem, but we could help alleviate the consequences.
@Liam Dunne: well we are the cause of the problem, rich countries like ireland are the ones who consume the most and produce the most carbon per capita, we still contribute to the overall problem
@Liam Dunne: It’s not about global warming, it’s about biodiversity. Read the article, then try reading some books.
We need all houses to be carbon neutral…citizens deserve at least cheap/free heating.
I’ve noticed a lot of hedgerows getting torn out of grazing fields near me over the last 2-3 winters.
It makes little sense, the farmer only gains a few square meters of space. Then any farm animals in the fields lose shelter from the elements during wind, rain & heat.
And of course nature loses its last piece of wilderness on the edge of the field.
Is there some sort of subsidy to do this sort of work or why is it being done?
So you want us to pay farmers to not work on the least viable part of their land. Sure.
@Dan Dare: they would need money to maintain fences to keep deer, sheep & goats off the land while it recovers.
Kill an extra quarter of a million cows a year and rewild as much land as possible . What will people eat if this goes ahead ? And there is no point in saying that we export most of what we produce as if that makes its consumption somewhere else on the planet irrelevant
Unbelievable, I grew up in a large farming community. Farmers are so so wealthy. The new generation of farmers are splashing the cash, massive mansions, big 4×4′s, new cars etc. Some small farmers may struggle a little like the rest of us. But the cash the big dairy guys are rolling in is unbelievable!
have your say