Discount supermarket Lidl has acquired an old Homebase in south Belfast as it prepares to plant another flag in the district.
In a deal first reported by the Irish News, the fast-growing grocer has bought over the former Homebase at the Drumkeen Complex in Galwally, near Forestside Shopping Centre.
According to the Irish News, the deal was done with seller Rathbane Group, a family of companies which includes fit-out firm MJM Marine in Newry.
Lidl Northern Ireland opened its first store in south Belfast in September last year on a site on Boucher Road close to Olympia Leisure Centre and Windsor Park.
At the moment, its closest location to Forestside is its Castereagh store, while it opened up at Carryduff Shopping Centre in December, its 43rd supermarket in Northern Ireland.
Last year it marked 25 years of trading in Northern Ireland, after opening its first store in Cookstown, Co Tyrone in 1999.
A spot close to Forestside will bring it further into the lucrative orbit of south Belfast shoppers, and presents competition for Marks & Spencer and Sainsbury’s, which both trade from Forestside.
A spokesperson for Lidl Northern Ireland said they were unable to comment, while Rathbane Group said it “doesn’t comment on commercial property transactions”.
Four Homebase stores are due to close this month – the Galwally site, one on Boucher Road and another in Craigavon – and Lidl’s acquisition of one of them is the latest interesting development for the company.
Last week it emerged as the winner in a licensing dispute, with a High Court decision now allowing it to open a pub inside a store in Dundonald.
It wants to open a pub which would seat around 45 customers as well as an off-licence area, according to court records.
Its plans had been challenged in the High Court by convenience retailer Philip Russell Ltd.
In recent years, Lidl Northern Ireland has embarked on a programme of store renovation, as well as new store openings.
According to the latest figures from supermarket information company Kantar, Lidl now has a 9.1% share of the grocery market in Northern Ireland, placing it in fourth place behind Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Asda.
It recently marked record turnover for Lidl Northern Ireland of £496m for the year to February 2024, and doubled its pre-tax profits from £11m to £22m.
In an interview with Business Telegraph in November, Robert Ryan, chief executive officer of Lidl Ireland and Lidl Northern Ireland, said it planned to have “at least 50” Lidl stores around NI by the end of this decade.
Robert Ryan, chief executive of Lidl Ireland and Lidl Northern Ireland
He said: “This year alone we’ve invested over £50m and we will do similar next year, with expansion of stores and going back and looking at the stores we have, building bigger and better units.
“We’ve called the Boucher Road store a flagship store because of where it is — the presence, the profile, it’s near Windsor Park. We’re very happy with how it’s trading. We’re very fortunate that a lot of our stores, particularly the newer ones, trade really well for us.”