The Musgrave Group has reported sales of €4.5 billion, up 1.6% for the year to the end of December 2011.
Its profits came to €71m - 1% below last year. The group said it expects to see little to no growth in the grocery market for 2012.
Debt increased from a net cash position of €21m in 2010 to €187m by the end of the year after the acquisition of Superquinn.
Together with their retail partners in SuperValu, Centra and Daybreak, they invested €284m in Ireland in 2011 in store openings, refurbishments and acquisitions.
This investment programme helped to increase the number of people employed by Musgrave and their retail partners to 35,000 -which is almost 14% of the total number of people working in the retail sector in Ireland.
In Great Britain, their Budgens and Londis brands achieved retail sales of €2 billion in 2011 with the number of Londis retailers increasing by more than 100 bringing the total to 1879.
