Supermarket giant gives €50m boost to Kilkenny economy

A supermarket giant sourced more than €50 million of locally produced food and drink from Kilkenny suppliers last year.

In a review of their 2020 business, Aldi revealed it paid €51.4 million to six county Kilkenny producers including Callan Bacon, Iverk Produce in Piltown and Mileeven Honey in Owning.

Aldi operates five stores in Kilkenny and employs 96 full time staff, spending €6.5 million on wages annually. It is seeking to recruit 16 new employees for its Kilkenny stores this year, with more to come on in 2022 with the creation of its sixth store in Castlecomer (artist’s impression of new store above).

Aldi’s stores support multiple charities across Kilkenny at a local level. It donated more than 35,000 meals through FoodCloud to local charities, while supporting other organisations such as the Amber Women’s Refuge, Larc Childcare and South Eastern Mountain Rescue.

Aldi Ireland managing director Niall O’Connor said: “We have invested €29.9M in our Kilkenny stores over the last number of years, while we sourced €51.4M of locally produced food and drink from Kilkenny based suppliers last year.

“Multiple local charities have also availed of our support through our FoodCloud partnership and Community Grants initiative.”