The Irish take-away food market is worth more than €1.3 billion, according to the director of the State's biggest convenience store group.

Addressing a retail conference in London yesterday, Mr Peter Kealy, group business development director of BWG Group, which owns the Spar franchise of convenience stores in the Republic, said businesses such as his faced increased competition.

He told the Insight conference that the "food to go" market in Ireland was now estimated at €1.35 billion a year. But he warned that retailers had to be flexible and adaptable to survive.

"Convenience retailing is evolving with ideas transferring from restaurants into food stores and vice versa," according to Mr Kealy.

He said that competition from coffee shops and other outlets was intensifying.

Ireland is one of the Spar brand's strongest markets. Last year, BWG's 405 franchise shops generated sales of €865 million, and the company expects turnover to breach the €1 billion barrier in 2005.

Under a three-year plan for the brand, BWG had targeted sales at this level by the end of 2006, but three months ago it said that it expected to meet this a year early.

The Republic outperformed the global franchise, which grew sales by 4 per cent to €27 billion in 2003. The company said Ireland was one of its better performers, along with recent EU accession countries Hungary and Slovenia.

The chain employs around 8,000 people across the State, and expects this to grow by 600 this year. It opened 35 new stores in 2003 and plans to have 500 by the end of next year.

It plans to invest €80 million in developing and opening a further 34 stores this year.

More than 250 delegates from Ireland and the UK attended the Insight conference at the British Library in London. Mr Jerry Marwood, managing director of Spar's business in the UK, chaired the conference.