Lidl plans first ever in-store pub in NI after winning court battle

A High Court has cleared supermarket chain Lidl to push forward with plans for its first ever in-store pub after rejecting a legal challenge to the proposal in Northern Ireland.

A judge dismissed an appeal against the retailer being granted a provisional licence for operating a bar within its store in Dundonald, County Down.

The appeal, from another trader Philip Russell Ltd, said Lidl had failed to show there are inadequate licensed premises near the site.

Mr Justice Colton said the fact that "the application was a novel one is not a reason for refusing it".

In 2020, Lidl secured planning permission for a tap room on the premises in Dundonald, just outside Belfast.

The proposed scheme involved reaching agreement with the owners of a local bar to surrender that licence and spending £410,000 for a new in-store pub alongside an off-sales area.

Under Northern Ireland licensing laws, no new alcohol sale licences can be granted unless another one is surrendered.

Lidl was denied permission for an off-licence in the store a number of years earlier, but has now said it is determined to run a profitable pub if the new application is successful.

Philip Russell Ltd, which runs several off-licences across Northern Ireland, objected to the plans.

It claimed Lidl had failed to establish an inadequacy of licensed premises in the area, as required under the Licensing (Northern Ireland) Order 1996.

It was also alleged to be an impermissible attempt to circumvent the legislation by effectively making another application for an off-licence.

Ruling on the dispute, Mr Justice Colton determined that Lidl had established the necessary inadequacy.

He pointed out that if the application is successful, there will be only one licensed premises in a vicinity where two pubs previously operated.

The proposed new premises would be in the centre of an area with established shopping and transport facilities, along with an increasing adult population.

"It may well be that it will not meet the full demand for licensed premises within the vicinity given its size and lack of food provision," the judge said.

"That however does not mean that (Lidl) fails to establish inadequacy."

Dismissing the appeal, Mr Justice Colton held that Lidl had made a bona fide application to operate the premises as a public on/off-licence.

"It will invest a significant sum of money, at least £410,000 into fitting out the public house," he said.

"I accept that it has concluded that the public house will be profitable, knowing that if it closed through lack of profitability an evitable consequence would be that the off-licence permission would lapse following any such decision.

"I am satisfied that it meets the statutory requirements and there is no good reason for refusing the application."