Sainsbury's is to create 100 jobs in its west Belfast store, it has been announced.

Its supermarket in Andersonstown - at around 70,000sq ft - will be its largest in Northern Ireland when it opens on the former Curley's site in late summer.

Sinn Féin MLA for West Belfast Paul Maskey has welcomed the news: "This is a major development in West Belfast with the Kennedy Centre being extended to provide adequate space for a major investment by Saisnbury's.

"The extension work alone has provided countless construction jobs and now Sainsbury's are providing an extra boost to the local economy with the creation of 100 jobs for the new supermarket.

"On top of this the news that current staff at Curley's will be retained provides security for those staff members already employed there in economically turbulent times.

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"In all this is a good news story for the west of the city and is very welcome given the recent high amount of job losses in the area," he said.

Sainsbury's Manager, local man, Sean Largey said: "This is an exciting time to be planning a store opening and we intend to put a store into west Belfast which will meet and exceed the expectations of our customers.

"That means matching our quality products with colleagues that are absolutely committed to meeting the needs of our customers."

David Davidson is Regional Operations Manager at Sainsbury's in Northern Ireland, he said it was a welcome boost to the local economy: "Sainsbury's is very excited at the prospect of opening our west Belfast store and in the current economic climate I know that the additional jobs take on an extra significance.

"It was also important to us that none of the staff from the former Curley's supermarket lost their jobs as a result of the change and we immediately offered them the opportunity to take up positions with Sainsbury's before beginning this recruitment process."

Andersonstown will be the supermarket chain's 11th store here.

The company currently employs 2,600 people across its 10 other centres.

See: Curley's Sells To Sainsbury's - But Continues As 'Landlord'

(BMcC/JM)