Chief executive Derek Hughes said the company, which opened its 16th store yesterday, is entering a rapid growth phase. "We want to get up to about 50 stores in the country, so we're about halfway there at the moment.

Certainly we'd look to have achieved that within the next five years."

Hughes & Hughes had sales of 24.5m last year and made a pre-tax profit of 910,000.

Turnover grew to 31m in the year to the end of February 2006, and the retailer expects this to grow to 38m by 2007, with the contribution from the new shops.

The retailer opened a 12,000 sq ft store, its largest to date, in Dun Laoghaire, south Co Dublin, yesterday, and will open two new shops in Cork Airport before the end of the summer.

The combined investment in the three new stores is 2m, according to Hughes & Hughes.

The company had financed its growth to date from its internal resources and with bank debt, Derek Hughes said, and did not plan to seek external investors to fund its ambitious Irish expansion plans.