Markus Mosa told the Hamburger Abendblatt that he was not only planning on keeping all those employed by Plus, but also be expanding the business and this would be reflected in staff figures.

“We have taken on all 25,000 staff from Plus and will also be keeping them,” he said.

“With Edeka there will be more than 8,000 new jobs on top of that in this year alone.

“In the next few years every second Euro will be spent at discounters. Until now the market share has been 42 percent. The trend is unbroken, and it is aided by the current crisis.”

Mosa also said that he expected food prices to decrease in 2009, despite a rise of around five percent this year.

“The price rises of suppliers which we had to accept during 2008, will now at least partly be reversed and we will of course pass this advantage onto consumers,” he said.

Edeka got the green light to complete its takeover of the 2,340 Plus shops at the start of December, making it the third largest discount supermarket in Germany with revenue of more than €11 billion.

The top German discounter is Aldi with revenue of €27 billion last year, followed by Lidl with €12 billion.