BWG Foods, an Irish wholesaler and retail grocery franchise operator, is expected to roll out contactless technology in the majority of its 900 stores after a recent deal announced with Visa, according to The Irish Times.

Customers at BWG’s Spar, Eurospar, Mac and XL stores will be able to pay for purchases under €15 (~ USD $20) by simply waving their contactless-enabled Visa card rather than using the chip and pin function. The method is aimed to speed up payment processing.

The BWG rollout is one of the biggest adoptions of contactless technology in Ireland to date. Centre, a convenience store chain in Ireland, also has plans to introduce the technology in its 464 convenient stores.

Visa is also working with a number of stakeholders in the Irish mobile phone industry to introduce the payment technology into handsets. The technology will allow customers to pay for goods through personal mobile phones by placing the handset over pay pads in stores, and is intended to be in place by 2013.

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