Superquinn logo used until 2005. The current logo is a slightly modernised version.
Superquinn is an Irish supermarket chain. Until 2005, the company was entirely privately held by the Quinn family. It is now a subsidiary of Select Retail Holdings Limited.
Products and services
The company operates 20 supermarkets under the Superquinn brand and 4 convenience stores under the "Superquinn Select" brand. It has three levels of own brand products of increasing quality; "Euro Shopper", "Superquinn" and "Superior Quality". Superquinn is known for having a very high level of customer service compared to other supermarket chains, its former owner having written a manual on customer service, "Crowning the Customer". It is also known for having introduced a number of innovations, including Ireland's first supermarket loyalty card, SuperClub, in 1993. It also introduced self-scanning of goods by customers in a number of its outlets.
Superquinn is part of an Irish Internet shopping portal Buy4Now, which provides Internet shopping services for a number of Irish retailers.
Failed Ventures
The company's innovations have not all become successful. One side effort of the company was the failed bank Tusa (the Irish word for you), a joint venture with TSB Bank (now part of Permanent TSB). A joint venture with Texaco to introduce small Superquinn convenience stores at petrol forecourts, SuperQ, also failed.
Perhaps more importantly for the company has been its failure to expand - Superquinn has less than a third of the branches of its other full-service rivals, Tesco Ireland and Dunnes Stores, and is now even eclipsed by discount stores Aldi and Lidl, who have been very aggressive in acquiring sites compared to Superquinn. Its stores are also heavily located in the Dublin and Leinster areas (with 3 stores in Munster, and none at all in Connacht or Ulster) in contrast to the other operators which operate nationwide.
History
The business was founded in 1960 as 'Quinns Supermarkets' in Dundalk by Feargal Quinn, and the company headquarters were later moved to Sutton, Dublin. The trading name was subsequently changed to Superquinn, in part to differentiate it from rival Quinnsworth, which had started in the early 1970s.
In 1991, Feargal's son Eamonn Quinn took a key management role as deputy chairman.
In January 2005, it was announced that Superquinn was to be sold to a consortium called Select Retail Holdings. On 26 August 2005 it was announced that the sale had been completed. Simon Burke replaced Feargal Quinn as Executive Chairman of the company, with Quinn becoming non-executive President of the business. Eamonn Quinn has left the company.
In January 2009, the company made the decision to close the Dundalk store.[1]
Expansion
In February 2007 Superquinn purchased the Montrose Hotel in Donnybrook from Jury's Doyle for €40 million and plans to develop the site as a supermarket and apartments. Superquinn has been expanding since the SRH takeover. It has opened stores in Rathborne, Ranelagh and Portlaoise and plans to open stores in Rathgar and Heuston South Quarter, Kilmainham.[citation needed]
On 3 September 2008, The Irish Times reported that a number of approaches had been made to buy Superquinn, including from BWG Foods Limited, The Musgrave Group plc, J Sainsbury plc, and Asda Stores Limited.[2]. However later that day Simon Burke told RTÉ News and Current Affairs that the company was not for sale [3].
See also
References
External links
