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| Type | Private |
|---|---|
| Predecessor | Quinnsworth Crazy Prices |
| Founded | 1962 |
| Key people | Tony Keohane (Chief Executive Officer) Willian McCann (Chairman) |
| Industry | Retail (Various) |
| Products | Groceries, with larger stores offering music, video games, electrical goods, clothing, and toys |
| Revenue | €3.15 billion (2008) |
| Employees | 13,500 (2008) [2] |
| Parent | Tesco plc |
Tesco Ireland is the Irish arm of supermarket group Tesco. It was formed in Tesco plc's 1997 takeover of the Irish retailing operations of Associated British Foods, namely Powers' Supermarkets Limited and its' subsidiaries, trading as Quinnsworth and Crazy Prices.
Tesco operates supermarkets under the "Tesco" brand, as well as five hypermarkets under the "Tesco Extra" brand, and a small number of convenience stores under the "Tesco Express" brand. A few petrol stations are also operated by the company, as well as an internet shopping service, Tesco.ie. In 2007 the company launched its mobile telephone service, "Tesco Mobile". Tesco Ireland currently operates a number of 24 hour stores.
Contents |
History
Tesco Ireland in the 1980s
Tesco Ireland was also the name of an earlier chain of stores in the Republic of Ireland acquired by Tesco in the early 1980s. These were originally founded by Albert Gubay as 3 Guys. In 1986, these were sold to the H Williams chain of supermarkets which subsequently collapsed, in the same year. Many ended up as outlets of other chains, including Crazy Prices, meaning they returned to Tesco ownership eventually.
Quinnsworth
Quinnsworth was founded by Pat Quinn in the early 1970s, and was later sold to Power Supermarkets. During the 1970s the slogan used was "Let's get it all together at Quinnsworth". Power Supermarkets Ltd. became the parent company but used Quinnsworth as its marketing name. The company became a wholly owned subsidiary of Associated British Foods plc.
Quinnsworth is remembered for their choice of store sites, their most memorable act was the addition of the phrase Yellow Pack to the English language. Towards the end of Quinnsworth's life, Yellow Pack was replaced by Premium Choice as the own brand. Quinnsworth was also remembered for its advertising campaigns featuring its marketing director (and later chief executive) Maurice Pratt, who would personally introduce new product promotions, ending each advert with the company slogan, "That's Real Value".
Crazy Prices
Crazy Prices (occasionally Super Crazy Prices) was a brand used by Quinnsworth on some of its larger outlets. These were known for their cheap prices. Crazy Prices was one of the first retailers in Ireland to introduce late night opening (until 9pm) on Wednesdays, dubbing this night "Crazy Night" and running special in-store promotions. Until the mid-1990s, most Irish retailers only opened late one night a week, usually Thursday (in Dublin city) or Friday.
Quinnsworth's subsidiary in Northern Ireland was Stewart's Supermarkets Limited, which merged with Crazy Prices in Northern Ireland in the 1990s.
ABF sale and Tesco acquisition
In May 1997 Tesco acquired the retailing and supply chain operations of Associated British Foods - with the sole exception of Primark - for £643 million.
The grocery businesses acquired were those held by Comar Limited in the Republic of Ireland and Peter Beardsleys Supermarkets Limited in Northern Ireland. Comar was the parent company of Powers Supermarkets Ltd (trading as Quinnsworth) and Crazy Prices in the Republic of Ireland. Stewarts Supermarkets included Crazy Prices in Northern Ireland.
Other businesses acquired were the Stewarts Wine Barrel off-licence chain, the sports goods retailer Lifestyle Sports, the meat processing and packing business Kingsway Fresh Foods Ltd. and the Fresh fruit and vegetable distributor Daily Wrap Produce Ltd.
The Northern Ireland operations were folded into Tesco's core UK business, while the Republic of Ireland operations became Tesco Ireland. Lifestyle Sports was demerged in 1997 via a management buy-out of seven directors and the venture capital company, ACT. Peter Beardsleys Wine Barrel was sold to United Wine Merchants.
Tesco Ireland
After the acquisition of Power Supermarkets (PSL) by Tesco, the company name changed to "Tesco Ireland Limited". The first signs of the new regime was the almost immediate introduction of the Tesco own-brand (with advertising stating "Tesco at Quinnsworth and Crazy Prices"), with the completion of the phasing out of Yellow Pack and the other PSL own-brands such as KVI and Premium Choice. Maurice Pratt stayed on as chief executive of the Republic of Ireland operations.
Over the next few years the Quinnsworth and Crazy Prices chains were rebranded as Tesco Ireland, using a white-on-blue variation of the familiar Tesco logo. The first store to open under the Tesco name was in Athlone in 1997. The changeover was at first relatively slow, with the Quinnsworth and Crazy Prices names continuing to appear on adverts for some time after the launch of the new company identity. Tesco's initial policy was not to change the name over the door until the store had been upgraded to Tesco's standards, in some older stores this meant a significant rebuild of the premises. The first fully rebuilt store opened in Maynooth in 2000, which has since been redeveloped again as a Tesco Extra. Some older stores continued to trade under the Quinnsworth and Crazy Prices name until 2001.
In 2001, Maurice Pratt, who had been the public face of Quinnsworth, left the company to become chief executive of C&C, later taking up a post as chairman of Bank of Scotland (Ireland). He was replaced by Gordon Fryett.
Recently, Tesco Ireland has been slowly rebranding its stores as simply "Tesco", using the regular red-on-white Tesco logo. It now appears that the Tesco Ireland logo will be phased out completely from shop fronts. It was still used for adverts up until very recently (January 2009), but now it seems as though the Tesco Ireland logo may disappear completely, as it has also been removed from the website.
The company opened its first Irish "Tesco Extra" hypermarket at the Clare Hall estate in Coolock, north Dublin in 2004, and has also branched into filling stations, featuring low petrol prices. Many stores are now also open 24 hours. The company has also moved into the convenience store market, with the first a converted Quinnsworth (then the smallest store in the chain) in Drumcondra, opened as a "Tesco Local". This was the only store to use this brand, as subsequent new convenience stores use the "Tesco Express" brand instead.
Tesco has also expanded its product range in Ireland. The Tesco Extra hypermarkets, as well as larger Tesco stores, now stock a range of clothing, electrical goods, music, DVDs and video games, as well as newspapers, magazines, and toys.
Tesco.ie
In October 2000, Tesco Ireland launched its Tesco.ie online shopping service for the Dublin area. Essentially an Irish expansion of the tesco.com service offered in the United Kingdom, the service expanded until by 2004 it was available nationwide.
Criticisms
Tesco Ireland is the largest food retailer in Ireland, and has over 13,500 employees. As of 2009[update] Tesco Ireland has come in for increased criticism for apparently high prices in its Irish stores, because the benefits of the recent devaluation of the pound sterling has not been passed on to the customers, although in its favour this seems to be because comparisons are with the British Tesco stores rather than other Irish retailers - and thus like is not being compared with like.However, there have been general criticisms of the similar pricing between Irish supermarkets, and economic reports noting the high prices in Ireland generally. Research from Forfas[3], concluded that only a five per cent difference in the cost of goods between North and South was justifiable.[4]
The findings highlighted retailers' larger margins in the South vis a vis their operations in the North and the Minister for Enterprise queried why the price differential in many identical goods was substantially in excess of 5%.[5]
Despite claims from Tesco that they have matched prices in the Republic of Ireland with prices in Northern Ireland, a November 2009 survey by Consumers Choice magazine has claimed that, on average, prices are still 18% more expensive in the Republic [6]
Tesco's profit margins in the Republic are the company's highest in the world according to retail industry analysts in London, who have a detailed knowledge of Tesco's worldwide operations.Tesco Ireland’s profit margin, which has long been a closely-guarded secret, was 9.3 per cent in 2008 and is projected to rise to 9.5 per cent by the end of 2009. This makes the Irish operation Tesco's most successful worldwide in margin terms.[7] Tesco's Irish profit margin is all the more remarkable given that the company sells a much larger volume of higher margin non-food items at its UK stores.[8] The State’s biggest supermarket make profits of €248 million which is the equivalent to about €124 per customer a year.
Speaking to business leaders in Belfast, Tesco plc CEO argued that higher prices in Northern Ireland were due to higher energy costs and the cost of transporting goods from Great Britain. Though this doesn't explain the large disparities in pricing when goods are moved by truck between the Derry (UK) branches and Letterkenny (Ireland) branches for example.
A report by the independent retailers group RGDATA contained allegations that Tesco overcharged customers. The report shows that customers in six Tesco stores were overcharged by an average of 3% on some items.[9]
Tesco Ireland was convicted of failing to display prices properly by the National Consumer Agency in July 2008.[10]
The Food Safety Authority of Ireland, has on a number of occasions ordered the recall of Tesco branded products, including a case of glass contamination.[11][12][13] Environmental Health Officers served a closure order on Tesco's store in Prussia Street, Dublin, the day after they inspected it, for a number of breaches of Food Hygiene Regulations.[14] Most food is imported from Britain, where the BBC's Whistleblower programme showed undercover footage showing the sale of products after their sell-by date; allegations that the company illegally sold 'back-labelled' products after their use by date; falsification of temperature records; and the sale of partially cooked mince mixed with uncooked mince.[15]
Tesco apologised for selling anti Jewish literature to customers in Ireland. Sheikh Dr Shaheed Satardien, head of the Muslim Council of Ireland, said this was effectively "polluting the minds of impressionable young [Islamic] people with hate and anger towards the Jewish community".[16]
The Alliance for Animal Rights group in Ireland called on the public to boycott Tesco stores over the company's treatment of animals in China. The alliance claims the Tesco stores in China "slice turtles apart while still living", "skin bullfrogs alive" and "cut their heads off".[17]
The supermarket refused to stock any of the one million postcards which are aimed at closing the controversial plant at Sellafield in Cumbria. Dunnes Stores and Superquinn, along with other retailers across the country, did sell the postcards.[18]
The Irish Advertising Standards Authority in January 2009 found that Tesco Ireland advertising was misleading.[19]
Tesco tried to hide its policy of buying directly from UK suppliers from Irish people.An internal document said that ensuring its policy of taking deliveries directly from UK suppliers went unnoticed and "invisible to the Irish customer" was a key objective.[20] At the same time the Irish Farmers' Association president said there was deep anger about Tesco's decision to displace local produce with imports "will inevitably lead to thousands of job losses and will put Irish producers of local, fresh produce out of business,"[21]
Tesco Ireland’s head office in Dún Laoghaire is being “transformed” into a country office by redeploying roles to the UK and outsourcing work to India.[22]
Tesco used “Change for Good” as advertising, which is trade marked by Unicef for charity usage but is not trademarked for commercial or retail use which prompted the agency to say "it is the first time in Unicef’s history that a commercial entity has purposely set out to capitalise on one of our campaigns and subsequently damage an income stream which several of our programmes for children are dependent on”.They went on to call on the public “who have children’s welfare at heart, to consider carefully who they support when making consumer choices”.[23][24]
Large supermarket chains were accused by Fine Gael of putting up to 100,000 Irish jobs at risk by forcing suppliers to pay €160 million a year in “hello money”.[25]
Recent news
In 2007, Tesco Ireland announced that they would be providing brand new uniforms to take over from the ten year old previous uniforms. The new brand includes brand new Dell Computers for File Maintanance Control rooms and floor staff workstations. In July 2008 "Tesco Cash Savers" a low cost product range designed to bring new competition for Irish consumers, was introduced. It was announced in September 2008 that they would cease 23 stores with the 24 hour service. These stores include Bray and Greystones.
In 2009, the Tesco Local store in Drumcondra was re-branded as simply Tesco.
Starting in March 2009, Tesco has matched the euro price on its' clothing to the pound sterling prices in the UK. This is because of the weaker pound against the euro.
Since Tuesday, May 5, 2009 some Tesco stores in the Republic of Ireland now offer a more limited range of well-known Irish brands than previously[26]. The Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin said that consumers wanted to see large numbers of native products on the shelves of large supermarket chains.[1]
Tesco Mobile
On 26 October 2007 Tesco Ireland announced that 'An extensive range of Tesco Mobile prepay handsets will be rolled out to 48 Tesco stores from Monday 29 October'. Tesco Mobile launched as a MVNO piggy-backing on the O2 Network in Ireland. They have also outsourced the running of Tesco Mobile to Fujitsu Ireland. The network uses the 089 prefix.
See also
References
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This article uses bare URLs. Please help improve this article by turning bare URLs into proper citations containing all of the information on the referenced work's title, date, publisher, publication, and author, so that the article remains verifiable in the future. (There are several templates available that can help to make formatting such citations simple.) This page may also be able to help find problematic links. (July 2009) |
- ^ a b http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2009/0512/1224246324534.html
- ^ http://www.tesco.ie/about/anual_res_2005.htm
- ^ http://www.rte.ie/business/2008/1222/retail.html
- ^ http://www.forfas.ie/media/forfas081222_retail_running_costs.pdf
- ^ http://www.independent.ie/national-news/grinch-minister-shrugs-off-retail-pleas-1566353.html
- ^ http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/frontpage/2009/1013/1224256511276.html
- ^ https://www.tribune.ie/article/2004/apr/25/irish-profit-margins-are-tescos-highest/
- ^ https://www.tribune.ie/archive/article/2005/apr/17/irish-margins-are-highest-in-tesco-empire/
- ^ http://www.rte.ie/news/1999/0323/tesco.html
- ^ http://www.independent.ie/national-news/tesco-one-of-seven-firms-fined-for-not-displaying-their-prices-1435055.html
- ^ http://www.fsai.ie/alerts/fa/fa_07/fa20070323.asp
- ^ http://www.fsai.ie/alerts/archive/fa20030109.asphttp://www.fsai.ie/alerts/archive/fa20050505_table.asp
- ^ http://www.fsai.ie/alerts/archive/fa20061214.asp
- ^ http://www.fsai.ie/news/press/pr_01/pr20010330.asp
- ^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6676345.stm
- ^ http://www.tribune.ie/archive/article/2006/may/21/tesco-apologises-and-withdraws-anti-jewish-literat/
- ^ https://www.tribune.ie/article/2008/aug/03/call-to-boycott-tesco-over-turtle-killing-and-bull/
- ^ http://www.tribune.ie/archive/article/2002/mar/31/tesco-will-not-sell-chernobyl-cards/
- ^ http://www.asai.ie/complaint_view.asp?CID=573&BID=27
- ^ http://www.independent.ie/business/irish/memo-shows-tesco-kept-switch-to-uk-suppliers-secret-1754805.html
- ^ http://www.independent.ie/business/irish/angry-potato-farmers-storm--tesco-managers-meeting-1744554.html
- ^ http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/frontpage/2009/0511/1224246256045.html
- ^ http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2009/0725/1224251305112.html
- ^ http://www.independent.ie/business/irish/tesco-in-clash-with-unicef-1841427.html
- ^ http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2009/0811/1224252370510.html
- ^ http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/frontpage/2009/0502/1224245841384.html
External links
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