Superquinn
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Superquinn is an Irish supermarket chain. The company was, until 2005, entirely privately held by the Quinn family. It is now a subsidiary of Select Retail Holdings Limited.
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[edit] Products and Services
The company operates 20 supermarkets under the "Superquinn" brand and 2 convenience stores under the "Superquin Select" brand. Its own brand is Euro Shopper (formerly Thrift! - see also Yellow Pack). Superquinn is known for having a very high level of customer service compared to other supermarket chains. 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 also runs the Irish Internet shopping portal Buy4Now, which provides Internet shopping services for a number of Irish retailers.
[edit] Criticisms
The company's innovations have not all become successful. One side effort of the company was the failed bank Tusa (the Irish word for yours), 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 who operate nationwide.
[edit] History
The business was founded in 1960 as 'Quinns Supermarkets' in Dundalk. It was set up 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.
Since 1991, Feargal's son Eamonn Quinn took a key management role as deputy chairman.
In January 2005, it was announced that Superquinn is 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 has replaced Feargal Quinn as Executive Chairman of the company, with Quinn becoming non-executive President of the business. Eamonn Quinn has left the company.
