Feargal Quinn and family sell their share in the Superquinn supermarket chain to an Irish consortium.
In 1960 Feargal Quinn founded Superquinn. The brand synonymous with food quality, grew to become the Republic of Ireland's fourth-largest grocery chain. In a deal worth a reported €450 million Feargal Quinn and family sell their shares to Select Retail Holdings, an Irish consortium . It is the biggest takeover in the retail sector since Tesco bought Quinnsworth in 1997.
For the company founder,
It’s emotional enough after 44 years to lose control of a company that started with eight of us in one shop back in Dundalk.
Since then, Superquinn has grown to 19 stores, but competing with foreign chains such as Tesco, Aldi, and Lidl is becoming increasingly difficult. Feargal Quinn is satisfied the sale safeguards the future of the company.
Under the agreement, Irish businessman Simon Burke who headed Hamleys toy store in Britain, will become the new chairperson of Superquinn. He reveals plans to expand Superquinn onto new sites and believes,
The company’s got a very good future.
Reacting to the news that the chain has been taken over, Superquinn shoppers are happy to know it will remain Irish.
One of the main reasons, apart from the fact that I was happy with the quality, was the fact that it was Irish owned.
An RTÉ News report broadcast on 9 January 2005. The reporter is David Murphy.
