SuperValu retain Quinn sausage as Dublin stake grows
SuperValu managing director Martin Kelleher said this is part of the policy of saving the best parts of Superquinn and helping to grow SuperValu.
For the first time in SuperValu’s history, it will be able to compete right across the country, as it finally has a stake in the Dublin market.
“Our share in Dublin has always been quite weak — about 7% of the market — it’ll be 20% as of today. Which now means we will be able to serve every neighbourhood and community in the country properly.”
The Musgrave group is now the biggest employer in the country after the HSE, with about 35,000 employees across its brands, Centra, Daybreak and SuperValu.
The retailer’s ambitions are not limited to just selling food. Responding to demand from its customers, SuperValu is looking at entering the insurance and possibly the mobile phone market.
The company’s wholesome family image has opened up a huge market.
“SuperValu will come in and do the right thing locally. All of that has built up a trust in the brand and there are a number of areas in our world that trust isn’t so strong, like insurance areas, car payments and the like. We are saying can we stretch our brands, be it SuperValu or Centra into those areas. We are working through it to make sure it is the right thing to do for our businesses,” said Mr Kelleher.
How the company goes about entering these markets remains to be seen. It has ruled out establishing its own financial services centre and is looking at partnering. Mr Kelleher insisted they will not go ahead with the new products unless they find the correct partner.
“We won’t put our core brand at risk by doing things that are silly. There is a need there, there is an opportunity [and] others have done it. It is not core at the moment. These things are brand extensions that make sense and are worth looking at. They will probably be slow burners if they do come off,” he said.
It is the Musgrave family’s focus on core values that has helped the company weather the economic downturn and grow its market share. Mr Kelleher said that customers have begun to realise that there is a need to keep money in Ireland.
“What’s good is that in every community, in every corner of Ireland, from Castletownbere to Carrigaline to Achill Island to Killester — places that need good employment — people are starting to realise that our society and economy works better this way. Our profits don’t get sent over to Germany or to England, they stay locally in the case of the stores and obviously in Ireland to be reinvested in buying Superquinn out of receivership and making it successful and now creating a brand in SuperValu that is national,” he said.
The company has played a role in trying to keep Ireland from suffering the same fate as England, where massive out-of-town centres have resulted in shuttered shops throughout the centre of towns.
Mr Kelleher said he is a “religious zealot,” when it comes to issues of sustainable planning. He accused some discounters of out-witting Irish planners.
“The number of stores that have opened between all players over the last 10 years is phenomenal. I’d say we are well over-shopped at the moment, because, in particular, the planning that some of the discounters were able to get in industrial parks and the like as being limited-range discounters and then becoming more mainstream. [It] probably caught our planners offside in terms of what they were trying to do,” he said.
He said that the Irish market had never been an easy place to operate and that there is a perpetual price-war between the players.
However, he said that in recent months there was finally a sign that the recovery is dripping through to the average consumer, with people willing to spend.
“It is still tough. There is no flaithuil spending. You would hope that there is a few green shoots coming, at last. We see it in our performance. We still keep reducing prices, which is deflation, effectively, but there is still good footfall. People want more. If you do it right and give value, people are more than happy to spend,” he said.
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