Musgrave ‘in line to buy Superquinn’

There was speculation today that the giant Cork cash and carry company Musgrave is in the running to buy the Superquinn chain of supermarkets.

The chain has outlets in Waterford, Clonmel, Limerick, Dublin, Naas, Dundalk, Bray, Carlow and Kilkenny.

There has been intense speculation over the last few days that Superquinn, once owned by Senator Fergal Quinn, was up for sale.

It has been reported that Musgrave is among six potential bidders — including UK supermarket giants Asda and Sainsbury — who are interested in talking about the takeover of the business.

Tesco, with a 26% share of the Irish grocery market, has indicated it is not interested in a buy-out of rival Superquinn.

The rest of the market is carved out between SuperValu (20%), the independent chain supplied by Musgrave, Dunnes Stores (24%), Aldi and Lidl with a combined share of 14%, with the rest of the market divided among various other smaller retail chains.

Musgrave said they had “no comment” to make on the speculation they were in the running to buy Superquinn, when contacted today by the Evening Echo.

The chief executive of Superquinn, Simon Burke, said that “at no time” had the owners of the chain — Select Retail Holdings — put the company up for sale.

But Mr Burke admitted there had been several approaches. He compared what was happening now to people knocking on the door and saying: “They would be prepared to pay you generously for your house”, adding that most people would “at least continue the conversation.”

Mr Burke said the management team was confident and excited about Superquinn’s prospects, as it had been trading very well. He would not comment on the report that a value of €250m to €300m was being put on the company.

Article courtesy of the Evening Echo newspaper.