SuperValu is a supermarket chain that operates on the island of

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

. SuperValu is operated as a

symbol group A symbol group is a form of franchise of convenience shops, found primarily in the United Kingdom and Ireland. They do not own or operate shops, but act as suppliers to independent shops which then trade under a common banner. Unlike other form ...

; each store is independently owned, with store owners using the SuperValu format and selling the chain’s own brand products. SuperValu outlets tend to be larger than the

convenience shop A convenience store, convenience shop, corner store or corner shop is a small retail business that stocks a range of everyday items such as coffee, groceries, snack foods, confectionery, soft drinks, ice creams, tobacco products, lottery ticke ...

formats used by many other symbol group retailers such as

Centra Centra is a convenience shop chain that operates throughout Ireland. The chain operates as a symbol group owned by Musgrave Group, the food wholesaler, meaning the stores are all owned by individual franchisees. The chain has three different ...

Gala Gala may refer to: Music * ''Gala'' (album), a 1990 album by the English alternative rock band Lush *'' Gala – The Collection'', a 2016 album by Sarah Brightman *GALA Choruses, an association of LGBT choral groups *''Gala'', a 1986 album by T ...

and

Spar SPAR, originally DESPAR, styled as DE SPAR, is a Dutch multinational that provides branding, supplies and support services for independently owned and operated food retail stores. It was founded in the Netherlands in 1932, by Adriaan van Well, ...

, and the larger SuperValu stores are on a par with full-service supermarkets. Their main competitors are

Dunnes Stores Dunnes Stores is an Irish multinational retail chain that primarily sells food, clothes and household wares. In addition to its main customer base in Ireland, the chain also has operations in Spain, and formerly in England and Scotland. The f ...

and

Tesco Tesco plc () is a British multinational groceries and general merchandise retailer headquartered in Welwyn Garden City, England. In 2011 it was the third-largest retailer in the world measured by gross revenues and the ninth-largest in th ...

History

The supermarket was founded on out of the larger outlets in Musgrave's VG chain (originally formed in 1960). The smaller VG stores became

. From a base of sixteen stores (mainly in Munster), SuperValu had 182 stores in the

Republic of Ireland Ireland ( ga, Éire ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 Counties of Ireland, counties of the island of Ireland. The capital and largest city is Dublin, on the eastern ...

and 36 stores in

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

as of 2004. Along the way, Musgrave has pursued a policy of buying stores itself and then re-leasing them to franchisees, acquiring some of the insolvent H Williams stores in 1987, L&N in 1995, and Wellworths (in Northern Ireland) in 1996. Wellworths-SuperValu was a trading name used briefly by Musgrave in Northern Ireland following its acquisition of small-to-medium

Wellworths Wellworths was a supermarket chain, owned by the Fitzwilton trading in Northern Ireland until 1997. Along with Stewarts/Crazy Prices it was one of the two main supermarkets in Northern Ireland until English-based retailers moved into the mar ...

outlets in 1996. This was to distinguish from larger Wellworths stores which were acquired by

Safeway Stores (Ireland) Safeway Stores (Ireland) was a supermarket chain that operated in Northern Ireland between 1996 and 2005. 12 of the 13 stores were acquired by Asda, itself owned by Walmart; whilst the remaining store was sold to Mr John Miskelly and Mrs Helen Mi ...

, a joint venture between

Fitzwilton Fitzwilton is a privately held investment company, today owned by Sir Anthony O'Reilly and his brother in law, Peter Goulandris, through Stoneworth Investment Ltd. It has been involved with many businesses in Ireland. History Fitzwilton was ...

and

Safeway (UK) Safeway is a British brand owned chain of supermarkets and convenience shops. Founded in 1962 by the American Safeway Inc., before being sold to Argyll Foods in 1987. It was later listed on the London Stock Exchange. It was purchased by Morriso ...

. In due course, the Wellworths name was entirely dropped. Post Office - Supervalu, Strabane - geograph

SuperValu previously operated supermarkets in larger

Roches Stores Debenhams Ireland was a national chain of department stores in Ireland, that was owned ultimately by Debenhams plc. It was largely based on the former Roches Store chain, though after that business divested its grocery units. History Roches ...

locations under the name "SuperValu at Roches Stores" for many years. Superquinn was bought by the

Musgrave Group Musgrave Group Ltd. is an Irish food wholesaler, founded in Cork by the Musgrave brothers, Thomas and Stuart in 1876. It is currently Ireland's largest grocery distributor, with operations in Ireland and Spain with estimated annual sales of ove ...

, parent of SuperValu, in 2011. In August 2013 it was announced that all Superquinn stores would be rebranded to SuperValu with all the existing stores eventually changed to SuperValu by February 2014. As a result, SuperValu became the second-largest supermarket chain in the

by grocery spend

References

External links

SuperValu.ie
{{Supermarkets in Ireland Supermarkets of Northern Ireland Supermarkets of the Republic of Ireland Irish brands 1968 establishments in Ireland Retail companies established in 1968

History

See also

References

External links