Any retail catchment area in the Republic will offer an expansion opportunity for the new-look Superquinn, according to the firm's new executive chairman, Mr Simon Burke.

"It doesn't matter if that's in Dublin or in Sligo," he said yesterday, clearly unfazed by the challenge he is about to take on.

The vision outlined by the dapper, quietly-spoken Mr Burke would see Superquinn expanding at the higher end of the food retailing market rather than engaging in price wars at the bottom.

His investment consortium's first steps in achieving this goal will be to open a new full-size supermarket in the wealthy catchment area of Carrickmines in Dublin, and a convenience store in the south of the city centre.

Progress after this will be considered on merit rather than being motivated by expansion for expansion's sake, Mr Burke insists. "I would like to think our market share will increase, but that is not the game plan," he said, adding that the public should not be expecting a Superquinn to appear on every corner.

"We have a much higher quality focus, and that's how we want to develop."

Sen Feargal Quinn said yesterday that he recognised in Mr Burke "almost a replica" of himself at a younger age.

There are indeed parallels. Mr Burke, whose first job was as a shelf-stacker in Dunnes Stores in Dublin, has been the author of an immensely successful career in retailing. He also has a full private life, with a biography circulated yesterday describing him as a keen pilot, astronomer, cook and fan of Byzantine history and 17th century Dutch painting.

Aged 46, Mr Burke is best-known in business circles as the man who turned around struggling toy retailer Hamleys at the start of this decade.

He repositioned the store, and subsequently sold it to private investors after doubling its value.

Having developed a taste for making change, he next emerged in the public eye as the face of a £950 million (€1.4 billion) buyout move on UK bookseller WH Smith.

The takeover attempt, which was Mr Burke's idea, ended in failure last year after the discovery of a sizeable pension deficit.

He said yesterday that he was now "kind of glad" the WH Smith deal did not work out.

He is "hugely excited" at the prospect of running what he describes as "the best food retailing brand in this country".

He sees Superquinn as occupying a space apart in food retailing, suggesting that the chain is known for selling items that cannot be found in other supermarkets rather than for selling the cheapest toilet rolls.

The new-look Superquinn will take strands from Waitrose (Superquinn currently stocks Waitrose ready meals), Marks & Spencer and Sainsbury "in its heyday", according to Mr Burke.

He believes it is important not to blow the Lidl and Aldi threat out of proportion within the overall market. The two German discounters now share about 5 per cent of the market, compared to Superquinn's 8.6 per cent, but Mr Burke argues that the offerings are not comparable.

Time will tell, but for now his concentration will be on a smooth completion of the takeover which must be be approved by the Competition Authority.

It has been under negotiation since last summer when the Quinn family concluded that they needed external support if the Superquinn brand was to grow as it should. "We were outbid once more for a site we had wanted to expand into," Sen Quinn told journalists yesterday. "We sought some advice."

This process resulted in corporate financier Mr David Cantrell making contact with Mr Burke and the other seven members of the investment consortium. By the end of the summer, Mr Burke was visiting Superquinn's stores and starting to develop a sense of where they could go.

To view the takeover as a play on Superquinn's property portfolio would be mistaken, he says, describing property as an "ancillary" aspect to the deal.

"There genuinely isn't some master plan," says Mr Burke, signalling the prospect of additional construction on existing space or the selling off of adjacent, non-core sites, but little more.

Expansion is the only focus, he claims, with the confident tone of a man who has no doubt that success lies ahead.