The sale of Superquinn and the consequent departure of Feargal Quinn from the front line of Irish retailing represents something of a watershed. The takeover bid from Select Retail Holdings - a consortium of Irish investors - announced yesterday values the business at about €450 million, the beneficiaries of which will be Mr Quinn and his family. The actual sum they will receive has not been disclosed and when debt and other factors are taken into account their payout may be significantly less.
Few can begrudge Mr Quinn his money. Over the past 45 years he has built his business from a single shop employing eight people to an enterprise of 19 supermarkets and a staff of more than 4,200. He was at the forefront of the revolution in grocery retailing in the Republic, advocating innovation and a strong focus on customer service at a time when rivals adhered doggedly to the pile them high, sell them low, school of retailing. He, more than anyone else, changed Irish eating habits and internationalised them.
Mr Quinn said yesterday that his decision to sell followed reflection on how best to assure the long-term future of the business, which has found it harder and harder to hold its own in the increasingly competitive retail grocery market. Superquinn now competes directly with some of the world's most aggressive and sophisticated retailers in the form of Tesco, Lidl and Aldi. Its home-grown peers, such as Dunnes Stores, SuperValu, Centra and Spar, are not to be discounted and have also put pressure on its business model. Added to that, the company has yet to see the benefits of a number of recent investment decisions, including centralising its distribution network.
It is hard to see how the new owners, led by former Virgin and Hamleys executive Mr Simon Burke, will meet this challenge without taking costs out of the business. Store closures and redundancies cannot be ruled out, although Mr Burke has signalled that his objective is to grow the business by continuing to target the top end of the retail grocery market. This is, in truth, the only route open to the company, which is a minnow by international standards and cannot hope to match its bigger rivals on price alone. It also plays to its strengths, such as stores in Dublin's upmarket suburbs and a reputation for quality and service.
This reputation was not the work of Mr Quinn alone, and could not have been earned without the commitment and efforts of the company's employees over the years. The deal outlined yesterday makes no provision for them to share in the proceeds of the sale which is regrettable.