Dunnes
Dunnes , originally and still Dunnes Stores , is an Irish family business and one of the largest retail chains in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland , but also has branches in the UK and Spain . The company is based in Dublin .
Dunnes sells mainly textiles (clothing and other textile goods ), groceries and, to a lesser extent, housewares - usually in Ireland as a combination of a large textile department and a grocery store (both with separate accounting); similar to the Marks & Spencer concept . Only textile or only grocery stores are rare in Ireland, outside of Ireland groceries are almost never available in Dunnes stores. A well-known Dunnes-owned food brand is St. Bernard .
The company was founded in 1944 on St. Patrick's Street in Cork City by Ben Dunne Sr. as a clothing store; food sales began in the 1960s. In 1966, Dunnes opened Ireland 's first suburban shopping center in Cornelscourt in what was then County Dublin as a so-called big-box store , making the small town known throughout the country to this day.
Dunnes is not listed and is run as a private "unlimited company" - this is not customary and consequently means that the owners do not provide any figures, but may have to pay an unlimited amount for claims against the company. Until 1992 the family company was owned by Ben Dunne Jr. directed; since then, two of his siblings, Frank Dunne (Managing Director) and Margaret Heffernan, have been at the helm. At the reopening of the flagship luxury department store on St. Patrick's Street in Cork City after renovation and expansion, Heffernan announced on September 11, 2009 that Dunnes would remain a family-owned Irish company.
The Dunne family, who own Dunnes, are among the wealthiest in Ireland; For example, the Sunday Times Richest People List B. Margaret Heffernan listed as the second richest Irish woman in 2006 with assets of € 603 million. In 2009 the company is in a phase of successive handover to the next generation of the family. According to rumors, the British supermarket chain ASDA , a Wal-Mart subsidiary, which operates with a similar concept to Dunnes , tried to take over Dunnes at the end of 2008 .
Dunnes is the largest Irish-owned supermarket chain (and the second largest in Ireland after Tesco ) in early 2009 and the largest Irish family business - with around 150 stores in Ireland, the UK and Spain. In Ireland, the phrase: "The Irish aren't done shopping until they've shopped Dunnes Stores." A rebranding of the brand from Dunnes Stores to Dunnes has been underway since mid-2007 . The number of employees at Dunnes was 18,000 at the beginning of 2009.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Dunnes - Opening Our First Store ( Memento of the original from December 19, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English)
- ↑ www.corkpastandpresent.ie: St Patrick's Street (English)
- ↑ Irish Examiner : Dunnes 'to stay in Irish hands' as Cork store reopens , September 12, 2009 (English)
- ↑ “Hoover's Profile: Dunnes Stores” on Answers.com (accessed February 23, 2009)
