Receivers appointed to Superquinn

The_Conductor

:(:(

http://www.rte.ie/news/2011/0718/superquinn.html

Its sad to see an Irish establishment like Superquinn go up the wall

easyeason3

I always found them too expensive tbh.

Superbus

They better not go bust. Those chicken wraps are divine.

Crann na Beatha

This post has been deleted.

admiralofthefleet

2800 jobs. hopefully they are safe

Archeron

Nooooooooooooosausagesoooooooo!!!!

dj jarvis

thats sh1te news - hope they find a buyer becasue that is a lot of jobs going to go :mad:

Big Nasty

2800 jobs - that's a serious, serious blow!

Pacing Mule

Welcome your new overlords from Asda.

1966

OMG - when will this ever stop:mad:

Dman001

They were known for their high quality, own-branded goods, hence the high prices. Which was all good and well during the boom, but I think people have come to appreciate Aldi and Lidl's low cost items.

JONJO THE MISER

They were way too expensive, them days are well over im afraid.

oppenheimer1

My money is on waitrose to buy it...

Absurdum

I hope they manage to survive, by far the best quality supermarket in Ireland.

admiralofthefleet

1966 wrote: »

OMG - when will this ever stop:mad:

when fianna fail are banned

JONJO THE MISER

I see there trying to sell the shops, perhaps a U.K outfit like Morrisons will take them over.

Pacing Mule

JONJO THE MISER wrote: »

I see there trying to sell the shops, perhaps a U.K outfit like Morrisons will take them over.

Asda were always the long term plan.

jesus_thats_gre

Pageant Messiah wrote: »

Welcome your new overlords from Asda.

I wouldn't object to that now.

Was Superquinn not dead the minute those guys bought it 5 odd years ago? Thought the plan was to level the shops and build apartments on most of them - obviously couldn't happen when the property market collapsed?

Chris P. Bacon

The best sausages in the world!!,i hope they stay open for the sake of the 2800 people.

Dman001

I'd imagine it would be the likes of Sainsburys that would buy them, who too have a similar business model in the UK, high quality own-branded goods sold along side your average branded goods. I'm surprised Asda haven't trid to break in to the Irish market, but I reckon they would take a more Tesco approach to setting up here.

The_Conductor

oppenheimer1 wrote: »

My money is on waitrose to buy it...

They were in discussions with Waitrose up to last April, but were unable to come to an agreement. They'd be a good match for one another- they've the same commitment to quality produce- and I for one would be over the moon if they started to stock Waitrose own branded products again (they carried them in Superquinn for a few years- up to the mid 90s perhaps).

2,800 jobs is a serious serious problem, and will have a big impact in Lucan, Portlaoise, Carlow and the locations of their other stores.

Ruu_Old

Never the same after they got rid of the yellow pack advertising.

cml387

jesus_thats_gre wrote: »

I wouldn't object to that now.

Was Superquinn not dead the minute those guys bought it 5 odd years ago? Thought the plan was to level the shops and build apartments on most of them - obviously couldn't happen when the property market collapsed?

Spot on. I know Fergal was retiring but the crowd that took over just seemed to want the real estate.

phasers

Not surprised, it's an absolute ripoff. Shame about all those jobs, I hope they are saved somehow. It'd be quite cool if Asda moved in, we might get some decent competition between supermarkets.

The_Conductor

Ruu wrote: »

Never the same after they got rid of the yellow pack advertising.

I thought the yellow pack stuff was Quinnsworth before Tesco took them out?

rubberdiddies

oppenheimer1 wrote: »

My money is on waitrose to buy it...

Unfortunately I'd say tesco will be looking into the possibility of buying a few of the shops

alwaysadub

Just eating one of their doughnuts. Their food is so nice, hope they don't disappear.

8mv

Granted they're relatively expensive, but I started my working life in SQ when Fergal Quinn was there and got a good grounding in customer service and work ethic. Sad to see it go, if that happens, but as another poster stated, it was finished when Fergal let go the reins.

Chris P. Bacon

smccarrick wrote: »

I thought the yellow pack stuff was Quinnsworth before Tesco took them out?

And before that it was K.V.I

7Sins

Aw now this is sad news, they were great at employing Irish people too! and in general the employees there have a friendly warm manner.

Pacing Mule

jesus_thats_gre wrote: »

I wouldn't object to that now.

Was Superquinn not dead the minute those guys bought it 5 odd years ago? Thought the plan was to level the shops and build apartments on most of them - obviously couldn't happen when the property market collapsed?

Yes it was - I worked for them at the time.

A lot of the assets of the company have been stripped out, sold and leased back etc over the past few years. There were a lot of development plans that did not actually materialise in time before the recession screwed the property market. All along the management on the ground (myself being one of them at the time of the takeover) could see it was a short term plan to strip out the best of the assets and then sell on the retail operation.

Nodin

Debts of 400 million, according to the article....seems rather a lot (or is that just me?)

iMax

It's not just 2800 employees. That'll be a huge hit for all the companies that supply them.

There could be 6000 people out of jobs.

Strangely I heard recently that Fergal Quinn was the guest speaker at the recent managers conference. Maybe the Quinn family will get to buy it back at a hefty discount.

My money is on the majority of the stores being taken over by Tesco or Dunnes rather than let another competitor in the Market.

The Princess Bride

Am sure Fergal Quinn is sleeping soundly these nights...he got out when the going was good.
Wise man.

Red Alert

The stores seem to have very poor management at local level. They also look tired and worn out, even when refurbished. It's a pity because the butchers, bakery and delicatessen are well above the competition.

EDIT: my money's on Musgrave to buy it - would be much more palatable than Tesco anyway.

7sr2z3fely84g5

JONJO THE MISER wrote: »

I see there trying to sell the shops, perhaps a U.K outfit like Morrisons will take them over.

We so anti-competitive and backwards they probably wouldn't be allowed in,recent survey showed the rival chains here are not undercutting but are matching each other in price - http://www.independent.ie/national-news/shopping-basket-costs-on-the-rise-again-as-price-wars-fizzle-out-2821176.html

gobo99

Chris P. Bacon wrote: »

The best sausages in the world!!,i hope they stay open for the sake of the 2800 people.

Your username :pac:

The_Conductor

I'd say its a tossup between Waitrose and Sainsburys.
Sainsburys are up North already, and have stated that they're interested in expanding their operations down here. Waitrose- would be a better match- but they don't have the benefits that Sainsburys might have........

Absurdum

I remember they used to give you a free scratch card if you were waiting at the checkout for more than a certain time. Tesco would probably charge you for using their floorspace

ted2767

They (Select retail holdings) paid far too much for it, thats the proplem. Hopefully the jobs will be safe as on its own it is probably a viable business it just could not support the debt it was carrying.
There will be more cases like this I'm afraid until the banks are fully sorted out because any company/indivudial that purchased a company/property between 2002-2008 paud far more than the underlying value of the property.

jam_mac_jam

I will have to give up sausages, and brown bread. If Tescos buy it I am going to blow up the bastards.

Cantona's Collars

This could be the opportunity that another of the big UK multiples are looking for to enter the Irish market,without the need to build stores they would see it as an easy way to get their foot in the door over here.
With Tesco and Dunnes already having major stores near the locations that Superquinn are in,I can't see the logic in their taking them over.

With all this talk of sausages-why don't ye guys go to your local butchers?

PMJB

do you think they will honour their Superquinn points now?

jam_mac_jam

zerks wrote: »

This could be the opportunity that another of the big UK multiples are looking for to enter the Irish market,without the need to build stores they would see it as an easy way to get their foot in the door over here.
With Tesco and Dunnes already having major stores near the locations that Superquinn are in,I can't see the logic in their taking them over.

With all this talk of sausages-why don't ye guys go to your local butchers?

They arent as nice, I do buy a lot of meat in the butchers. They have good fish and cheese, bread, I am just very sad as its much better quality then Dunnes. I wouldnt shop in tesco if they were the last shop on earth.

Vicxas

Too expensive, seen it coming

Cantona's Collars

jam_mac_jam wrote: »

They arent as nice, I do buy a lot of meat in the butchers. They have good fish and cheese, bread, I am just very sad as its much better quality then Dunnes. I wouldnt shop in tesco if they were the last shop on earth.

Time to fill your freezer so.:D

123balltv

no big surprise most of the owners are property developers
they only bought it for land it aint worth much nowadays plus
Superquinn was always miles behind Dunnes, Tesco etc with prices

please come into the market Asda

ejmaztec

jam_mac_jam wrote: »

I will have to give up sausages, and brown bread. If Tescos buy it I am going to blow up the bastards.

Whatever you do, don't buy the Tesco Value range explosives. I'm typing this with my nose.

theteal

They're open tomorrow, right?????

I have to stock up on sausages before heading back across the water

Run_to_da_hills

easyeason3 wrote: »

I always found them too expensive tbh.

Expensive but provided much friendlier service and more up market products than their foreign counterparts.

Pacing Mule

ted2767 wrote: »

They (Select retail holdings) paid far too much for it, thats the proplem. Hopefully the jobs will be safe as on its own it is probably a viable business it just could not support the debt it was carrying.
There will be more cases like this I'm afraid until the banks are fully sorted out because any company/indivudial that purchased a company/property between 2002-2008 paud far more than the underlying value of the property.

They paid only a little bit more in cash than the book value of the property at the time. Basically they got the supermarket business itself for a pittance. The business plan at the time was quite sound, strip the best of the freehold property assets out (which they didn't fully accomplish) and in the mean time come in and sort out the unionised mess that was there to prepare it ultimately for a takeover.