Tesco Ireland
|
|
Tescologo.png
Tesco Ireland was formed from Power Supermarkets Ltd in 1999, more commonly known as the Quinnsworth and Crazy Prices chain of supermarkets in Ireland; the chain is a subsiduary of Tesco PLC. Tesco operates supermarkets under the "Tesco" and "Tesco Ireland" brands, as well as three hypermarket under the "Tesco Extra" and a small number of convience stores under the "Tesco Ireland Local" and "Tesco Express" brands. A number of petrol stations are also operated by the company.
Quinnsworth was founded by Pat Quinn in the early 1970s, and was later sold to Power Supermarkets. The company became a wholly owned subsidary of Associated British Foods plc prior to their acquisition by Tesco plc. Quinnsworth is remembered for their choice of store sites, their most memorable act was the addition of the phrase Yellow Pack to the English language. At the time, products were being sold in Superquinn supermarkets as White Pack and in Quinnsworth as Yellow Pack. Towards the end of Quinnsworth's life, Yellow Pack was replaced by Premium Choice as the own brand.
Quinnsworth was also remembered for its advertising campaigns featuring its marketing director (and later chief executive) Maurice Pratt, who would personally introduce new product promotions, ending each advert with the company slogan, "That's Real Value". Crazy Prices (occasionally Super Crazy Prices) was a brand used by Quinnsworth on some of its larger outlets. These were known for their cheap prices.
Quinnsworth's sister company in Northern Ireland was Stewart's Supermarket's Limited. Both companies had increasing ties (such as the use of the Crazy Prices brand and Premium Choice) before they were both acquired by Tesco.
Tesco Ireland is the largest food retailer in Ireland, and has over 10,000 employees. As of 2004 Tesco Ireland has come in for increased criticism for apparently high prices in its Irish stores, although in its favour this seems to be because comparisons are with the British Tesco stores rather than other Irish retailers - and thus like is not being compared with like. However, there have been general criticisms of the similar pricing between Irish supermarkets, and economic reports noting the high prices in Ireland generally.
After the acquisition of Power Supermarkets by Tesco, the Quinnsworth and Crazy Prices chains were rebranded as "Tesco Ireland", using a variation of the familar Tesco logo. Recently, Tesco has been rebranding some of these stores as simply "Tesco". The Lifestyle chain of clothing and sports outlets owned by the company was demerged via a management buy-out and is now called Lifestyle Sports. The company opened its first Irish "Tesco Extra" hypermarket in Clarehall, North Dublin in 2004, and has also branched into filling stations. Some stores are now also open 24 hours.
See also
External links
- Official site (http://www.tesco.ie)
- Sunday Business Post - The revolution will be Tesco-ised (http://www.thepost.ie/web/Sitemap/1.9did-975466211-pageUrl--2FThe-Newspaper-2FSundays-Paper-2FComment-and-Analysis.asp)
Tesco Ireland was also the name of an earlier chain of stores in the Republic of Ireland owned by Tesco PLC in the early 1980s. These were originally founded by Albert Gubay as 3 Guys. In 1986, these were sold to the H Williams chain of supermarkets which subsequently collapsed. Many ended up as outlets of other chains.