Dunnes Stores

Dunnes Stores
Company typePrivate
IndustryRetail
Founded1944; 80 years ago (1944)
FounderBen Dunne
Headquarters46–50 South Great George's Street, Dublin 2, D02 RX86
Number of locations
138 stores (118 in the Republic of Ireland, 15 in Northern Ireland and 5 in Spain)[1]
Area served
Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland, Spain
Key people
Frank Dunne
(Managing Director)
Margaret Heffernan
(Director)
ProductsGroceries and textiles
OwnerDunne family (100%)
Number of employees
Approx. 15,000[2]
Websitewww.dunnesstores.com

Dunnes Stores is an Irish multinational retail chain that primarily sells food, clothes and household wares. It was founded by Ben Dunne in 1944. In addition to its main customer base in Ireland, the chain also has operations in Spain.[3] The format of most of the chain's stores in Ireland involves a grocery supermarket operating alongside a clothing/textiles store, although some stores contain only textiles and some contain only a supermarket. The grocery side of the business does not operate outside of Ireland, save for a limited grocery range in the Spanish stores. The larger stores usually contain a café branded as either Café Sol or Dunnes Stores Café.

Dunnes Stores' original own brand of groceries was sold under the St Bernard brand introduced in 1956, becoming an Irish household name, but was rebranded as "My Family Favourites" in 2013.[4][5]

The main domestic competitors in the supermarket business are Tesco, SuperValu, Lidl and Aldi. Since first opening, Dunnes Stores has consistently maintained a top-three market share in Ireland's grocery market, alongside SuperValu and Tesco. Combined, these three supermarket chains account for approximately 70% of Ireland's grocery market. Currently, Dunnes Stores is Ireland’s number one supermarket, holding this title since 2018. [6]

In clothing, their rivals include Penneys and Marks and Spencer. Dunnes collaborate for many clothing/home wares collections from a number of Irish designers such as Paul Costelloe, Padraic Harrington, Carolyn Donnelly, Joanne Hynes and Paul Galvin. They also sell in-house clothing brands such as Savida and Gallery, along with their own Dunnes Stores brand of clothing.

  1. ^ "Store Locator & Opening Hours | Dunnes Stores".
  2. ^ "Our Story | History of Dunnes Stores".
  3. ^ "Our History". Dunnes Stores. Retrieved 13 December 2019.
  4. ^ Canniffe, Mary (2 March 2000). "Dunnes to open stores in Leeds and Glasgow". The Irish Times.
  5. ^ "Dunnes Stores". Irish Independent. 7 April 2002.
  6. ^ "Dunnes Stores overtakes SuperValu to become Ireland's largest grocery retailer". RTÉ News. 22 November 2016. Retrieved 13 December 2019.