Gormley in €100m deal with SuperValu operators

One of the country's biggest supermarket operators is set to join forces with property developer Frank Gormley in a deal valued at over €100 million.

Caulfield McCarthy, which operates a chain of SuperValu stores in the south and east of the country, is planning to embark on a joint venture with Mr Gormley's Howard Eurocape.

The venture intends to redevelop the current portfolio of seven Caulfield McCarthy retail sites and to further develop new sites over the next five years. Caulfield last night valued the investment at over €100 million.

The sites are located in Bandon, Co Cork, Loughboy, Kilkenny, Malahide, Co Dublin, Waterford, New Ross and Ennisc-orthy, Co Wexford and Tipperary. The three largest centres, the Riverview Shopping Centre, Bandon, Loughboy Centre in Kilkenny and The HyperCentre in Waterford have SuperValu anchors with over 51 line shops.

Waterford-based Caulfield McCarthy operates eight SuperValu stores, making it one of the biggest partners of Musgrave plc, which controls the franchise. Along with the seven sites earmarked for development, it also operates the store in Merchant's Quay, Cork City.

Caulfield is planning to expand and redevelop its existing business. Earlier this year, the company received planning permission from Kilkenny County Council to rebuild and extend its shopping centre at Loughboy in Kilkenny, where one of its SuperValu stores is located.

It is also working on the refurbishment of two outlets in the Merchants Quay and Wilton complexes in Cork.

It took over these businesses from Roches Stores early last year when that group left the retailing business.

They were already operating under the SuperValu flag.

After taking over the Cork stores, Caulfield predicted that its sales would reach €140 million in 2005.

The most recently available accounts for the group show that in the 16 months to March 26th that year, it turned over €82 million, the bulk of it from supermarket sales, and had operating profit before interest of €3 million. This gave it margins of just over 3.5 per cent, which would leave it with an operating surplus of €5 million on sales of €140 million.

Caulfield McCarthy grew out of the Caulfield supermarket chain, which was founded in Wexford by John Caulfield and his brothers in the 1970s.

In 2004, his children, Tomás and Anne-Marie Caulfield, joined forces with its managing director, John McCarthy, to take over the business from its founders, who wanted to step back from it.

They now hold equal stakes in the business and also make up its management team. Mr McCarthy joined the group from Musgrave several years before.

Both Mr Gormley and the Caulfields are from New Ross in Co Wexford.