Superquinn is on track to remodel its 21 stores and intends to expand its chain to 30-35 shops over the next five years.
Addressing the Institute of Directors autumn networking lunch in Dublin yesterday, Simon Burke, chairman of Select Retail Holdings, the consortium that purchased Superquinn last year, said the emphasis will be on the greater Dublin area, where it has already modernised its Blanchardstown store.
"The Blanchardstown experiment is very encouraging. The sales turnaround has been dramatic and shows that customers are coming back to Superquinn. People are talking about us, which is good, but there is still much to do," Mr Burke said.
"We have a very loyal customer base. We know we can make Superquinn great again and give Ireland back a business it can be proud of around the world," he said.
Select Retail Holdings paid €450 million for the Superquinn chain. The consortium includes Mr Burke, financier Simon Cantrell, property developers Bernard McNamara and Gerry O'Reilly, property consultants David Courtney and Bernard Doyle and tax consultant Kieran Ryan.
Mr Burke told the institute that it has no plans to retire the Superquinn brand , but is focusing on its core values.
"We have tried to simplify things and fix things in the business that needed to be fixed". There were problems on the operations side, at the distribution centre and changes were made to the computer systems and the pricing structure, he said.
"What had been good about Superquinn had been lost along the way. Customers were confused. The business was failing and it was facing a pretty bleak future," Mr Burke said. "If we begin to drift away from the brand, this could happen again".
The store remodelling programme has been influenced by many trips to retailers around the world. "We looked around the world, stole ideas from all kinds of places," he said.
Mr Burke believes that grocery shopping should be as stylish and fun as any other shopping experience. "We were not in the business of recreating the business Fergal Quinn created in the 1980s. We had to address the market as it is today," he said.
