Superquinn to shed 400 jobs as sales slump

SUPERQUINN PLANS to proceed with three store openings in Dublin this year in spite of announcing 400 redundancies yesterday and closing its store in Dundalk.

The supermarket group, which was founded by Senator Feargal Quinn in 1960, is contracted to open shops in Rathgar, Baldoyle and opposite Heuston Station; chief executive Simon Burke said these will proceed.

“We are not proposing to escape from our obligations there,” he said. “There is the potential that some of the [400] staff could go in and that would be beneficial for both sides but I can’t promise anyone that.”

Mr Burke also told The Irish Times that he is taking a 10 per cent pay cut as part of the measures being implemented by the grocery group to achieve cost savings of €23 million a year.

In addition, no bonuses will be paid to directors or senior executives this year and the multiple is believed have made one board member redundant.

Superquinn said it would also be seeking greater “flexibility” from workers as part of its negotiations with trade unions with all terms and conditions likely to come under review.

The Superquinn boss didn’t rule out staff also being asked to take a pay cut. Superquinn workers, other than butchers and bakers, are currently paid between €9.40 and €12 an hour.

Mr Burke said Superquinn had “no alternative” in relation to the job losses yesterday.

He said Superquinn’s sales had declined in recent months as shoppers migrated north of the Border and fierce price competition here had seen margins slashed.

Dundalk’s retail trade has been devastated in recent months as shoppers seek out bargains across the Border and the euro strengthened against sterling.

“We [retailers] are all seeing quite a significant drop in our numbers,” he explained.

Superquinn, which operates 24 stores, had turnover last year of more than €600 million.

Ironically, Superquinn’s first store opened in Dundalk 49 years ago. That shop closed in 1982 but Superquinn opened again in the Border town in 1999.

“It has never been our strongest store,” Mr Burke said. “But we were hanging in there and prepared to stomach it in the hopes of turning it around.”

He said the decline in sales at the Dundalk outlet had hit 25 per cent in recent weeks. Sales across the Irish grocery sector are believed to have declined by about 9 per cent in the run up to Christmas.

Superquinn was sold by Feargal Quinn and his family in 2005 to Select Retail Holdings, a consortium backed by a number of Irish property developers.

Siptu said it was “shocked and disappointed” by the news of redundancies at Superquinn.

Mandate’s assistant general secretary Gerry Light said the union would engage in talks with the company.

“We will sit down as responsible representatives of the workers and look to reach a satisfactory set of proposals with the company,” he said.