Dunnes Stores: Ирландская розничная сеть

Irish multinational retail chain

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. 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. 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 Irelands Number 1 supermarket, holding this title since 2018. 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.

Ben Dunne began his retail career as an employee at Anderson's drapery shop in Drogheda, Ireland, in 1926. Through the 1950s, Dunne established stores in Wexford, Waterford, Limerick and Dublin, with the first Dublin shop being opened on Henry Street in 1957.

By the start of the 2000s, Dunnes' network had grown to more than 120 stores. It expanded into the Scottish market in 2000, opening a shop in Glasgow. which entailed the removal of some buildings and facade retention of several others, including the former Dunlop Factory on Stephen Street, and the Connolly Shoes building. The building has a dramatic glass corner atrium leading to an internal street through the development. The facade to George's Street respects existing building heights. The company owns 50% of the Asian fast food chain, Neon. In spring 2018, Dunnes Stores confirmed the closure of all stores in England and Scotland, limiting their UK presence to Northern Ireland only. In 2018, Dunnes Stores commenced with a number of substantial refurbishments and expansions on some of its stores, including its stores in Bishopstown and Ballyvolane in Cork and in a number of stores in Dublin including Donaghmede, Blanchardstown and Swords. The refurbished supermarkets now contain a number of concessions including James Whelan Butchers, Sheridan's Cheesemongers and Baxter & Greene Markets Delis. In 2019, new stores opened in Naas, Ilac Centre and the refurbishment of stores in the Jetland and Briarhill. Also in 2019, Dunnes Stores celebrated 75 years of business. The refurbished Jetland store included Dunnes Stores's first beauty department. Dunnes Stores introduced a voucher scheme known as “Shop & Save”, whereby customers who spend between €25 and €50 receive a €5 voucher for their next shop, and customers who spend €50 or more receive a €10 voucher for their next shop. In March 2020, Dunnes Stores introduced priority shopping for the elderly and vulnerable between 11:00 13:00, in response to the high volume of customer traffic in the mornings, a result from the COVID 19 pandemic where panic buying became an issue across Ireland.

In 1984, Mary Manning, a shop worker in the Henry Street, Dublin branch, made international headlines when she led a picket for almost three years against the sale by Dunnes of oranges sourced from South Africa, then governing under a system of apartheid, in which Ewan MacColl wrote a song about the issue. The Irish Government eventually banned all imports from South Africa until the end of apartheid, which happened between 1991 94. The workers eventually met African National Congress leader and political prisoner Nelson Mandela on the occasion of his conferral of the Freedom of the City of Dublin in 1990.

In September 2011, the Irish Independent found that Dunnes Stores was selling bra and knicker sets for three to six year old girls. Dunnes also has padded bras for girls with a 28 to 30 inch chest, which are the typical measurements of nine year old girls.

An attempted boycott was made on Dunnes due to reports of selling goods made in Burma.

On 2 April 2015, members of the Mandate Trade Union had a one day dispute at 109 branches of Dunnes Stores. The dispute concerned low hour contracts (typically 15 hours per week), income and employment security, and the continued failure of Dunnes Stores to recognise or engage with the Mandate Trade Union, contrary to the recommendations of the Labour Court.