Dunnes Stores is opening its first store in Scotland and expanding its operations in northern England with a new store in Leeds as part of a group expansion programme.
In a statement, chief operating officer Mr Andrew Street said the group was currently implementing an expansion programme and planned to open more stores in the next few years, including in the UK and Spain. The privately-owned group declined yesterday to discuss the expansion plans or the performance of its existing operations in the UK and Spain. Recent speculation about the media-shy supermarket group has centred on its possible takeover by the world's biggest retailer Wal-Mart through the US group's British chain Asda.
According to the Dunnes Stores website, the group already has nine stores in the UK and plans to open 25 stores there over the next five years. In the UK, Dunnes sells drapery and homewares but not food. The 30,000 sq ft Leeds store is scheduled to open in May. The out-of-town store will be located in a shopping centre where Dunnes will rent space from the publicly quoted group, Morrisons Supermarkets. Two of the existing Dunnes Stores operations in Britain operate adjacent to Morrisons stores in Morrisons-owned centres - in Northampton and in Heywood, in Manchester.
Morrisons is an acquisitive chain. The group has about 17 per cent of the market in northern England and has been expanding south. The Morrison family owns about 30 per cent and its private label accounts for about 55 per cent of sales. Asked yesterday if the food group had any plans for a closer business relationship with Dunnes Stores, Morrisons said: "Our development programme is focused entirely on mainland Britain and we have in the past made very positive statements that we are not even interested in going into Scotland.
"We think the Dunnes operation sits very nicely alongside ours and it just so happens that the three shopping centres were ideal for their type of operation. If such opportunities arise in the future, we will look to explore these along with Dunnes and other operators."
In Scotland, Dunnes has acquired a 50,000 sq ft building in the centre of Glasgow, which will open under the Dunnes Stores banner in the autumn. It will be the group's first British store in a high street location and the building will be fully restored externally to its original 1929 style.
Some 300 new jobs will be created in the new stores, according to the statement. The group employs about 18,000 people.
Dunnes Stores has a total of 119 stores, with 81 in the Republic, 26 in Northern Ireland, nine in Great Britain and three in Spain. The family-owned group operates the St Bernard own brand label, which was started in 1956.
It expanded outside the Republic in 1971, when it opened in Northern Ireland. In its first venture into mainland Europe in 1980, it opened a store in Fuengirola on the Costa del Sol. In 1986, the company ventured into Britain. It had 12 stores there in before it pulled out of the food business, closing three. Dunnes is estimated to have about 20 per cent of the Irish grocery market where competition is increasing following the arrival of groups such as Tesco and the German group Aldi.
Dunnes is also estimated to have a significant share of the clothing and homewares market.
