Superquinn demise and NCD Growers

Corsendonk

Not very good news for local growers since in certain areas SuperQuinn and SuperValu have different growers and suppliers of produce. So expect a bloodbath over the next month when SuperValu retender contracts etc.

The Irish Times

The tills have rung for Superquinn, sold to one of its main rivals, Musgrave Group, after the chain was placed in receivership last night. That the company, founded in Dundalk by Feargal Quinn in 1960, has secured a buyer is undeniably positive for both its 2,800 employees and the Irish grocery market alike, especially as Musgrave chief executive Chris Martin cited comforting phrases like “excited by this opportunity” and “supports our growth agenda”.
The Superquinn bakery (still glazes ahead of its competitors) and Superquinn sausages (coveted by generations of emigrants) will remain on sale for now.
But many questions remain. How will the Competition Authority assess the transaction? If the deal goes ahead, Musgrave, which owns Centra and Supervalu, will become the biggest retail group in the country, overtaking Tesco. Musgrave has its strongest presence in Munster, while 16 of Superquinn’s 24 stores are in Dublin. This geographical spread may be enough to assure the authority, and in any case, it will be under severe pressure to prevent retail jobs falling by the wayside.
An outside entrant may have brought more price competition to the market as a whole, but then Superquinn is not Dunnes Stores – it has traditionally branded itself as upmarket, with the prices to match. Competing on price rather than product would change the essence of the brand. Indeed, recent economic times have seen it attempt to chase value-conscious customers in a manner that has perhaps muddied perceptions of its core offering. With its market share slipping to just 6 per cent, it probably felt it didn’t have much choice.
Which way will Musgrave push the company? Can Ireland afford an indigenous Waitrose-type chain, especially with Dublin already well-served by Marks & Spencer and a smattering of quality standalones? The Superquinn name will be retained, but will the stores be developed by Musgraves into quasi-SuperCentras? What does Musgrave mean exactly when it says it will use “its significant brand expertise to develop the Superquinn business by investing in the stores and bringing value to the Superquinn shopper”?
One possible solution to the gap between Superquinn’s old brand identity and the state of the economy would be to rebrand those stores that are located in struggling areas as Supervalus, but keep the Superquinn name above stores located in areas where disposable incomes have held up.
For Irish grocery suppliers, the deal means a further concentration of retailer power, but it could be worse. Musgraves has committed in its statement this morning “to providing existing Superquinn suppliers with the opportunity to continue to supply Superquinn stores”. Contracts may be renegotiated. But an overseas buyer looking to scale up by expanding in Ireland could have decimated the supplier base altogether.
How much has Musgrave paid the receivers? The only thing we know for sure is that it will be significantly less than the €450 million that Select Retail Holdings, a group backed by property developers, reportedly paid Senator Quinn and his family for the chain in 2005. It is this debt that prompted the receivership, rather than trading difficulties, though trade has been going in reverse of late. As a private company, Superquinn did not disclose its sales or profit figures – the group that it is set to become a part of does, however, and made a pretax profit of €72 million on sales of €4.4 billion last year.
Musgrave, which managed to increase its profits by 3 per cent in 2010 despite a 3 per cent drop in sales, includes “not being greedy” in its list of corporate values. Customers, suppliers and staff of Superquinn will soon find out if this statement holds true.

LeoB

Corsendonk wrote: »

Not very good news for local growers since in certain areas SuperQuinn and SuperValu have different growers and suppliers of produce. So expect a bloodbath over the next month when SuperValu retender contracts etc.

The Irish Times

But maybe its an opportunity for Musgrave group to score a coup and only supply from Irish and local growers? Maybe its wishful thinking on my part but I will keep wishing. In fairness to Supervalue I bought groceries/veg last week and each item was Irish with growers name and number on packaging.

Could this be just the challenge Tesco, Aldi and Lidl need? Its up to the consumer at the end of the day to decide what to buy and perhaps more emphasis on supplying and promoting Irish produce thus protecting Irish growers and farms. The growers also need to become more agressive and stick to a price plan. I know we have crossed this subject before but now more than ever we as consumers have serious choices to make, the first being dont take produce from the shelf unless it Irish grown

LeoB

Wouls also be concerned at how the deal was done. Is it a record for a company to go in recivership/Liqudation and be bought within 12 hours?

Corsendonk

LeoB wrote: »

But maybe its an opportunity for Musgrave group to score a coup and only supply from Irish and local growers? Maybe its wishful thinking on my part but I will keep wishing. In fairness to Supervalue I bought groceries/veg last week and each item was Irish with growers name and number on packaging.

Both Source Irish but the problem here is that Superquinn small size allowed room for the smaller produce supplier to exist, now that we have one large supermarket chain the most likely out come is to contract say the lettuce business out to one supplier rather than have 2 or 3 suppliers. And in any bidding war the large supplier normally wins out. So you started with 3 Irish growers and now have one etc.

LeoB wrote: »

Could this be just the challenge Tesco, Aldi and Lidl need? Its up to the consumer at the end of the day to decide what to buy and perhaps more emphasis on supplying and promoting Irish produce thus protecting Irish growers and farms. The growers also need to become more agressive and stick to a price plan. I know we have crossed this subject before but now more than ever we as consumers have serious choices to make, the first being dont take produce from the shelf unless it Irish grown

Aldi in fairness have a very good rep for supplying Irish food products, their produce is a little below standard IMHO. Please explain the statement in bold?

LeoB wrote: »

Wouls also be concerned at how the deal was done. Is it a record for a company to go in recivership/Liqudation and be bought within 12 hours?

The dogs in the street knew SuperQuinn were in trouble, the company has been on the slide even before Fergal Quinn left the building. Just google SuperQuinn and you get 2 years of speculation about sale of the group. They were always know for their personnal touch and its fresh food and bakery but that eroded under the new management and they sold some of the supermarket sites so basically Musgraves were buying goodwill, a couple of good locations and one or two decent products.

The Hill Billy

Corsendonk wrote: »

So expect a bloodbath over the next month when SuperValu retender contracts etc.

Really? How much of the products were sourced from NCD farmers?

LeoB

Corsendonk wrote: »

Both Source Irish but the problem here is that Superquinn small size allowed room for the smaller produce supplier to exist, now that we have one large supermarket chain the most likely out come is to contract say the lettuce business out to one supplier rather than have 2 or 3 suppliers. And in any bidding war the large supplier normally wins out. So you started with 3 Irish growers and now have one etc..

Cut out the bidding war unlikely as it may be, And this why I feel their maybe an opportunity to make sure the future of Irish producers / growers is safe. Musgarve being Irish and ran by Cork family (who brag about their Irishness according to one person I know who works for them). Could we see another co-op style plan coming into play where maybe 2 or 3 growers pool their resources? Could they negotiate Cheaper Oil/Gas/packaging?

Corsendonk wrote: »

Please explain the statement in bold?..

It was stated here, in N.C.D. forum that farmers growers in the past have undercut each other in a bid to sell their produce. May have during the tomatoe discussion here last year.

Corsendonk wrote: »

The dogs in the street knew SuperQuinn were in trouble, the company has been on the slide even before Fergal Quinn left the building. Just google SuperQuinn and you get 2 years of speculation about sale of the group. They were always know for their personnal touch and its fresh food and bakery but that eroded under the new management and they sold some of the supermarket sites so basically Musgraves were buying goodwill, a couple of good locations and one or two decent products.

So will the buying power of Musgarve group not give the scope to to negotiate a fairer deal for all, Musgraves, growers and consumers alike? I thionk and really hope it can. If not this part of N.C.D could be decimated in a price war with Tesco opening in Rush in November and as Millfield develops.

Corsendonk

Well no definative splits but to quote the marketing blurb on

SuperQuinn.ie

4 out of every 5 euro we spend is on fresh produce from local Irish suppliers

Just a few off the top of my head.

Keogh "Cream of the Crop", Oldtown have the Superquinn contract since they won it from Country Crest in 2005.

http://www.keoghs.ie/index.html

Donnelly Fruit & Veg St Margarets- for years they have supplied the fruit and Veg for Superquinn and handled distribution to stores. They also have their own fruit farm. SuperValu source from Total Produce who now supply veg after under cutting McGees who for years supplied Musgraves. Donnelly still have other customers but nowhere near the volume of SuperQuinn,

http://www.donnybrookfair.ie/freshfood/fruitveg/suppliers

Lettuce- Mac's, Rush
Parsnips- Weldon Brothers, Rush
Scallions & Leeks- Colm Grimes Skerries
Rhubarb- Jim Rooney Baldungan

And many many more

LeoB

So is there a danger that Total Produce will go in and undercut Donnolly and put them in serious trouble? I am sure in a smaller rural community like St. Margarets this would be devastating.

The knock on effect of Mac's or Weldons being squeezed out would be also be very serious for Rush as they have rented a considerable amount of ground to meet their supply.

So what are the implications or can you expand on what they might be N.C.D. which is my main concern

Corsendonk

LeoB wrote: »

So is there a danger that Total Produce will go in and undercut Donnolly and put them in serious trouble? I am sure in a smaller rural community like St. Margarets this would be devastating.

The knock on effect of Mac's or Weldons being squeezed out would be also be very serious for Rush as they have rented a considerable amount of ground to meet their supply.

So what are the implications or can you expand on what they might be N.C.D. which is my main concern

Well few growers are big enough to deal with Supermarkets direct so in Ireland the middle men in Fruit and Veg are

• Total Produce: SuperValu, Dunnes, Aldi. Tesco(facilitate growers)
• Keelings: Tesco, Marks & Sparks, Asda(NI) Sainsbury(NI) SuperValu(soft fruit)
• Donnellys: SuperQuinn, Spar; Londis
• Meade Potato Co: Lidl

The demise of Groomes last year means that Total Produce now controls that business. So now really you have two dominate players in the Irish Produce market, Total Produce(Fyffes) and Keelings who have nicely marketed themselves as a small family run company but forget to mention the 200 million euro's turnover.

Well if your Musgraves why do you need two major produce suppliers to deal with when you managed with one? You could use the smaller one to squeeze Total Produce on price but at the end of the day the grower gets passed the price reductions. Or you could retender between the two, the winning produce supplier do will have to re-coup bidding costs by squeezing the growers. Win Win scenerio for Musgraves, lose lose for growers.

LeoB

Corsendonk wrote: »

Well few growers are big enough to deal with Supermarkets direct so in Ireland the middle men in Fruit and Veg are

• Total Produce: SuperValu, Dunnes, Aldi. Tesco(facilitate growers)
• Keelings: Tesco, Marks & Sparks, Asda(NI) Sainsbury(NI) SuperValu(soft fruit)
• Donnellys: SuperQuinn, Spar; Londis
• Meade Potato Co: Lidl

The demise of Groomes last year means that Total Produce now controls that business. So now really you have two dominate players in the Irish Produce market, Total Produce(Fyffes) and Keelings who have nicely marketed themselves as a small family run company but forget to mention the 200 million euro's turnover.

Well if your Musgraves why do you need two major produce suppliers to deal with when you managed with one? You could use the smaller one to squeeze Total Produce on price but at the end of the day the grower gets passed the price reductions. Or you could retender between the two, the winning produce supplier do will have to re-coup bidding costs by squeezing the growers. Win Win scenerio for Musgraves, lose lose for growers.

So basically we could see some very decent farmers and growers being screwed into the ground.

Musgraves got some very positive reviews on 5 - 7 live with Mary Wilson this evening and on other radio during the day and this gives me some hope that they will do some sort of deal to keep Irish growers above the waterline.

The other thing I heard a grower say one day was we dont have enough diversity of crops in Ireland and we are over producing some crops. As you pointed out a while ago in another thread "the good has been farmed out of a lot of land and maybe some sort of crop rotation needs to be looked at more seriously by Teargasc. Country Crest have done well with their Oriental stuff recently launched

kub

LeoB wrote: »

So basically we could see some very decent farmers and growers being screwed into the ground.

Musgraves got some very positive reviews on 5 - 7 live with Mary Wilson this evening and on other radio during the day and this gives me some hope that they will do some sort of deal to keep Irish growers above the waterline.

The other thing I heard a grower say one day was we dont have enough diversity of crops in Ireland and we are over producing some crops. As you pointed out a while ago in another thread "the good has been farmed out of a lot of land and maybe some sort of crop rotation needs to be looked at more seriously by Teargasc. Country Crest have done well with their Oriental stuff recently launched

I am glad that 5-7 Live gave it a positive spin, the way they were going on during Six One seemed very negative.
I was glad at least that an Irish company moved in and saved all those jobs also i am sure that they will continue to use the existing suppliers, or even buy even more from them.

LeoB

kub wrote: »

I was glad at least that an Irish company moved in and saved all those jobs also i am sure that they will continue to use the existing suppliers, or even buy even more from them.

Great to see the jobs being saved and by an Irish company at that.

It would also be my wish that we might actually see the growers get more local produce onto the shelves.

eastwest

kub wrote: »

I am glad that 5-7 Live gave it a positive spin, the way they were going on during Six One seemed very negative.
I was glad at least that an Irish company moved in and saved all those jobs also i am sure that they will continue to use the existing suppliers, or even buy even more from them.

LOL!
Musgraves? Buying more Irish produce? That would be a first!
My local Supervalu for instance sells imported bagged salads. Superquinn sells a similar product at about the same price, but it's Irish.
Irish growers and suppliers will be screwed now, with Tesco and Tesco II (aka Musgraves) controlling the market. Unless Irish suppliers go down the route of UK suppliers, paying illegal immigrant labour a couple of pounds a day, they won't be able to compete.
The takeover of Superquinn is being spun as a good news story, but long term, suppliers and consumers will lose out.

Something else occurs to me -- maybe someone with more knowledge can enlighten us -- regarding the nature of the deal with Musgraves. I imagine that such a "done deal" took a couple of weeks to put together, at least. When the deal was announced, we learned that suppliers won't be paid for anything supplied before yesterday (about a month's worth of stock for most people, assuming they're paid monthly). Now if the company can't pay, then that was known to the people who stitched up the deal. In my book, that's sounds very similar to "trading while insolvent" which of course is a crime.
In other words, the principals carried on taking stock from suppliers, knowing full well that they were going to go into receivership, which (if true) was a criminal conspiracy. Now, is this still a good news story?

Paulw

eastwest wrote: »

Something else occurs to me -- maybe someone with more knowledge can enlighten us -- regarding the nature of the deal with Musgraves. I imagine that such a "done deal" took a couple of weeks to put together, at least.

I won't say I'm that in the know, per say, but I do have information.

When Fergal Quinn sold Superquinn, Musgraves were one of the bidders. They weren't the best option at the time, which is why they didn't win.

Musgraves made an attempt to buy Superquinn more than once after that. I'd say that the original plans, details, figures, etc were to hand, so it was a quick and easy choice for them.

eastwest

Paulw wrote: »

I won't say I'm that in the know, per say, but I do have information.

When Fergal Quinn sold Superquinn, Musgraves were one of the bidders. They weren't the best option at the time, which is why they didn't win.

Musgraves made an attempt to buy Superquinn more than once after that. I'd say that the original plans, details, figures, etc were to hand, so it was a quick and easy choice for them.

That was what I thought, at first, but following "mature reflection" I began to wonder at that. In my own limited experience, banks don't make decisions like this overnight. Neither do boards of companies; they have due dilligence issues etc, and have to get approval for the deal from all parties. Using figures from a couple of years back would probably be classified as gross negligence if something went wrong and I couldn't see an accountant worth his or her salt signing off a deal this size on such an unsound base. Even if they did all this in a week though, which would be a miracle, they still shouldn't have kept taking in produce that they knew they wouldn't be able to pay for when the guillotine came down. Certainly it was morally unsound, but my reading of company law before this would have been that it was a crime.
Maybe I've been a fool over the years, believing that I had responsibilities as a director when in fact maybe it is much looser than that and you can actually stuff creditors if it suits you to do so.
If I was the minister, I'd be looking at it, just to be on the safe side. I feel sorry for small suppliers, or indeed all suppliers, who have effectively been screwed so as to put more money into somebody's pocket, be it either the banks' or the buyers'. The fact that we "own" the banks makes it worse; this wasn't some foreign raider; it was an arm of the state.
I'm sure that all arses are well covered, but it looks odd from where I'm sitting.

Corsendonk

Paulw wrote: »

I won't say I'm that in the know, per say, but I do have information.

When Fergal Quinn sold Superquinn, Musgraves were one of the bidders. They weren't the best option at the time, which is why they didn't win.

Musgraves made an attempt to buy Superquinn more than once after that. I'd say that the original plans, details, figures, etc were to hand, so it was a quick and easy choice for them.

I should point out that the supermarket retail business is very small in Ireland so specialist roles are often filled by people who worked at other supermarkets. I just googled some of the names at Superquinn and they are ex-Musgraves so if they had any sense for self-preservation they kept their old work mates up to date. Might not be above board but ensures you have a job to go to at Musgraves in 6 months time.

LeoB

LeoB wrote: »

Wouls also be concerned at how the deal was done. Is it a record for a company to go in recivership/Liqudation and be bought within 12 hours?

eastwest wrote: »

LOL!
Musgraves? Buying more Irish produce? That would be a first!
Irish growers and suppliers will be screwed now, with Tesco and Tesco II (aka Musgraves) controlling the market. Unless Irish suppliers go down the route of UK suppliers, paying illegal immigrant labour a couple of pounds a day, they won't be able to compete.
The takeover of Superquinn is being spun as a good news story,
Something else occurs to me -- maybe someone with more knowledge can enlighten us -- regarding the nature of the deal with Musgraves. I imagine that such a "done deal" took a couple of weeks to put together, at least. When the deal was announced, we learned that suppliers won't be paid for anything supplied before yesterday (about a month's worth of stock for most people, assuming they're paid monthly). Now if the company can't pay, then that was known to the people who stitched up the deal. In my book, that's sounds very similar to "trading while insolvent" which of course is a crime.
In other words, the principals carried on taking stock from suppliers, knowing full well that they were going to go into receivership, which (if true) was a criminal conspiracy. Now, is this still a good news story?[/QUOTE]

Not based on what you have posted here but Im no expert and fear for the suppliers/growers of N.C.D. (My first point above)

Corsendonk wrote: »

I should point out that the supermarket retail business is very small in Ireland so specialist roles are often filled by people who worked at other supermarkets. I just googled some of the names at Superquinn and they are ex-Musgraves so if they had any sense for self-preservation they kept their old work mates up to date. Might not be above board but ensures you have a job to go to at Musgraves in 6 months time.

So is there a possibility of some type of insider trading or is this similar to the Fyffe/McCann case which was in the High Court/Supreme court a few years ago?

I think there arte some serious questions to be asked here and mainly howwas the deal done so quickly for such a big amount of money and are the growers going to compensated? That will be a serious loss for people already struggling to keep their business alive.

I would have thought a lot of senior people leaving one competitior for another have to wait 2 years to take up a job? That I believe is the case with a number of firms.

The Hill Billy

Keep it local please. Otherwise the thread is no longer relevant to the forum.

Thanks,

tHB

Corsendonk

Ok some up to date info on the Industry

Fingal Indepent July 2010

A LEADING horticultural official has warned that a statutory code of practice must be implemented 'sooner rather than later' in order to stop Irish food growers from going out of business.
Following the release of a 25-page document by the Horticulture Action Group (HAG) calling for the introduction of an industry code of practice, Chairman of the Irish Horticulture Association and local grower PJ Jones, told the Fingal Independent that Irish growers were on the brink of collapse due to relentless pressure from large supermarkets.
He warned that the cost of hiring labour when compared with our nearest neighbour, the UK, was affecting competitiveness and that there was a serious risk of Irish growers going out of business, which could lead to the country not being able to feed itself.
'At the moment there's only 212 growers left in the country and many of them are only just surviving because of a drought in the UK. If the option was there supermarkets would take the UK product and beat us up with it.
'It would be a desperate thing if we weren't able to feed ourselves in this country because we were taken out of it by other suppliers.'
'A code of practice is needed sooner rather than later because the people I represent are having to ring up banks every Friday to see if they can get money to pay wages. How long more can they stick that?'
Mr Jones said that he was hopeful that a meeting between all the stakeholders in the horticultural industry and the Minister for Agriculture Shane McEntee could take place in the next couple of weeks, but warned that getting all sides to agree was going to be very difficult.
He urged the Government to recognise that the high cost of labour in Ireland was making their produce uncompetitive, and backed the HAG recommendation to continue State grants for the industry.
'The difference between the cost of production here and across the border in Northern Ireland is huge and that is down to the price of labour.'
'I'm not saying that people working for us get paid too much, because they don't due to the cost of living here. But there has to be a recognition from all parties involved that there is an extra cost of production here.'

Food Harvest Ireland -Report of the Horticulture Action Group

Role of the Retail Trade.
The domestic retail and food service markets are the most important outlets for Irish fresh horticulture produce. Domestically the sector continues to face downward pressure on prices from the retail multiples as competition within the retail trade increased in response to the economic downturn. Growers of potatoes, vegetables and fruit are very concerned at the dominant role that supermarkets have in terms of controlling the price and quantities marketed.

It is estimated on average across a range of produce that only one third of the final selling price is received by the producer

The full report can be found here link

The Hill Billy

Let's hope that Musgrave's promise in this article holds true & brings some relief to local suppliers to Superquinn:

http://m.rte.ie/news/2011/0724/superquinn.html

martinn123

Small Local Irish Suppliers to Superquinn

Small Local Irish Suppliers to Superquinn who have been impacted by events of the past week, can discuss possible opportunities to access the Musgrave network. Email group@musgrave.ie or Lo-call 1890 80 40 49. This number will be available from Monday 25 July from 9am - 5pm.

Copied from the Musgraves Web-site

So having looked over S/Q's books and decided not to purchase the business, they acted in conjunction with the Banks, who liquidated, and Musgrave tie down a deal overnight, and suppliers are screwed.

So now they are offering distressed suppliers an opportunity to supply more product, on credit, to the Musgrave network.

Visited local S/Q over weekend, many products not in stock, understand main chicken meat supplier, has pulled out, heard local apple supplier on RTE Friday, he is down 6 mths product.

Small local suppiers who have been screwed, are expected to supply Musgraves, having written off their losses in S/Q.

This will not end well.

rebellad

martinn123 wrote: »

Small Local Irish Suppliers to Superquinn

Small Local Irish Suppliers to Superquinn who have been impacted by events of the past week, can discuss possible opportunities to access the Musgrave network. Email group@musgrave.ie or Lo-call 1890 80 40 49. This number will be available from Monday 25 July from 9am - 5pm.

Copied from the Musgraves Web-site

So having looked over S/Q's books and decided not to purchase the business, they acted in conjunction with the Banks, who liquidated, and Musgrave tie down a deal overnight, and suppliers are screwed.

So now they are offering distressed suppliers an opportunity to supply more product, on credit, to the Musgrave network.

Visited local S/Q over weekend, many products not in stock, understand main chicken meat supplier, has pulled out, heard local apple supplier on RTE Friday, he is down 6 mths product.

Small local suppiers who have been screwed, are expected to supply Musgraves, having written off their losses in S/Q.

This will not end well.

So for example if you were going to buy a house for 100k and the owner was in negative equity of another 100k would you offer to pay off the owners 100k as well - i don't think so. Lets be realistic here why should Musgraves have to pay a debt that they had nothing to do with creating, they are a business after all....

The Hill Billy

That's comparing apples and oranges. If you are purchasing a business with a large debt burden as a going concern, you pay the seller an appropriate price factoring the debt into the overall value. Well, that may be just too ethical a way to do business these days. Now it would appear that screwing suppliers is the easier option.

martinn123

rebellad wrote: »

Lets be realistic here why should Musgraves have to pay a debt that they had nothing to do with creating, they are a business after all....

Yes they are, and they were looking at buying a business, but decided it would be a better deal if an engineered Liquidation was arranged behind closed doors, leaving creditors, i.e local suppliers out of the loop.

I am not saying they did anything wrong, its perfectly legal, but highly unfair to unsecured creditors.

So funds obtained recently from the sale of goods, end up reducing the Overdraft, and the suppliers of same goods get nothing.

Same thing happened when Service Station on M1 at Lusk opened, day later Main Contractor goes bust, and local small contractors who did the work, loose out.

That's Co Law in Ireland......and small producers should remember, all your eggs in one basket.etc....literally.

rebellad

martinn123 wrote: »

Yes they are, and they were looking at buying a business, but decided it would be a better deal if an engineered Liquidation was arranged behind closed doors, leaving creditors, i.e local suppliers out of the loop.

I am not saying they did anything wrong, its perfectly legal, but highly unfair to unsecured creditors.

So funds obtained recently from the sale of goods, end up reducing the Overdraft, and the suppliers of same goods get nothing.

Same thing happened when Service Station on M1 at Lusk opened, day later Main Contractor goes bust, and local small contractors who did the work, loose out.

That's Co Law in Ireland......and small producers should remember, all your eggs in one basket.etc....literally.

Granted it isn't nice for anyone to loose out on money they are owed but I don't get all the bad publicity towards Musgraves, they have commited to securing the 2800 jobs directly related to Superquinn and also to try and help the suppliers - I know that helping the suppliers isn't the same as paying them what they owed but are you telling me that if ASDA/Tesco/Sainsburys took over Superquinn that they would even think about the suppliers...

Corsendonk

rebellad wrote: »

Granted it isn't nice for anyone to loose out on money they are owed but I don't get all the bad publicity towards Musgraves, they have commited to securing the 2800 jobs directly related to Superquinn and also to try and help the suppliers - I know that helping the suppliers isn't the same as paying them what they owed but are you telling me that if ASDA/Tesco/Sainsburys took over Superquinn that they would even think about the suppliers...

Actually when Tesco first came to Ireland they had to do twice the work with suppliers as the Irish companies did because of the anti Brit prejudices that existed in Ireland. It didn't help that the company colours were red,white and blue:D. So a foreign/British supermarket would have to work harder with local suppliers to capture the Irish public trust IMHO.

Look at Dunnes slogan "The difference is we our Irish". Yeah right, they were scewing suppliers for years and all their profits go to the super rich members of the family but they are Irish. I would have welcomed Waitrose or Sainsbury over the Irish Musgraves. It would open markets for Irish food companies in the UK that do not feature there at the moment.

The large suppliers won't speak out about the deal done by Musgraves as they will have existing business with the Musgrave Group and don't want to damage their business further.

rebellad

Corsendonk wrote: »

Actually when Tesco first came to Ireland they had to do twice the work with suppliers as the Irish companies did because of the anti Brit prejudices that existed in Ireland. It didn't help that the company colours were red,white and blue:D. So a foreign/British supermarket would have to work harder with local suppliers to capture the Irish public trust IMHO.

Look at Dunnes slogan "The difference is we our Irish". Yeah right, they were scewing suppliers for years and all their profits go to the super rich members of the family but they are Irish. I would have welcomed Waitrose or Sainsbury over the Irish Musgraves. It would open markets for Irish food companies in the UK that do not feature there at the moment.

The large suppliers won't speak out about the deal done by Musgraves as they will have existing business with the Musgrave Group and don't want to damage their business further.

What do you make of this then

http://www.rte.ie/news/2011/0727/superquinn.html

Do you think Waitrose or Sainsbury would do the same??

martinn123

Retail group Musgrave has announced a €10m fund to pay suppliers to Superquinn who lost money.

1 of 1

[URL="javascript:void(0)"][/URL][URL="javascript:void(0)"][/URL]Superquinn suppliers - Losses could be lowered to €10m

Retail group Musgrave has announced a €10m fund to pay suppliers to Superquinn who lost money when the supermarket chain went into receivership last week.
The group claims this would allow suppliers who do not have insurance to recoup up to 70% of losses. The IFA has welcomed the move.
Last week, Superquinn went into receivership with debts of €400m. The Musgrave group has offered to buy the supermarket chain. Receivers say the sale would secure 2,800 jobs but that suppliers would be left with around €50m in losses.
In a statement this morning, Musgrave said it had set up a fund to help suppliers that are not covered by credit insurance.
The fund covers suppliers who did not have any credit insurance and those who had credit insurance which covered only a certain amount. The fund is fully supported by Musgraves and by the syndicate of banks to Superquinn and will be administered by the receivers.
The receivers say that with this new fund, credit insurance and retention of title where suppliers are paid for unsold goods, that the overall loss to suppliers would then be under €10m.
The Irish Farmers' Association has welcomed the news and said the fund could be the difference between viability and bankruptcy for many suppliers.

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So in response to the critism of the deal done behind doors, to force losses on small suppliers, Musgraves have now stood up to their responsibilities.

This will sweeten the pill, for local growers....I hope