Dunnes Stores

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 and Northern Ireland. 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, formerly alongside Quinnsworth and currently alongside SuperValu and Tesco. Combined, Dunnes, Tesco and SuperValu currently account for approximately 70% of Ireland's grocery market. Currently, Dunnes Stores is Ireland’s number one 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.

Bernard "Ben" Dunne began his retail career as an employee at Anderson's drapery shop in Drogheda, Ireland, in 1926. He later worked in Cameron's drapery shop in Longford town. In the mid-1930s, Dunne moved to Roches Stores in Cork. He rose to become a senior buyer for Roches Stores. When he was asked to oversee Roches' entire drapery business, he agreed on condition that he receive a pay rise. The owners refused, noting that he would be earning more than any of them. Dunne decided to leave Roches Stores and set up his own business.

Dunne, together with his friend Des Darrer, opened his first drapery shop across the road from Roches Stores on St Patrick’s Street, Cork on 31 March 1944, promising "better value" by offering goods at pre-war prices.

The business expanded in the late 1940s, opening new shops on Cathedral Street, Waterford on 8 August 1946 and on North Main Street, Cork and in Mallow in 1947.

Dunne and Darrer continued as partners until 1952, when they dissolved the partnership and Darrer took ownership of the Waterford shop, initially continuing to trade under the Dunnes Stores name before renaming it Darrers in 1966.