The Irish supermarket chain Superquinn, which went into receivership on Monday (18 July), was sold to the Musgrave Group yesterday, by the receivers KPMG.

Superquinn will continue to trade as usual, under its own name, in a deal which sees all 2,800 jobs saved, including the 200 bakery workers in all 21 of its stores, 16 of which are in Dublin, according to Chris Martin, chief executive of the Musgrave Group.

Musgrave already controls Centra, Super Valu and other supermarket operations. Subject to Competition Authority approval, the purchase would bring Musgrave’s share of the retail grocery market in the Republic to 30%, ahead of Tesco, which has 26%.

Superquinn was founded by Senator Feargal Quinn in Dundalk in 1960. In 2005, he sold his family’s interest to the Retail Holdings Consortium for €450m. When Superquinn went into receivership, it had property-related debts to various banks of around €400m.

The company claims to have pioneered in-store bakeries in Ireland back in 1973, producing a wide range of bread and confectionery.

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