History
The company was founded in 1979 out of the larger outlets in Musgrave's VG chain (originally formed in 1960). The smaller VG stores became Centra. From a base of sixteen stores (mainly in Munster), SuperValu had 182 stores in the Republic of Ireland and 36 stores in Northern Ireland as of 2004. Along the way, Musgrave has pursued a policy of buying stores itself and then re-leasing them to franchisees, acquiring some of the insolvent H Williams stores in 1987, L&N in 1995, and Wellworths (in Northern Ireland) in 1996.
Wellworths-SuperValu was a trading name used briefly by Musgrave following its acquisition of small-to-medium Wellworths outlets in 1996. This was to distinguish from larger Wellworths stores which were acquired by Safeway Stores (Ireland), a joint venture between Fitzwilton and Safeway (UK). In due course, the Wellworths name was entirely dropped.
SuperValu also operated supermarkets in larger Roches Stores locations under the name "SuperValu at Roches Stores" for a few years.
Read more about this topic: SuperValu (Ireland)
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