Dunnes Stores

Dunnes Stores
Company typePrivate
IndustryRetail
Founded1944 (1944)
FounderBen Dunne
Headquarters46–50 South Great George's Street, Dublin 2, D02 RX86
Number of locations
138 shops (118 in the Republic of Ireland, 15 in Northern Ireland and 5 in Spain)
Area served
Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland, Spain
Key people
Margaret Heffernan, Anne Heffernan, Sharon McMahon
(Directors)
ProductsGroceries and textiles
OwnerDunne family (100%)
Number of employees
Approx. 18,000
Websitedunnesstores.com

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 shops in Ireland involves a grocery supermarket operating alongside a clothing/textiles shop, although some shops 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 shops and Northern Ireland. The larger shops 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, Pádraig 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.