Quinnsworth

Not to be confused with Superquinn.

Quinnsworth

Company type	Limited company
Industry	Retailing
Founded	1966 (1966)
Founder	Pat Quinn
Defunct	2001
Fate	Acquired by Tesco (1997)
Successor	Tesco Ireland
Headquarters	Dublin , Ireland
Area served	Ireland
Products	Grocery

Quinnsworth was a supermarket chain operating in Ireland, which was founded by Pat Quinn, opening its first shop in the Stillorgan shopping centre in December 1966. It was later sold to Power Supermarkets. By 1971, it had grown to six shops and a turnover of IR£6 million. It grew to gain a 25% share of the Irish grocery market by the 1990s. In 1972, the Power's Supermarkets began to also trade under the Quinnsworth name.

During the 1970s, the company was acquired by Associated British Foods plc. During that period, it used the slogan "Let's get it all together at Quinnsworth". It was one of the leading supermarket chains in Ireland in terms of turnover, and by 1978, it had 41 outlets, rising to 43 outlets in 1979 . It acquired rival chain Five Star, which had 26 outlets, for IR£5 million in 1979.

By 1981, following the acquisition of Five Star, Quinnsworth had 71 supermarkets. That same year, the business announced that it intended to close 7 of its 31 supermarkets in Dublin (in Baggot Street, Blackrock, Dolphin's Barn, Finglas, Killester, Ranelagh and Rosemount). The Irish Association of Distributive Trades criticised this development as "clear proof that the supermarket giants have now achieved monopolistic control of the Dublin grocery market" and that it proved that the takeover of Five Star by Quinnsworth should not have been permitted. Quinnsworth responded citing size limitations and a modernisation programme, and countered that it was carrying out a major expansion of its Rathfarnham supermarket that year and intended to open a shopping centre in Artane, to extend its Ennis and Wexford shops, and to open new supermarkets in Tullamore and Navan in 1982. It contended that it had bigger and better outlets near the closing shops, including on Baggot Street, where the acquired Five Star supermarket was located directly opposite the existing Quinnsworth outlet.

Quinnsworth is remembered for its choice of store sites. Its most memorable act was the addition of the phrase Yellow Pack to the retailing lexicon. Towards the end of Quinnsworth's life, Yellow Pack was replaced by K.V.I. label as the low-cost generic grocery brand, and a high quality generic line called Premium Choice modeled after Loblaws President's Choice (Loblaws being owned by another branch of the Weston family). Quinnsworth was also remembered for its advertising campaigns featuring its marketing director (and later chief executive) Maurice Pratt, who would personally introduce new product promotions, ending each advert with the company slogan, "That's Real Value".

Crazy Prices (occasionally Super Crazy Prices) was a brand used by Quinnsworth on some of its larger outlets. These were known for their cheap prices. Crazy Prices was one of the first retailers in Ireland to introduce late night opening (until 9pm) on Wednesdays, dubbing this night "Crazy Night" and running special in-store promotions. Until the mid-1990s, most Irish retailers only opened late one night a week, usually Thursday (in Dublin city) or Friday. KVI branding was Crazy Prices equivalent to the Quinnsworth Yellow pack. It came in blue red and white striped packaging. K.V.I. stood for "Keen Value Item" and was the equivalent of the previous Quinnsworth Yellow Pack, except perhaps even further downmarket.

On 21 March 1997, it was announced that the Quinnsworth and Crazy Prices chains had been acquired by the UK supermarket company, Tesco. All shops were rebranded over the following years, with the rebranding process almost completed by April 2001.