I just came across the absolutely great Dingle Ginger beer in Goat’s St Cafe. Hope you guys will stock it! Ginger beer and ice cream after a day on the sea -unbeatable!

Chris

ps Dingle Ginger Beer is a non-alcoholic drink not unlike Ginger Ale but without the preservatives and colorings.

Very cool that you gave a short URL. Impressed!

I just saw the poster in your Killarney store this week. I duly made the complaint to SQ via the form you suggested. I also made a short url of it here http://url.ie/18i

Great location in Killarney, by the way, I am sure it will do well there. One touch I like about your store is when I buy my favourite coffee (Mahers) you guys will grind it just right for my machine. You would think this is a standard but apparently not in some places!

Conor makes some great points above. As regards Tesco, I just did a search for “Superquinn” and guess what popped up on the adwords column? Tesco! What that tells me is that they take their web presence seriously and that your current approach is right on. However that particular tactic, which used http://www.pro.ie as an intermediary, will backfire on them.

Chris

I also think they will be vulnerable to Tesco attack if they don’t differentiate themselves especially in their bellweather shops…

I guess we’ll see. In the mean time, I’m a great believer in customer power, and that’s where I’ll put some focus. I know how much attention we pay when a customer letter comes in. If the Irish consumer demanded more, they would get more!

Superquinn have always tried to play both sides of the field; the value side and the quality side. They started in the value area but over the years have become more and more associated with the high-end high-quality part of the market.

For 9 years I shooped in Superquinn Kimmage and it was possibly their worst shop. They tried to cover all the bases but ended up covering none. On many saturdays they would have lovely Dunn’s smoked salmon but would have run out of lettuce. They would have artisan breads but be out of stock on sliced pans. They were utterly clueless in comparison to their flagship stores.

For the past few years, it seems to me that they have struggled to find their place in the market. Silly distractions like in-shop banking didn’t help. I was convinced they should eschew market share for the high-end high-margin business which worked so well for them in places like Blackrock and Sutton. But of course they still had economy of scale issues due to the small number of shops.

When the consortium bought them, I wondered which direction they would take. If they are thinking about removing your ice-cream from the shelves, then this is a sign that they are going the high-volume low-margin, let’s beat Tesco/Dunnes route.

As a consumer, I am very susceptible to “halo” products like yours. I may be in a rubbish Supervalu somewhere but the fact that they have Green & Black chocolate makes me ignore the problems and like them. If all I see is HB plus some Haagen Daz, then I’ll just have the sense that I am probably paying over the odds for stuff I can get cheaper in Tesco.

In any case, surely your ice-cream is a high-margin product for them which does not require high volume sales?

If they are making the huge mistake (IMHO) of going back down market then I think in a few years we will have another H Williams on our hands. Tesco will slaughter them.

I had hoped they would finally set up in Cork now that Fergal is gone, but now I wonder is there any point. Has anyone else seen other signs that they are changing their focus?

To your point about small companies hitting the mother-lode with Tesco and then going bust, I have two comments. The first is that it always a problem having only one big customer (a position I was in for a long time) and the second is that at least it is better than M&S, who for years insisted that their food suppliers have exclusive contracts with them.

One thing that Tesco should consider is to do deals with small suppliers to only supply Tesco Express. This would require less ramp up from the supplier, less risk and also the Tesco Express profile probably suits the high-end impulse purchase type product better anyway.