Dunnes Stores to acquire two meat wholesale businesses
Dunnes Stores has notified the CCPC of its intention to purchase both Whelan Food & Meat Processors and Tipperary Sustainable Food Company
Print20 January 2016
Dunnes Stores’ acquisition of two meat wholesaling companies, Whelan Food & Meat Processors Limited and Tipperary Sustainable Food Company Limited, is currently being investigated by the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC).
The commission has given Monday, 1 February as the deadline for any third party to make a submission regarding competition aspects of the merger, as displayed in its notification which can be viewed here.
Whelan Food & Meat Processors Limited is owned by Pat Whelan who also owns James Whelan Butchers. This includes a butcher’s store in Tipperary town and butcher’s counters in Avoca outlets in Dublin and Wicklow. However it is understood that the Avoca counters will not be included in the sale.
Tipperary Sustainable Food is likewise owned by Pat Whelan and a company called Easi-build, owned by Dublin-based Ernie Kenny. Kenny himself is involved in James Whelan Butchers.
Speaking to ShelfLife in an interview in 2014, Pat Whelan who is a fifth-generation butcher from Clonmel, explained the importance of demonstrating the company’s point of difference when its partnership with Avoca began.
“In 2011, we opened our first stores in Dublin in partnership with Avoca and the challenge for us was to firstly bring our unique proposition and point of difference to the market, and then within the constraints of the store in Monkstown, to bring that to life from a consumer point of view, for shoppers who may or may not know about the brand,” Whelan said. That interview in its entirety can be found here.
From Dunnes’ perspective, it appears the retailer is currently riding something of an acquisition crest. Its takeover of the Café Sol brand has now been cleared by the CCPC and plans are reportedly afoot to roll out further Café Sol branches across the country.
Related Articles
Cost of living changing butcher shop purchases →
Fans 0
Followers