How Cork was the starting point for Dunnes Stores’ colourful legacy

LAST WEEKEND Dunnes Stores marked the 80th anniversary of when the first store opened on March 31, 1944, in Cork city.

The brand is Ireland’s largest retailer providing fashion, food and homewares.

Ben Dunne was born in 1908 in Rostrevor, County Down, and worked hard from a young age, picking berries and helping out in a local butchers.

In 1926, he worked as an apprentice draper in Anderson’s of Drogheda and described this job as the “turning point” in his life. Dunne initially worked for three months without pay before earning just 50 shillings a week.

He travelled the country learning the textiles trade, ending up in Roches Stores, Cork. It was there that he met his wife, Nora.

They were to be married 44 years and had six children.

While working as a senior buyer for Roches Stores, Dunne left to start to his own business when he was denied a pay rise.

On March 31, 1944, Dunne used his savings to open the first-ever Dunnes Stores on Patrick Street in Cork. Word spread quickly through the city of the bargains on offer, with people flooding to the store to buy quality clothing at pre-war prices in what was termed a ‘shopping frenzy’.

A window was even forced in, and the police had to be called to deal with the eager crowds. The words ‘Better Value’ were emblazoned across the shop.

Following its success, further stores opened around the country during the 1950s, and groceries were introduced in 1960.

When the super-store opened on South Great Georges Street in Dublin in 1960, it offered shoppers a chance to browse through the items on racks before making a purchase, a completely new idea in Irish retailing.

From the 1970s onwards, Dunnes Stores expanded all across Ireland. Expansion continued in the 1980s in Spain and later into Scotland and England.

In 1970, Ben Dunne was honoured overseas by the US National Retail Merchants Association as ‘Most Outstanding World Retailer’. He passed away on April 14, 1983, in Cork.

Everyone who worked with him said he had an instinctive feel for what his customers wanted. Staff remembered him as “a bit of a genius who was often tough but always fair”.

“Anyone could have done what I did but they didn’t do it. That’s the only difference,” said Ben Dunne.

Dunnes Stores currently has 142 stores throughout Ireland, the UK and Spain, employing almost 15,000 people.