Dunnes Stores looks set to acquire two meat wholesale businesses, both of which are owned by well-known Tipperary butcher Pat Whelan. The proposed deal will only include the two wholesale meat businesses and not the chain of butcher stores that Whelan also operates.
The two businesses Dunnes is set to acquire are Whelan Food & Meat Processors Ltd and Tipperary Sustainable Food Company Ltd, according to a notification sent to the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission.
Both companies are described as operating in the retail sale of meat and related products. The deal is private, with no figures disclosed.
Whelan Food & Meat Processors was established in 2001 with an address at Clonmel, Co Tipperary. The second business, Tipperary Sustainable Food Company Ltd, was set up in 2008, also with an address in Clonmel.
The latest accounts filed for Tipperary Sustainable Food Company show the business made profits of more than €280,000 in 2014.
Pat Whelan, a director of both businesses, is a fifth-generation butcher who also operates a chain of high-end butcher stores in Rathcoole and Monkstown in Dublin, Kilmacanogue near Bray in Wicklow, and Clonmel in Co Tipperary. It is understood the chain of butcher stores is not part of the deal.
Whelan Butchers and its beef dripping product was winner of the supreme award for the best food product in the UK and Ireland at the 2015 Guild of Fine Food Awards in London.
Dunnes Stores primary supplier of meat is Martin Jennings Wholesale in Co Mayo.
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