 | |
| Type | Subsidiary |
|---|---|
| Industry | Retail |
| Founded | 1979 |
| Headquarters | Mary Street, , |
Number of locations | 43 shops |
Key people | Mark Stafford (CEO) |
| Products |
|
| Owner | Stafford family |
| Parent | Stafford Group |
| Website | lifestylesports.com |
Life Style Sports, officially Lifestyle Sports (Ireland) Limited is Ireland's largest sports retailer, operating 46 outlets spread across the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. They stock sporting goods and sport fashions.
Life Style Sports was established in 1979 in the Republic of Ireland by Quinnsworth, a subsidiary of Associated British Foods. [1] In 1997 it was bought by Tesco PLC but was later spun off via a management buy-out of seven directors, led by MD Andrew Sharkey and venture capital firm, ACT.
In November 2005, it was acquired by Stafford Holdings – an Irish family-owned company who stated, "This latest acquisition is in line with its stated strategy of seeking acquisition opportunities in new sectors which offer strong growth potential, while maintaining a strong commitment to its current portfolio of businesses." [2] In 2006, former Dunnes Stores senior director Eoin McGettigan was appointed CEO. [3] Mark Stafford took up the role of chairman. In early 2009, Mark Stafford replaced McGettigan as CEO. He was joined by former Nike Ireland general manager Nigel Cowman as Finance Director, Dan Ryan from Penneys and Brown Thomas as Trading Director.
In September 2007 a new flagship shop opened in the Blanchardstown Centre, Dublin. This remained their largest shop, at 21,000 square feet (2,000 m2). [4] until July 2017, when the company's new flagship shop opened in The Capitol building St Patrick's Street in Cork. [5]
In 2013, Life Style Sports became the official retail partner of Leinster Rugby, with a Life Style Sports shop located in Donnybrook Stadium and the Royal Dublin Society (RDS), home of Leinster Rugby. [6] Life Style Sports is also the official retail partner of Munster Rugby. [7]
Portlaoise, or Port Laoise, is the county town of County Laois, Ireland. It is located in the South Midlands in the province of Leinster.
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.
Maynooth is a university town in north County Kildare, Ireland. It is home to Maynooth University and St Patrick's College, a Pontifical University and Ireland's sole Roman Catholic seminary. Maynooth is also the seat of the Irish Catholic Bishops' Conference and holds the headquarters of Ireland's largest development charity, Trócaire. Maynooth is located 24 kilometres west of central Dublin.
Tesco Ireland Limited is the Irish subsidiary of supermarket group Tesco. Tesco Ireland was formed by Tesco plc's 1997 purchase of the Irish retailing operations of Associated British Foods, namely Powers' Supermarkets Limited and its subsidiaries, trading as "Quinnsworth" and "Crazy Prices". There are 152 Tesco stores in operation in Ireland as of August 2018. Tesco had approximately 21% of the Irish grocery market in 2019 and its main competitors are Dunnes Stores and SuperValu.
Naas is the county town of County Kildare in Ireland. In 2022, it had a population of 26,180, making it the largest town in County Kildare and the fourteenth-largest urban center in Ireland.
Superquinn was an Irish supermarket chain, founded in 1960 and entirely privately owned by the Quinn family. Select Retail Holdings, a property buying consortium, purchased the company from the Quinn family in 2005. A receiver was appointed to the company on 18 July 2011, and the following day the company was bought by Musgrave Group for an undisclosed sum. On 13 February 2014 all remaining units were rebranded as SuperValu.
Dunnes Stores is an Irish multinational retail chain that primarily sells food, clothes and household wares. It was founded by Ben Dunne in 1944. In addition to its main customer base in Ireland, the chain also has operations in Spain, and formerly in England and Scotland. The format of most of the chain's stores in Ireland involves a grocery supermarket operating alongside a clothing/textiles store, although some stores contain only textiles and some contain only a supermarket. The grocery side of the business does not operate outside of Ireland, save for a limited grocery range in the Spanish stores. The larger stores usually contain a café branded as either Café Sol, Dunnes Stores Café or Baxter & Greene Market Café.
The Square Tallaght is a shopping centre located in Tallaght, Dublin, Ireland, opened in 1990. It is located 10 minutes from junction 11 of the M50 motorway on the Belgard Road and the N81.
Dundrum Town Centre is a shopping centre located in Dundrum, Dublin, Ireland. It is Ireland's largest shopping centre with over 169 tenants, retail floor space of 111,484 m2 (1,200,000 sq ft) and almost 140,000 m2 (1,500,000 sq ft) total floor space, and over 3,000 car parking spaces. It is located just south of the centre of the suburban village of Dundrum, within the wider eponymous area. It has annual footfall in excess of 18 million.
Cork's RedFM is an Irish radio station which broadcasts to Cork and the surrounding area, and is aimed at a youth audience. The station commenced broadcasting on 16 January 2002" and was awarded Ireland's first youth radio licence. Its target market is the 15-35 age group in Cork city and county.
In the Republic of Ireland, the retail sector provides one of the largest sources of employment in the economy, representing over 12% of the workforce. As of 2017, approximately 40,000 wholesale and retail businesses employed almost 280,000 people in Ireland, with the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment reporting that 90% of these businesses were Irish-owned.
Cork is the second largest city in the Republic of Ireland, third largest on the island of Ireland, and largest in the province of Munster. At the 2022 census, it had a population of 222,526.
Aviva Stadium also known as Lansdowne Road or Dublin Arena is a sports stadium located in Dublin, Republic of Ireland, with a capacity for 51,711 spectators. It is built on the site of the former Lansdowne Road Stadium, which was demolished in 2007, and replaced it as home to its chief tenants: the Irish rugby union team and the Republic of Ireland football team. The decision to redevelop the stadium came after plans for both Stadium Ireland and Eircom Park fell through. Aviva Group Ireland signed a 10-year deal for the naming rights in 2009, and subsequently extended the arrangement until 2025.
Eason Retail PLC, known as Easons or Eason, is an Irish retail company best known for selling books, stationery, cards, gifts, newspapers and magazines. Headquartered in Swords, County Dublin, it is the largest supplier of books, magazines, and newspapers in Ireland.
The All-Ireland Rugby League Championship was first played for in 1997 under the title All-Ireland Challenge Cup. Since then it has also been known as the All-Ireland League, Elite League and the All-Ireland Championship. It is a rugby league competition involving teams from Ireland. At one point it was called the McGettigans All-Ireland League for sponsorship reasons)
Airside Retail Park is a retail park that opened in 2001 in Swords, Dublin, close to Dublin Airport. An extension was built in 2005, which doubled the size of the park and included a new recycling centre. As of October 2018, there were 30 shops and businesses based at the site.
Artaine Castle Shopping Centre is a small shopping centre in Artane in Dublin 5, Ireland, anchored by Tesco Ireland.
Mahon Point Shopping Centre, the second largest shopping centre in Munster, is located in the Mahon area of Cork in Ireland. The centre was opened in February 2005.
The Dublin county ladies' football team represents Dublin GAA in ladies' Gaelic football. The team competes in inter-county competitions such as the All-Ireland Senior Ladies' Football Championship, the Leinster Senior Ladies' Football Championship and the Ladies' National Football League.
Open for Business is an Irish business series to guide Irish businesses as the country emerged from lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic. First aired on 21 July 2020 on RTÉ One, it is presented by Richard Curran and Ella McSweeney, and is sponsored by Enterprise Ireland.
