MGMT7010: Penneys is a household name in Ireland. Barely a day goes by when you don’t ask someone where they got their new shirt or trousers: Integrated Case Study, MTU, Ireland

Penneys is a household name in Ireland. Barely a day goes by when you don’t ask someone where they got their new shirt or trousers, only to hear: “Penneys, just €11.” The global domination of the retail world came from humble beginnings: the conglomerate started on Mary Street in Dublin city center in 1969. Now the retailer employs over 57,000 people and operates over 287 stores around the world.  In 2015 the company opened its first store in the US in Boston, followed by another shop in New York.

Penneys currently employs more than 5,000 people in its 37 Irish stores. CEO Paul Marchant who joined in 2009 describes the years 1969, 1974, 2006, and 2015 as “pivotal moments” in the history of the company. It all began in 1969 when Arthur Ryan, “a man with retailing flowing through his blood” who was poached by Garry Weston from Dunnes Stores, joined forces with finance director Paddy Prior to open the first store in Mary Street for parent company ABF called Penneys.

It offered “pile-them-high, sell-them-cheap” clothes at rock-bottom prices. Later Prior and Ryan along with Seamus Halford and Breege O’Donoghue became known as the gang of four who were to propel the company into its ambitious UK and European expansion. In terms of fashion, Penneys became particularly well known during the 1980s and ’90s by bargain hunters for its wide offering of swimwear, for example, under the guidance of savvy buyers like Triona McGinley and Anne Marie Cregan.