The original business was founded in Westport by Sean and Nora O’Connor with the opening of a general grocery store on the Octagon in 1952. In 1979 Noel Kavanagh, Managing Director of the Kavanagh Group, took over the management of the business and began ambitiously expanding the company. This progression has led to the Kavanagh Group becoming Ireland's largest independent supermarket retail company - with fithteen supermarkets across Ireland and Britain.
 
1984 was a milestone year  for the company with the relocation of the original business to a new sixteen thousand square foot store on Shop Street, Westport. Clifden followed in 1988 and a new Shopping Centre was built in Castlebar in 1990. 1994 saw the group expand into Donegal with the purchase of the Dungloe Shopping Centre while the Donegal Town store was added in 1995. The company ventured into south Mayo in 1996 when the Claremorris Store was purchased and a fourth Mayo store opened in Kiltimagh in 1997. The first of two stores in Northern Ireland was added in Strabane in 1999 while 2001 saw the addition of a further northern store - in Derry City.

2006 was another historic year for the Kavanagh Group with the acquisition of four Budgens stores in West Sussex. These stores are located in Midhurst, Billingshurst, Selsey and Bishops Waltham. The last new Irish store the group opened was in Ballybofey, Co. Donegal, in 2008.

Pictured: Sean O' Connor