Always Nearby

As the Nearby symbol brand celebrates its second anniversary this month, symbol sales manager Jason McSteen reflects on a momentous two years to date during which the brand has reached more than 130 stores. Here, he gives Gillian Hamill an overview of the brand’s journey to date and ambitious plans for the next five years

Full speed ahead is the planned trajectory for Nearby While the brand is the new kid on the block within Ireland’s symbol group sector, it’s already making many in the convenience industry sit up and pay attention. Just two years post-launch, Nearby already counts more than 130 stores within its portfolio. What’s more, a “highly aggressive” five-year growth strategy is in place to steer its continued expansion, reveals symbol sales manager Jason McSteen.

“This is well ahead of expectations and we are very confident that we can keep this growth rate up given the interest that’s surrounding the brand at the moment and the contacts that we’re getting from interested retailers,” McSteen tells ShelfLife Speaking of aggressive growth, “this year has been no exception” and the brand has subsequently set its sights on having a presence in all 32 counties by 2028. McSteen is confident this is a feasible goal, given that parent company S&W Wholesale has “backed the symbol with the full support and financial backing needed to ensure that we deliver on that five-year plan and beyond”.

32 County Ambitions

We’re keen to hear more about Nearby’s geographical spread at present: “If you were to draw a line from Tipperary across to Sligo, and looked north of that line, we would be very strong,” McSteen confirms. This is not particularly surprising given the 107-year history of parent company S&W Wholesale, which headquarters in Newry and is already something of a Northern Irish juggernaut with more than 300 employees. Nevertheless, the plan to expand to all 32 counties has clearly been carefully considered, with a focused plan to increase the brand’s nationwide portfolio.

The search for passionate new retailers to join the brand has been aided by Nearby’s financially attractive brand proposition. “With Nearby, we don’t have a franchise fee, a marketing fee or an IT fee so that’s a direct saving when retailers join our brand. We will work with the retailer to implement what they need and we don’t mind doing the work in stages - the retailer is totally in control of their store. We support the retailer every step of the way, including the branding of their store and providing eye-catching graphics both internally and externally.”

This approach has paid dividends, according to McSteen. “We get a lot of positive feedback around our graphics and our signage,” he says. “I was with a retailer who recently became a customer of our brand and his verdict is that our signage is very bright, attractive and really stands out. He loves our approach, the ethos around working with him; helping him drive his business and in return our business will grow with him. Our focus is customer-first so if we can get the customer’s business going in the right direction, we know we’re going in the right direction too.”

Challenging two years

Undoubtedly, the Nearby team have already demonstrated resilience despite the brand’s infancy “It’s vital to be agile and adaptable,” reflects McSteen. “During the past two years, we’ve experienced Covid and the terrible tragedy that occurred in Creeslough, so in this business you can never know what’s going to happen, either the next day or next week. I believe that as a company and a symbol, we have shown that we are strong enough to deal with anything that’s put in front of us and we can adapt to any situation to ensure that our retailers and their customers get what they need at any given time.”

This is a statement not to be taken lightly Indeed, ShelfLife strongly felt that the whole team involved at Nearby/Applegreen Creeslough should be recognized for their efforts to support the local community in the aftermath of the tragic events of Friday, 7 October 2022. It was therefore highly fitting that they received the Convenience Champion of the Year Award 2022 at the National Convenience Store Awards. Working closely alongside the local community and the Diocese, the Lafferty family and the Nearby team at S&W Wholesale opened a store on Friday, 11 November next to St. Michael’s Church to bring back much-needed services and essentials into Creeslough, with local jobs being supported.

“I think this tragedy not only affected everyone in the retail industry but the whole population,” says McSteen. “It was a shocking incident that everyone on our small island was affected by in some way I am proud of everyone in the Nearby team, from the S&W transport and logistics team members to our marketing and trading departments, and customer service teams, who all came together to support the close-knit community of Creeslough and the Lafferty family, to be there for them in the weeks and months that followed.

“To see the community come together in the way that it did to support Annette and Danny Martin and their family alongside our team, to get their store up and running as quickly as we did, was a truly overwhelming and emotional time. The community spirit that was there for all to see and the team spirit during that project was something I will never forget and will carry forward with me for the rest of my time in retail. I’d also like to recognise ShelfLife for the award they presented at last year’s ceremony When I saw my colleague Stephen up on the stage, it was really a very touching moment for me and the team.”

Career background

Understandably, McSteen describes how his colleagues came together in this way as his proudest career achievement to date. A career which dates right back to his secondary school years, when he started working in Superquinn Carlow, proudly sporting “my green dickie bow and apron, packing bags and collecting the trolleys and working my way out from the checkouts onto the shop floor That’s when my interest in retail really kicked in.”

The store’s management team took an interest in their fledgling new staff member, who was soon trusted to be a keyholder From there, McSteen enrolled in Superquinn’s trainee management programme and in total spent nine years with the group, working his way up to assistant manager in Blackrock. Next, he worked with Fresh and managed their Malahide store. From there, he then joined Breo Foods as a business developer before managing Costcutter Rathfarnham for a period, and later a company-owned Costcutter in Carlow for three years before moving back to Dublin. He then worked with Musgrave Wholesale for five years, where he reached the position of wholesale sales manager before making the move to S&W

Wholesale four years ago to work with their symbol group, where he was duly promoted to the role of symbol sales manager last year. This impressive career path could have been very different were it not for the influence of that first part-time role at Superquinn Carlow Indeed, a career within the field of science originally seemed to beckon, after McSteen chose to study chemistry and biology going into fifth year of school. However, the atmosphere, people and naturally enough, first real wage packets, soon turned his head. “I remember being sent on a training course for two days in Kilkenny on customer service, looking at how to pack a bag correctly and greet the customer, and for the want of a better expression, I was brainwashed after those two days,” he laughs. “Superquinn was it for me.”

Unsurprisingly, and as many Superquinn alumni have likewise previously attested, McSteen names the late Senator Feargal Quinn as his greatest inspiration within the industry “His philosophy, drive, vision and focus on his customers is probably what I’ve brought with me throughout any of my jobs throughout my career I still have his book ‘Crowning the Customer’ on my bookshelf at home. My focus for myself is always customerfirst and I very much instil that in my team to be customer driven and to make sure that we’re doing everything that we can to make sure our customers are happy.”

Unique offering

This ethos is certainly evident in his attitude towards Nearby retailers. Since the opening of the very first Nearby store back in April 2021, the entire business has been working to create a high-quality service for both Nearby retailers and their customers in-store. Nearby stores have been well received in their local communities with retailers stating that they noticed an increased level of footfall in their stores as a direct result of the conversion.

“Nearby is a unique symbol store offering as we don’t go into a business and take over –quite the opposite in fact,” says McSteen. “We work with the owners to understand what makes their store unique, help them implement the Nearby brand and ultimately grow their business.”

He goes into further detail about how Nearby has worked with specific retailers to enhance their USPs, highlighting the examples of three specific retailers in Carrickmacross, Tinahely and Christie’s in Sligo, where “we have worked closely with these retailers to gain an understanding of their business needs and unique selling points. For example in Tinahely, they have a massive hardware section within the store, so we developed the store to allow all their retail spaces to thrive and make the best of their hardware offering. We enabled our customers to keep a range of products they felt were essential for their business and a range their local communities had become accustomed to purchasing with them. Using our vast experience, we were able to drive footfall and grow profitability for our retailers in those three examples.”

Of course, the retail business can be a challenging one, and this was fully highlighted during the Covid pandemic. “With retail over the last couple of years,” says McSteen, “it’s been frontline. Up until Covid, I would never have considered retail as being frontline but what retailers did throughout the Covid pandemic was phenomenal and working with everything that gets thrown at you in the current market, from supplier price increases to energy increases, the unpredictable nature of the market is probably the most challenging aspect of my job.” However, the days where retailers achieve ‘wins’ within their store, give him a real boost: “The most enjoyable aspect would be the sense of accomplishment from when Nearby assists a retailer along their journey, from seeing their shops flourish under our symbol, or whether it’s the retailer themselves completing their business cases or personal goals, or the stores winning accolades; just the fact that our brand was able to help them achieve that is hugely rewarding.”

Value offering

Helping retailers navigate pricing increases is a major priority for the group. “I don’t think there’s been a product range that hasn’t been affected over the last year with increases,” says McSteen. “With the war in Ukraine, and increases in the cost of electricity, every business is struggling to maintain their margin.” In the face of these difficulties, parent company S&W Wholesale has worked hard to deliver an attractive value proposition.

“S&W Wholesale are renowned for their value proposition,” he says, “and we continue to offer that excellent value proposition for our retailers where we have superb everyday pricing across all our vital categories for households. In January, Nearby launched

‘Bring Home the Value’ which is a four-line promotion that happens every three weeks. We focus on these four lines being cheaper than competitors and ensuring that our retailers can offer exceptional value to their customers on everyday household essentials.”

Alongside this, Nearby is also launching its ‘Always On’ campaign this month. “This is our everyday low-price concept which you will see launching in April in our stores, whereby we have lines that we’re holding the price on to keep them at an everyday low price. Between these two pricing concepts, we give the retailer exceptional value which they can pass on to their customers.”

What’s more, Nearby’s marketing department continues to evolve and investigate different ways to connect and reach customers locally for Nearby retailers. They continue to support the retailers with their social media efforts by guiding and even creating targeted local marketing campaigns on their store’s social media pages ensuring offers reach their local customers – free of charge. Retailers receive a detailed digital calendar showcasing the promotional marketing campaigns and they can choose whether they opt in or opt out – allowing the retailer to be in control of their store always.

This type of innovation is something that McSteen encounters every day, albeit that in his view there is no such thing as a ‘typical day’ in FMCG or retail. “I do try and structure some part of my day the same every day just so I have a routine,” he says. “I would get up three or four days a week at 5.30am and go to the gym before breakfast.” Some days he also takes his son Dylan to school. “Then it’s all about getting out and either meeting new potential customers or visiting some of our current customers to make sure they’re happy with how things are going and if there’s anything else we can be doing for them. The rest of the day is spent catching up with head office and working with the different divisions there, alongside catching up with my sales teams and facilitation teams. I also often spend time working on the bigger picture; developing the brand, working on the strategic plan, such as our five year plan, tracking ads and tracking sales. It’s then home, coaching GAA soccer four nights a week, and I’ll catch up with emails and then it’s either bed or maybe a spot of Netflix.” Despite his hectic schedule, McSteen’s enthusiasm for his job is clear “I enjoy it in fairness,” he concedes. “I never wake up and go ‘oh I have to go to work’, I enjoy my day and I do really enjoy my job.”

Employee Ownership Trust (EOT) model

This positive attitude is also reflected in the ethos of S&W Wholesale, which in January of this year became one of the largest known businesses in Northern Ireland to move to an Employee Ownership Trust (EOT) model of ownership. This structure has seen control of the business move from private ownership to a trust, which manages the shares indirectly on behalf of employees, while day-to-day control remains in the capable hands of the current leadership team.

“The EOT model provides an innovative and forward-thinking succession plan for the business,” responds McSteen, when asked about its benefits. “It secures the future of the company and the people who work in all facets of the business. It gives myself and my team confidence in the support structure around us and that in turn gives our Nearby retailers reassurance that we are here to stay and they can trust and rely in us. Moreover, the model benefits all employees; with the new EOT structure, when the company does well, the employees and beneficiaries do well. On the back of the EOT model, the investment in our new warehouse of almost €20 million, which is currently in the process of being built just outside Newry close to the border, further supports the fact that we are here for the long-term and gives retailers faith that we’re here to stay and to serve all Ireland with even greater ease and more choice.”

Expansion mode

For the year ahead, the team are working hard to hit all their targets and keep encouraging retailers to move across to the brand, with several new social media-based marketing campaigns in the pipeline. Nearby Inchicore in Dublin 8 will be a focal point for the brand’s second anniversary celebrations, with a major in-store event to be held on 21 April, complete with a radio station broadcast, a chance to spin the Nearby Spinning wheel, competitions, special in-store offers and plenty of social media interaction on the day In the upcoming months during Q2, Nearby will also launch a Local Legends campaign where stores will be asking their customers to nominate their local heroes or legends who they feel deserve to be celebrated. All in all, there is certainly plenty to commend in the brand’s rapid trajectory to date and real cause for celebration as Nearby marks its second anniversary ■

Bia Analytical gets to the meat of authenticity testing

Belfast-based Bia Analytical recently announced the roll-out of groundbreaking technology for meat authenticity analysis that will empower businesses to make quick decisions and provide additional confidence in the integrity of their products.

Developed over a 10-year period by Professor Chris Elliott and his team at the Institute for Global Food Security at Queen’s University Belfast, the technique known as Ambient Mass Spectrometry (‘AMS’) not only can identify the species of meat, but it can also identify the breed, where the meat was produced, whether or not it is organic, and its maturation and even eating quality