ShelfLife Magazine - December Issue by Mediateam

LARGEST INDEPENDENTLY AUDITED GROCERY TRADE CIRCULATION IN IRELAND

December 2020

Making online deliver Buymie CEO and co-founder Devan Hughes on how he cracked the online grocery sector

Risky business CSNA National Security Report 2020 paints a stark picture of aggressive, violent and threatening incidents in-store

Brexit breaking point A look at what the latest developments could mean for supermarkets and supply chains

CONVENIENCE RETAILING • OFF-TRADE • SUPERMARKETS • NEWSAGENCY • FORECOURT

A MUST HAVE SAUCE FOR YOUR SHELF COMPLEMENTS A VARIETY OF RECIPES yrsauceire

Offer Your Customers Something Convenient and Magical with our Oven Bags

Seals in ï¬&#x201A;avours | No spillage

YRsauce

www.yrsauce.ie

OPINION 3

ShelfLife December 2020 Vol. 27 No.12 Editor: GILLIAN HAMILL (01) 294 7776 gillian.hamill@mediateam.ie

A note from the editor

Staff journalist: JULIA O’REILLY (01) 294 7709 julia.oreilly@mediateam.ie

ent Awards, r, this year’s virtual Grocery Managem fter a challenging year like no othe opportunity to this month, provided an excellent broadcast live from the RDS earlier tremendous dedication g retail managers who have shown celebrate our industry’s hard-workin during the outbreak of Covid-19. to their customers and colleagues dstown, Dublin, Jamie Caffrey of SuperValu Blanchar Our Supreme Champion for 2020, es and the wider grocery spoke of her pride in how colleagu summed up the year aptly when she Covid pandemic. y daily challenges presented by the retail industry coped with all the man ed with it all because ce some days,” she said, “but we cop “It was like an out-of-body experien – we cope under pressure.” that’s what we do best as retailers coronavirus at a higher il staff are not being infected with Major retailers’ ﬁgures suggest reta s and the safety this is a real credit to our store team rate than the general population, and and customers safe. so thoroughly in order to keep staff measures they have implemented the team at ShelfLife, ter one than usual, on behalf of all While this Christmas may be a quie oring Christmas Day oughly deserved enjoyable and rest I would like to wish you all a thor and a brighter New Year. azine Gillian Hamill, Editor, ShelfLife mag

Contributors FIONNUALA CAROLAN BARRY WHELAN CAROLINE MCENERY COLIN GORDON Head of business: IAN MULVANEY (01) 294 7766 ian.mulvaney@mediateam.ie Account manager MARK MORGAN (01) 294 7767 mark.morgan@mediateam.ie Circulation subs@mediateam.ie Head of production LIZ O’ROURKE (01) 294 7781 liz.orourke@mediateam.ie Publisher: JOHN McDONALD (01) 294 7744 john.mcdonald@mediateam.ie Printing: W & G Baird Ltd ShelfLife is a controlled circulation magazine, available to selected individuals with interests in the retail and wholesale grocery trade, who fall within the publisher’s terms of control. For those outside these terms, annual subscription is €98.00 including postage & packing.

Managing Director JOHN McDONALD; Sales Director PAUL BYRNE Operations Director BILLY HUGGARD Published monthly by Mediateam Ltd., 55 Spruce Avenue, Sandyford, Dublin 18. A94 RP22 Telephone (01) 294 7776 Fax (01) 294 7799 ISSN: 1393 0753

Circulation audited by Audit Bureau of Circulations.

ShelfLife is a member of Magazines Ireland

Contents December 20

COVER STORY 20

Making online deliver Buymie CEO and co-founder Devan Hughes reveals his expansion plans following a transformational year

NEWS&ANALYSIS 4 News grid 6 Seen & heard 16 Security risk: The release of the CSNA National Security Report is examined by Julia O’Reilly 24 Store proﬁle: Spar Mountrath’s focus on the local community during Covid-19 has reaped strong rewards

26 Brexit impact: The onset of Brexit brings fresh issues for Irish businesses, especially those in the north, writes Fionnuala Carolan

ADVISOR

MARKETING& CATEGORY FOCUS 28 Best of the year 42 Vaping 47 Weight management

OFF-TRADE

14 Marketing 18 Recruitment 42 HR

52 NOffLA news 54 Off-trade news

Recent additions to the CashGuard family, now enjoying peace of mind along with time savings and security that CashGuard cash management systems bring include; CENTRA Flaherty, Malahide, and Co. Dublin POS CBE •• Centra Jordan (Castletymon Johnstown) CBE • CENTRA Jordan, Springﬁeld, Co. Dublin POS CBE • SPAR Broderick Croom Merit •• SPAR Heaphy (RoxboroInchicore, & Parkway Stationmaster EUROSPAR Creighan, Co.Limerick) Dublin POS Leaders •• GALA (Nenagh Portumna) Retail Solutions MACEMulrooney Barry, Beaumont, Co.&Dublin POS Leaders

• CENTRA Bennett, Co. Silogue, Dublin POS CBE CBE • Centra QuinnKillester, (Popintree, Hampton) • Daybreak • SPAR Finn, FoleyPortumna, Tralee CBECo. Galway POS CBE • Centra Dunphy RhodeCo. CBE • LONDIS Whelan, Tinahely, Wicklow POS Retail Solns • Londis Dillane Abbeydorney Retail Solutions • CENTRA Breslin, Bayside, Co. Dublin, POS CBE

Inside counter/ cashier facing

Outside counter To see all editorials, videos, pictures of each site installation visit www.cashguard.ie and/or CashGuard Ireland Facebook page.

NEWS

NEWSGRID The top news stories in FMCG

John-Ross Reilly

M&S Food donates €10,000 to Dublin charity

M&S Food has selected 10 colleagues from across the UK and Ireland who are its most active charity volunteers, with donations going towards the colleagues’ chosen charities. John-Ross Reilly, sales advisor at M&S Dublin Mary Street, was chosen by the retailer for his dedication to Inner City Helping Homeless (ICHH), with M&S Food making a €10,000 donation to the charity on his behalf.

BWG Foods MD Willie O’Byrne wins Logistics and Transport Leader Award Willie O’Byrne, MD of BWG Foods, has been honoured at the 2020 Logistics & Transport Awards where he received the highly coveted Leader Award, recognising his signiﬁcant contribution to driving transformation across the logistics sector. Willie O’Byrne thanked the Irish Logistics and Transport Association for the “great honour”. “I accept it only on behalf of the teams I have been a part of, or led, over the years,” he said.

and retail from across Ireland

Retailers extend store trading hours for Christmas

2020 Grocery Management Award winner announced

A number of grocery retailers have introduced extended opening hours over the festive period. Select Tesco Extra and superstores will open from 7am on Monday, 21 December on a rolling 24-hour basis. More general extended store openings across Tesco’s entire 151 store portfolio will be in place from Friday, 18 December. Aldi Ireland is also extending the opening hours of its 145 Irish stores and will open at 8am until 11pm during Christmas week, with varied hours for a small number of stores.

Jamie Caffrey of SuperValu, Blanchardstown, Dublin 15 was announced as the National Grocery Manager of the Year 2020 at this year’s virtual ShelfLife Grocery Management Jamie Caffrey Awards on 10 December, held in association with Excel Recruitment and supported by platinum sponsor Bank of Ireland. Judges said that Caffrey saw growth of 132% in her store in certain weeks during the pandemic while keeping staff and customer morale up in the process. Read all about Jamie Caffrey and the rest of the winners of this year’s awards in the January issue of ShelfLife.

RGDATA: Latest government moves on insurance “deeply disappointing” RGDATA has expressed “deep disappointment” with the government’s Action Plan for Insurance Reform published in early December. RGDATA director general Tara Buckley criticised “vague promises” from the government. “RGDATA has been campaigning for speciﬁc measures that will bring down the totally unsustainable cost of shop insurance since 2015 – yet here we are again with yet another government report full of vague promises about actions – many with no timescale and others that won’t be delivered for a further 12 months or more,” Buckley said.

Willie O’Byrne

Pettitt’s SuperValu to open in Bray Set to open its doors in early March 2021, the Pettitt Group will open a SuperValu in Bray and is currently recruiting 80 jobs for the region. The family has invested €4 million in the ﬁt-out of a brand-new 20,000sq ft SuperValu store. With a history of retailing in Ireland since 1946, the Pettitt family brand currently employs over 600 team members across six SuperValu stores in Athy, Enniscorthy, Gorey, Wexford town and Arklow. Speaking on supporting local and its in-house ranges, managing director of the Pettitt Group, Cormac Pettitt said: “In 1986

we purchased Sleedagh Farm in Wexford, which gave us the platform to produce our own beef, which now supports over 50 local farmers, ensuring the highest quality meat from farm to fork.” Pettitt’s Bakery, a Blas Na hEireann award winner, bakes all bread and cakes from scratch every day. “We really are a family business, who prides ourselves on being part of the community and contributing to the local economy.” Cormac Pettitt added. The new Bray store is now also set to be a leader in terms of energy efﬁciency and sustainability with new options like laundry reﬁlls, a loose fruit and veg section, an ecorange of products and electric car chargers, LED lighting and environmentally friendly

Irish GDP growth set to remain positive in 2020 despite pandemic Irish GDP rebounded strongly in the third quarter, KBC Bank Ireland reports. An 11.1% increase from a smaller than previously estimated cumulative 6.6% drop over the two previous quarters represents an exceptional outcome, according to KBC. In GDP terms at least, these numbers suggest the Irish economy has recovered from the pandemic within a quarter whereas it is generally expected that most economies will not return to pre-Covid-19 levels for at least a couple of years.

refridgeration throughout. As the new store is on the Southern Cross Road, just off the N11 and close to the M50, Dart and Dublin Bus routes, Pettitt’s will also provide online ‘Click and Collect’ dedicated car parking spaces for the city commuter, while SuperScan will become a paramount service in Covid-19 times. ■

For more details on all the above and the latest grocery-related news as it happens, visit www.shelﬂife.ie. ShelfLife December 2020 | www.shelﬂife.ie

Dear Retailer & Wholesaler Partners, As we near the end of a most extraordinary year it is a good time to reflect on both the challenges and positives that 2020 has brought. The most unwelcome challenge of all being the continued presence of Covid-19. One clear positive out of the past year has been the way in which we have come together as a nation to support each other. This was and continues to be clearly evident within our retail and wholesale industry. I would like to extend my greatest thanks and appreciation to all of you for your continued and tireless efforts. Whether it be at head office or on the shop floor, in the warehouse or at the till, each one of you has managed to bring normality to a very abnormal situation. A huge amount of work goes on behind the scenes, and we are extremely grateful to all of you. Thank you for everything you do. This year, more than ever before, I want to take this opportunity to wish each of you and your families a very safe and healthy Christmas and a less challenging 2021.

Happy Christmas with best wishes from all at John Player Morgan Lee - Market Manager

SEEN AND HEARD

SuperValu to sell 135,000 Irish poinsettias in run-up to Christmas SuperValu is expecting to sell 135,000 Irish grown poinsettias in the run-up to Christmas this year. The festive plants are now on sale in all SuperValu stores across the country in ﬁve different formats, and a range of colours including red, white and glitter variety, with prices ranging from €3 to €13. All poinsettias sold by SuperValu are Bord Bia-approved and carry the Bord Bia Quality Mark. This year marks the 24th year that north Dublin based grower Uniplumo has worked with SuperValu to supply the popular plant.

To help meet the growing seasonal demand for poinsettias, Uniplumo will employ over 60 staff over the busy Christmas period to supply over 135,000 poinsettias for SuperValu stores. Noting that poinsettias require great care and take ﬁve months to develop, Uniplumo head grower Sean Grimes said: “All of this hard work allows our poinsettias to meet Bord Bia’s approval standards and we take great pride in them having become a staple of the season in SuperValu over the last 24 years.” In addition to sourcing Irish produce

Uniplumo head grower Sean Grimes and Ana Smith (8) at Uniplumo Dublin

wherever possible, SuperValu has also committed to a new €500,000 campaign to encourage shoppers to buy Irish and support local businesses this Christmas.

Gala Retail launches €15k ‘Cash for Christmas Giveaway’ Ahead of the Christmas season and at the end of what has been a difﬁcult year for all, Gala Retail has just launched its biggest in-store campaign of the year. The ‘Gala Cash for Christmas Giveaway’ has a €15,000 prize pot that will bring Christmas cheer to 30 lucky Gala customers ahead of the festive season. Gala customers have the chance to win one of 30 x €500 cash prizes in the giveaway, which

runs until mid-December. When €10 or more is spent in a participating Gala store, customers will be instructed to scan a unique promotional QR code in-store which will open up a page on the Gala website where they can enter their details for their chance to win €500 cash. Details of the competition along with full terms and conditions can be found at www.gala.ie/competitions.

Gallagher’s Bakehouse introduces new packaged sourdough range Donegal-based Gallagher’s Bakery has returned to its roots to produce a new range of sourdough breads that are lighter, tastier, and healthier. The Gallagher’s Bakehouse sourdough range was created at the bakery in the village of Ardara, Co. Donegal, and involves traditional baking techniques, which include a sourdough starter that ferments for 12 hours. The result is a range of great-tasting packaged sourdough breads, baps and buns – on shelves in the bread aisle - which are a great source of protein and ﬁbre. One of the products in particular is high in vitamin D3 which is beneﬁcial for the immune system. Sourdough is generally rich in prebiotics, which complement good gut health and

enhance the body’s ability to absorb vitamins and minerals. The new Gallagher’s Bakehouse range consists of sliced family-sized and smaller-sized Rustic White, Wholemeal and Multigrain family pans, bloomers, baps, gourmet brioche burger buns, and a new handcrafted healthy range of Digestive Boost, Vitamin Boost, and Spelt & Oats loaves. Gallagher’s Bakery sister brand, Promise Gluten Free, has also become the number one gluten free bakery brand in Ireland since its re-launch in 2019. Sourdough has been growing in popularity generally in recent years, and the lockdowns of 2020 have seen it become particularly ‘on-trend’

WWW.GALLAGHERSBAKEHOUSE.IE

SuperValu leeks win National Organic Award SuperValu has won the Private Label award at the bi-annual National Organic Awards for its Irish-grown Begley’s Organic Leeks. The awards, which are organised by Bord Bia and run in association with the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, celebrate and recognise the very best in Irish organic food across seven categories. Begley’s Organic Leeks won the Private Label Award for its work with SuperValu to create fully compostable packaging for its organic leeks, which are available in-store in

ShelfLife December 2020 | www.shelﬂife.ie

100% compostable bags and labels. The award win comes amid growing consumer demand for locally grown fresh produce, which is reﬂected by the fact that in the past year, SuperValu has sold 94,000 of Begley’s organic leeks. The win also underlines SuperValu’s commitment to supporting local, Irish growers and suppliers wherever possible, and Begley’s, which employs up to 120 staff, has supplied quality fresh produce to SuperValu stores for over 20 years.

SEEN AND HEARD

SuperValu set to sell nearly 2,000 tonnes of Irish veg this Christmas SuperValu expects to sell just under 1,900 tonnes of locally sourced vegetables over the festive period, amid surging demand for vegetarian and vegan options and shoppers’ increased support for local. SuperValu forecasts it will sell 135 tonnes of Brussels sprouts, supplied by Tralee grower Paudie Hanaﬁn. Meanwhile, Dublin’s K&K Produce will sell almost 1,000 tonnes of fresh potatoes this festive season at SuperValu, as well as supplying 48 tonnes of the popular parsnip and carrot combination.

Begley’s, which recently won a National Organic Award for its leeks, expects to supply 110,000 units over the festive period, across its carrots, parsnips, fresh beetroot, kale, celery and leeks ranges, while Kilkenny’s O’Shea’s Farms is supplying 592 tonnes of carrots. “Supporting local is in our DNA as we source from Irish suppliers wherever possible and we expect increased interest from shoppers in buying the very best in quality Irish food this Christmas,” said Ray Kelly, interim managing director, SuperValu.

At his farm in Tralee is Brussels sprouts grower Paudie Hanaﬁn, one of the growers supplying 135 tonnes of Brussels sprouts this festive season to SuperValu

Cushelle launches environmentally responsible Cushelle Double Roll Cushelle has launched Cushelle Double Roll, which has 85% recycled and renewable packaging. With twice as many sheets as its standard roll, an irresistibly cushiony soft Cushelle Double Roll lasts even longer meaning the roll doesn’t need to be changed as often. A six roll double pack is the equivalent

of a 12 roll standard pack, making it a more environmentally responsible product. By introducing Cushelle Double Rolls, the move has reduced Cushelle’s carbon footprint by 2.2% as it has 61 less lorries on the road. Cushelle is also using 4.5m less cores and saving 3.1 tonnes of plastic.

YR sauce serves up a reliable favourite with modern ‘omph’! YR sauce is Ireland’s original spicy sauce since 1837 and has been at the heart of Irish family mealtimes for generations. YR uses only quality ingredients and with a delicious combination of apples, tomatoes, onions, dates, vinegar and spices, complements a variety of food dishes. A new YR sauce website has been created to showcase the brand, advertise new recipes and engage new and existing customers. The brand has many exciting activations planned for 2021. It has already sponsored Today FM Dermot & Dave’s Cheese & Crackers show, as well as partnering with the hugely successful comedic duo ‘The Two Johnnies’ to create a

YR jingle to help attract a new customer proﬁle. The brown sauce category is still progressing, with an overall double-digit category growth since last year. YR sauce is available in a 250ml glass bottle, a 485g top down and original plastic bottle, as well as a 50% extra free bottle. POS kits are available to help build awareness and drive sales within stores. It is proudly owned and distributed by Primeline Sales & Marketing. For more information contact your local sales rep, or contact Primeline at Unit 12B, Ashbourne Business Park, Ashbourne, Co. Meath or telephone +353 (01) 835 3000.

P+D celebrates 50th anniversary and print marketing evolution For any company, reaching a 50th birthday is a cause for real celebration. But when that feat is achieved in the Irish printing industry, with such a high level of attrition over the years, the achievement is even more noteworthy. After making a full transition to digital, the payback has been exceptional. “We have become partners to the advertising and marketing sector rather than ‘mere suppliers’,” Bowe says. “Thirty years ago, we put ink onto substrates – now we collaborate in the planning, design, printing and execution elements with our clients.

ShelfLife December 2020 | www.shelﬂife.ie

“We have an infinite level of flexibility when it comes to producing written or visual communications,” he continues. “We can produce anything from a single sheet to thousands of copies, and in a range of formats and finishes that we could only have dreamt of ten years ago. This level of flexibility means, among other things, that marketers can trial different offers or different campaign ideas at will, without making a major investment in print or production.” “The capacity to deliver really ground breaking work has never been greater,” says

Bowe, “and we’re really looking forward to imagining and producing the unimaginable for design and marketing agencies!” For more information, contact Ciaran Bowe, sales director at +353 (01) 4131400. ■

This communication is for tobacco retailers only and should not be made available to the public nor should it be displayed in any area where it is visible to the public.

www.jti.com

CSNA NEWS

CSNA NEWS CSNA 2020 activities: Representing members throughout uniquely challenging year

PETER GAUGHAN, national president, CSNA

Keep updated on the Covid-19 situation on the CSNA website: www.csna.ie

During 2020, CSNA has been representing our members on four boards, presented to three Joint Oireachtas Committees and submitted ﬁve submissions to various government departments. The association over the past year has helped hundreds of our members with individual queries, Repak audits, requests for information and HR assistance. Throughout 2020 we kept regular communication with all members to keep them updated on all Covid matters as they affected our stores. 2020 will be remembered as the year of Covid; it has affected all of our members in many ways, some have had to close, some are stretched to breaking point, either way it has been a hard time on all retailers without exception. As an association we are very proud of the way that the local retailers in Ireland stood up to the challenge and made sure that the more vulnerable in our society were looked after.

CSNA launches 2020 National Security Report

We would like to take this opportunity to thank all our members for their assistance to the association this year and wish you all a Merry Christmas and a very happy and successful New Year.

CSNA 2021 Stockbook to arrive in stores soon

NEWS AND MAGAZINES

2021

In November we launched our 2020 Security Report which made for grim reading. 80% of the retailers surveyed reported that they or a member of their staff had experienced an incident involving aggressive, violent and threatening behaviour within the previous three months. It is notable, 45%

ShelfLife December 2020 | www.shelﬂife.ie

Vincent Jennings, chief executive ofﬁcer, CSNA, with Marcella O’Neill, CSNA executive member and chair of the Security Committee, CSNA

of those suffered this injustice within a month of the survey being conducted. Visit the CSNA website (www.csna.ie) to view the full report.

Throughout 2020, the CSNA has been extremely proud of how local retailers responded to the challenge of Covid-19 and looked after those who are vulnerable

The CSNA Stockbook is an invaluable resource for retailers’ newspaper and magazine department

The CSNA Stockbook arrives in stores during the week beginning 21 December. The CSNA Stockbook is designed to review and track the sales of your newspapers and magazines. The 2021 CSNA Stockbook includes tips on managing your newspapers and magazines, a list of top-selling magazines, CSNA deals, CSNA Covid signage, insurance tips, CSNA training video information and so much more. This is an invaluable resource for your newspaper and magazine department! If you do not receive your Stockbook by 23 December, please contact Laura in the ofﬁce on 045-535050 to arrange for your copy to be delivered.

New minimum wage rates will apply in 2021 The NMW rate changes on 1 January 2021; a new rate of €10.20 per hour will apply as the lowest hourly rate an adult (20 years and over) can be paid. The sub minima rates are therefore; • Under 18 (70%) €7.14 per hour • 18-year olds (80%) €8.16 per hour • 19-year olds (90%) € 9.18 per hour Experience is no longer material, once a worker is 20 years of age, they must be paid the full NMW, even if they had never previously been employed for a wage anywhere. Similarly, but in reverse, a 19 year old that has worked since they were 15 is only entitled to 90% of the NMW.

Once a worker is 20 years of age, they must be paid the full national minimum wage

CSNA member sells biggest Lotto Jackpot ticket this year! Congratulations to CSNA member Shane Cantillon and all the team in Spar Mount Oval, Rochestown, Cork on the biggest Lotto win in Ireland this year.

CSNA CONTACT DETAILS

If you have any queries regarding CSNA services or membership please contact the office in Naas, Co. Kildare on 045-535050 or by email to info@csna.ie/www.csna.ie

Looking for Sustainable Products for a Healthy and Happy Lifestyle?

To Power On...

www.shelﬂife.ie | ShelfLife November 2020

OPINION

Dan’s Digest

With Dan White VieWs on the latest eConomiC & politiCal neWs

How grocery beat the virus

s we emerge from the second lockdown of 2020, one sector at least has had a good pandemic. While most retail sectors have struggled, grocery sales were up almost 19% in the first ten months of the year. Irish grocery sales increased by 14.4% in the 12 weeks to 1 November and by 18.8% in the first ten months of 2020, according to market research firm Kantar. The surge in grocery sales comes at the same time as most other offline retail segments are suffering. The value of non-motor retail sales plummeted by 15.3% in the second quarter, the period that coincided with most of the first lockdown.

Underlying picture The underlying picture is almost certainly even worse. At the same time as offline retailing was being hammered by lockdowns, online was increasing its market share even further with a massive 38.6% of non-motor, food and fuel sales going online in April. So how, when sales in most other retail segments were being slaughtered, has grocery succeeded not just in maintaining but growing its sales? It helps that, no matter how severe the pandemic, we all still have to eat. Unlike most other retail segments, food is not a discretionary purchase. While we can always postpone buying a new outfit, domestic appliance or suite of furniture, putting off today’s meal for a month isn’t really an option. This meant that unlike most other offline retail segments, grocery outlets remained open throughout both lockdowns.

certainly ensure that online will remain a niche portion of the grocery market for the foreseeable future. Even in April, online’s share of the total grocery market reached only 7.6% and it had fallen back to just 3.3% by September. While the necessity to eat every day and the difﬁculty of distributing food online may help to explain why ofﬂine grocery sales held up so well during the lockdowns, it doesn’t explain why grocery sales actually grew over this period. What was going on? Being effectively locked up in our homes all the time meant that we couldn’t go out to pubs, restaurants, cinemas or theatres. However, despite the lockdowns, incomes held up quite well during the pandemic.

Savings increase So where did the money go? Part of it went into the banks, with the deposits of Irish

households increasing from €110bn at the end of 2019 to almost €123bn by the end of October. Over the same period, the loans advanced to Irish households fell from €92bn to €88bn, meaning that Irish households are now owed a net €35bn by the banks. A truly remarkable situation. But not all of it did. There is clear evidence that, as we hunkered down in the face of the pandemic, at least some of the money that would have gone to pubs and restaurants in the pre-pandemic era, went to the grocery outlets instead. Sales of chilled convenience categories such as pizza and ready meals have been among the strongest performers during the lockdowns as spending that would otherwise have gone on an evening out was diverted to grocery outlets instead. Truly it’s an ill wind that blows no good. But was this increase in grocery sales merely

Logistical reality Grocery also benefited from the fact that, unlike most other retail segments, it is much more difficult to sell food online. While Tesco, SuperValu and, most recently, Dunnes all have an online offering, the cost and logistical difficulties of home delivery will almost ShelfLife December 2020 | www.shelflife.ie

Kantar research shows Irish grocery sales grew by 18.8% in the ﬁrst ten months of 2020

OPINION

a temporary blip, something that will be unwound when the economy returns to normal, or the start of something more permanent?

Improvement in 2021 After a truly terrible 2020, all of the early indications point to an improved economic outlook in 2021. The speed with which the global pharmaceutical industry has risen to the challenge of developing a Covid-19 vaccine has been truly remarkable. At the time of writing there were no fewer than five vaccines awaiting approval. While it will take some time, possibly as late as the final quarter of 2021 or even the first quarter of 2022 before we are all vaccinated, the economy will begin to recover long before then. Once the most vulnerable, health care workers, the elderly and those with underlying conditions have been vaccinated, it should be possible to avoid further lockdowns, even if there is a spike in new infections. With the most vulnerable safe, masking and social distancing should be enough to contain the virus while keeping the economy open in the New Year. Not alone will the risk of infection be far less of an issue in 2021, all of the money that was saved in 2020 will be burning a hole in shoppers’ pockets. After an outstanding 2020, grocers can still look forward to a very good 2021.

Another two bite the dust While the grocery sector successfully weathered the Covid-19 storm, it was a very different story for most other ofﬂine retailers. A reminder of just how bad things have got came in late November when, two major UK retailers, Debenhams and Arcadia, collapsed. In truth, the demise of Debenhams should not have come as any surprise. It had already called in the administrators in April 2019 and April 2020 – it pulled the plug on its Irish offshoot at the time of the second administration. Now Debenhams has thrown in the towel and the chain is being liquidated. The demise of Arcadia, which owns the Topshop, Dorothy Perkins, Miss Selfridge and Wallis chains, was slightly more of a surprise – however Steve Coogan’s wickedly funny movie ‘Greed’ lampooning Arcadia’s abrasive chairman Sir Philip Green, which was released earlier this year, should perhaps have served as a warning!

Online investment failure What both Debenhams and Arcadia had in common was lot of shops on high rents but little investment in online. This meant that their market share in the hyper-competitive UK clothing market was falling like a stone

Are you listed?

The Essential Grocery Brands Directory & Sourcebook • • • •

A-Z Supplier Directory Retailer Directory Full Brand Index Diary Planner

Position your company as an Industry Expert with our Retailer Guides and Category Spotlights

Former Debenhams employees and supporters protesting outside the gates of Leinster House last month, calling for staff to receive an agreed 2+2 redundancy package of two weeks’ statutory payment plus two weeks for every year of employment

with Arcadia’s market share falling from 4.5% in 2015 to just 2.7% in 2020. Meanwhile, Debenhams had never fully recovered from a three-year spell under private equity ownership that left it saddled with £1bn of debt. For both chains Covid19 may have been the ﬁnal straw, but they were both in deep trouble long before the pandemic struck. It will come as little consolation to the more than 25,000 Debenhams and Arcadia employees who are about to lose their jobs but they are unlikely to be the last. As the upward march of online continues and the after-effects of Covid-19 linger, other traditional retailers will surely share their fate. ■

CONVENIENCE RETAILING | OFF-TRADE | SUPERMARKETS | NEWSAGENCY | FORECOURT

SOURCEBOOK & DIARY

SUPPLIER A-Z | BRAND INDEX | RESOURCE GUIDE

Call Mark Morgan Today tel: 01 294 7767 e-mail: mark.morgan@mediateam.ie www.shelﬂife.ie | ShelfLife December 2020

ADVISOR: Marketing

Look below the surface! Faced with an overwhelming array of choices on the average supermarket shelf, the marketer’s job is to help shoppers cut through the noise and make choosing their brand a no-brainer. To do this effectively, a thorough assessment of what’s happening below the marketing waterline is required, writes Colin Gordon

COLIN GORDON

marketing expert

cebergs! Walk into any of the many, many dozens of full range supermarkets in Ireland today and you are faced with a huge array of choices. Several types of salt, scores of shampoos, and a miasma of waters, cereals, breads, washing detergents; a myriad of various snacks, sauces, pulses, meats and cheeses. There are approximately 35,000 different SKUs in the modern store and any one of them will be chosen by the shopper standing in front of your carefully crafted product in only about four seconds.

Coping with choice Leaving aside why store operators choose to load their balance sheets with massive stock levels and that many of the stocked items are seasonal or at least not weekly purchases, how does the shopper (and the consumer) cope with all the range and the choice? Marketers, you might expect, would work all the four Ps (product, promotion, place and price) in a way best suited to each line item. You might expect them to be using all available data sources to understand exactly how their particular four Ps recipe is best designed and can be tweaked to reﬂect dynamics in the wider environment. And you would expect them to work hard with their partners on achieving shared objectives on any activation. On all these fronts you would be largely wrong. In research I conducted last year, marketers have shown themselves massively focused on communications, to the extent that they considerably underplay the full array of tools available to them. Trade marketing, distribution drives, product innovation and even pack design are ‘practiced’ by no more than 60% of responding marketers. 100% were involved in communications. What I call informal sources of market understanding

ShelfLife December 2020 | www.shelﬂife.ie

Ads, promotions, pack design, shelf position, price, product performance, consumer and customer referrals, are all only at the tip of the iceberg that is marketing, writes Colin Gordon

(eg trade association sources, retailers info/feedback on competition and space management behaviours) are largely overlooked to the most part by marketers, even though they are usually free or as close as makes no difference. And they differ substantially with their external partners not only on what is their intended objective but even what marketing actually is.

Making selling easier From my own experience and research I only see marketing as being centred on making selling easier - and it’s corollary, making buying easier. It’s all about the sale, and how to help the shopper cope with all the choice, challenges and chaos that exists in their - and our - lives. Which salt and why? What’s bad for me today was apparently good for me yesterday. I’m

It’s all about the sale, and how to help the shopper cope with all the choice, challenges and chaos that exists in their - and our - lives. Which salt and why? What’s bad for me today was apparently good for me yesterday.

ADVISOR: Marketing

juggling so many things from “hours in the day”, to childcare, the traffic, to what to cook or buy for tonight’s meal, to planning a holiday. And all that’s apart from dealing with pandemics and all that goes with new technology and filtering ‘fake news’. Your consumers are faced with up to 10,000 ads or product and service messages per day, carry out on average 70 transactions and 800 separate conversations per month, and receive on average three texts per day (which seems low from what I see in my own household!). The marketer’s role is to use all the tools available to help consumers weave through all this choice, noise and challenge, to find themselves in front of your product and be persuaded to buy it. And to do so repeatedly. Ads, promotions, pack design, shelf position, price, product performance, consumer and customer referrals, they all help in that weaving and choosing. But, these tools are only at the tip of the iceberg that is marketing. Together they form the visible peak of the iceberg, the part we see. The invisible part is so much more extensive and so much more important.

Overcoming hurdles Everything in the business can be either of two things - they either help in the achievement of sales, or they are a cost to that endeavour. Finance, production, IT, HR, distribution,

QUICK QUESTIONS WITH

Damien Hanahoe

1. Best place for coffee? Tea Cake, London. 2. Favourite movie? Shawshank Redemption 3. Top book recommendation? I enjoy a good autobiography. ‘Paul McGrath: Back from the Brink’ was a great read.

sales (yes!) are only in the business to help selling, or because it’s cheaper or better to internalise them than to farm them out. (Selling is not the same as sales. Selling is generating the reason something is bought; sales is the operational act of taking an order). Everything has to focus on continuously making selling easier marketing’s job is not just to design promotions or redesign the pack. It’s to ensure that all the hurdles that could impact on the ‘easier’ journey are reduced and that all enablers are enhanced or strengthened. To ﬁnd out what’s below the waterline in this iceberg analogy, try to work out every possible way in which a sale is affected in your business, every one. From reception to the appearance of your staff or assets (pallets, trucks, merchandising) in the market, to the pack conﬁguration, minimum order quantities, on-time-in-full service, product experience, after sales service, range, etc. These ‘touchpoints’ will direct you to see if these are blockers or enablers to the job of all business, to generate revenue. Marketing is the obvious owner of this assessment and therefore sits across all functions in a business. The most effective role for today’s marketers is to ensure they operate above and below the waterline of the iceberg. ■

‘Marketing is in trouble: How we got here and 10 steps to get us out’ by Colin Gordon is now available to purchase, published by Orpen Press. To get your hands on a copy, visit the following: www.orpenpress.com UK: www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08M9XY6HF US: www.amazon.com/dp/B08M9XY6HF Ireland: Marketing is in trouble eBook by Colin Gordon - 9781786051127. Rakuten Kobo Ireland - www.kobo.com/ie/en/ ebook/marketing-is-in-trouble.

DAMIEN HANAHOE

head of finance, The Naked Collective 4. Which social media platform do you use most? I have been known to spend time on YouTube.

9. First thing you would do if you were Taoiseach? Where do you start on this!

5. Best ad on telly? For this time of year, I will say the SuperValu Christmas ad.

10. If you had to live in another country, where would you choose? New Zealand. Travelled here for a few weeks and really enjoyed it.

6. Worst ad on telly? Don’t really have any to be honest. 7. Favourite grocery shop? I don’t have a favorite one as I try and support local as much as possible 8. What would you cook if you were to compete in ‘Come Dine With Me’ and would you win? I have been told I make a good curry. ‘In it to win it’ is my motto.

11. Greatest achievement to date? Going to go sporting here and say taking part in the Gale force West 68km adventure race. 12. Best website? Has to be The Naked Collective’s. 13. Most annoying public ﬁgure? Too many to mention. 14. Best piece of advice you ever received? Do what you’re afraid to do.

15. Biggest fear? Fear of loss. 16. City or beach break? Beach break. 17. Top restaurant recommendation? Hawksmoor. 18. Pop or rock? Rock. 19. Favourite time of the day? I must admit I am a morning person. 20. What’s the last compliment you received? You are like a pit bull when it comes to problems. You lock your jaws and don’t let go until it’s ﬁxed. Not sure if it’s a good compliment! ■

FEATURE Vincent Jennings, chief executive officer, CSNA, with Marcella O’Neill, CSNA executive member and chair of the Security Committee, CSNA

Risky business

Grim findings from the latest CSNA National Security Report show Irish retailers are victims of mass violence, abuse and theft. Julia O’Reilly talks to CSNA retailers about the security risks they and their staff face

hen the Convenience Stores and Newsagents Association (CSNA) released the results of its 2020 National Security Report, the findings seemed stark. It painted a troubling picture of today’s retail landscape. One where 80% of retailers had experienced an incident involving aggressive, violent and threatening behaviour in their store within the previous three months; where 88% of retailers believe legislation and its enforcement in the sector is insufficient; and where 58% of those surveyed said they or their staff are subject to verbal abuse on a weekly basis. While these findings make for tough reading, they come as no surprise to retailers nationwide who live that reality each day. The CSNA is an independent retail association that represents over 1,500 members, all convenience store owners, forecourt operators and newsagents. Of the 500 retailers that participated in the survey last August, 81% were convenience store owners. One such retailer is Marcella O’Neill, who co-owns O’Neill’s Mace in Upper Williams St, Co. Limerick with her sister Ann. Speaking to ShelfLife magazine, O’Neill, who is a national executive officer of the CSNA, recounted her dismay at the security risks her and her team

ShelfLife December 2020 | www.shelflife.ie

face each day. “My staff come in to do a day’s work,” says O’Neill. “Then they’ve to put up with abuse on top of everything else. No one should be abused at work, it’s not fair. You don’t sign up for that when you come to work in retail, but it’s become part of the job.” For more than 20 years, Peter Gaughan and his wife Catherine have been running Gaughan’s Spar in Balla, Co. Mayo. Life in a small town has ample benefits, one being the lower rate of violent incidents in retail stores. The CSNA national president said he counts himself lucky that he and his staff haven’t had many violent situations in-store. “The closest we get to aggressive confrontations happens when we pull somebody up on shoplifting,” said Gaughan, speaking to ShelfLife magazine.

Seeking justice Confronting shoplifters was among the main triggers for in-store violence in the CSNA survey, along with refusing to serve and enforcing age restrictions. That risk is one of the reasons why handling shoplifters can be such a daunting task. “You have to be so careful,” warns Gaughan. “You wouldn’t necessarily call someone out unless you

saw them pocket something and leave the premises.” Seeking justice is no straightforward feat. If a retailer makes an accusation against a consumer without sufficient evidence to back it up, they could land in hot water. Between finding themselves on the wrong end of a trip to court, seeing their insurance soar, or facing reputational damage, the repercussions of making an unsubstantiated claim can be far more damaging than the crime itself. Ultimately this leaves some retailers keeping their mouths closed for fear of incurring greater harm. Even when a case successfully lands in court, Gaughan says the crime is often not treated with the severity it deserves. “If a woman is brought to court for say, stealing a bottle of Lucozade, a judge might think the crime is too small to take seriously. But there’s no mention of the other 50 bottles that she’d stolen over the last year. It’s rarely just one item, it’s usually part of an ongoing problem. That incident could have been the only one we got perfect footage of. “Where do you draw the line?” asks Gaughan. “How is that ‘acceptable’? These people are taking something that isn’t theirs. It’s theft no matter what way you look at it. The truth is, if somebody gets away with stealing from you then they’re going to keep doing it.” Gaughan believes that theft is a gateway into more serious crimes. “If they can get away with stealing a fiver, then why not a tenner? Why not more?” O’Neill admits she sometimes feels disheartened by the system: “There isn’t a day that goes by that we’re not robbed two or three times,” she says. “I love the job, but you can get disillusioned. You watch people coming into the shop, and everybody could be a potential robber. It’s terrible, but that’s the mentality we have to have now. “Of course, you have to learn to let some things go, but when people are taking from you, you have no other option. You have to fight back.”

FEATURE

Zero tolerance Gaughan takes a zero-tolerance approach to offenders. “If you abuse our staff you’re asked to leave and you’re told not to come back until an apology is made, and the apology is accepted,” he says. “Our staff are encouraged to report anyone that makes them feel uncomfortable. If we look into it, and we feel it’s justified, then we’ll act upon it. We have barred people in the past because they were rude and abusive to staff.” This method means repeat offenders are a non-issue for the team at Gaughan’s Spar. “We don’t tolerate them. If they’re not prepared to act in a reasonable manner, then why should I subject my staff, my wife, my kids and myself to abuse.” Wise words, as the CSNA report found that 90% of those surveyed suggested that those perpetrating these unlawful acts are repeat offenders.

Covid-19 This is the second national report of its kind released by the CSNA. The findings for 2020 are broadly in line with what was previously found. And while Covid-19 has turned the retail industry on its head in many respects, O’Neill says one constant has been crime. “It’s the same all the time,” she says, “it doesn’t get better.”

Commenting on the report, Vincent Jennings, CEO, CSNA said: “It is without question, the pandemic has people on edge and acting irrationally in some instances, however the issues outlined in this report are not specifically Covid-19 related and are unfortunately with us on a daily basis.” In fact, O’Neill believes she and her staff are at greater risk now than they were in the past. “There’s more to be afraid of today. Before you could challenge someone who was causing trouble, but now you wouldn’t know what they could produce - a knife, a needle you just don’t know what you’re dealing with. That’s why I always tell my staff not to put themselves at risk. Money is just money, but safety is the most important thing.”

Protections So what can retailers do protect themselves? Both O’Neill and Gaughan highlight the importance of good CCTV. “I have 18 cameras in my shop,” says Gaughan, “and I’m not a big shop.” Even still, he feels he is at risk: “Even with that, you won’t always be able to catch everything or get what you need to prosecute.” That’s why upgrading CCTV is crucial. O’Neill adds that they regularly improve their CCTV out of great obligation to do so; “It’s really our only source of evidence so we have to make sure it’s as good as it can be.”

WHO ARE THESE OFFENDERS? 90% of those surveyed suggested that the people carrying out these unlawful acts were ‘repeat offenders’. 66% of those surveyed stated incidences are without weapons however, 22% cited knives and 9% cited needles, hammers or guns as the weapons of choice for those who have produced weapons in such instances in their stores.

Over

66%

Repeat Offenders

34% Incidences involve weapons

Incidences without weapons

22% Knives are the most popular weapon cited

9% Needles, Hammers or Guns cited as a weapons

Retailers attributed the following triggers to violence from these individuals in their stores.

CONFRONTING SHOPLIFTERS

55 %

REFUSING TO SERVE

The CSNA report found 81% of retailers surveyed had invested in security measures in their store within the past 12 months

Staff training is another invaluable tool. It’s vital that staff know how to conduct themselves if a violent situation breaks out. The CSNA provides staff security training through its Skillnet, which aims to improve personal safety and reduce loss in the retail environment. The CSNA report found 81% of retailers surveyed had invested in security measures in their store within the past 12 months. Aside from CCTV and staff training, cash handling and external security proved to be the most necessary areas of investment. While retailers can make moves to safeguard, for Gaughan there are limits on what the individual can do. “At the end of the day, we can only do so much staff training. We can only have so much CCTV.” What retailers really need, he says, is for the threats against them and their livelihoods to be taken seriously.

Insufficient enforcement

WHAT TRIGGERS THEM?

62 %

22 %

ENFORCING AGE RESTRICTIONS

As 88% of retailers said legislation and its enforcement in the retail sector is insufficient, the CSNA put out a call to the government, An Garda Síochána and the judiciary to act decisively as retailers demand zero tolerance in their fight against crime in their sector. The association also said it hopes the public “would be more conscious of the issues raised in the security report and to simply be kinder to their local shopkeeper and their staff. Retailers and their valued employees are exasperated.” “That’s what needs to be done,” says Gaughan. “Most retailers have done as much as they can. The next step is to get the Guards and the judiciary to look at it as being a serious problem, as opposed to an inconvenience” Without significant change, O’Neill fears the situation will continue to degrade: “There’s a breakdown in society and it’s not going to improve without legislation that holds people accountable for their actions. People come into shops and do what like, say what they like, and take what they like, all without consequence. So they keep doing it. It’s a total free for all, and retailers on the front line are the ones bearing the brunt. Yes, it’s bad for business,” she says, “but it’s worse for as a whole.” ■

www.shelflife.ie | ShelfLife December 2020

ADVISOR: Recruitment

Your happiness vs. responsibilities BARRY WHELAN managing director of Excel Recruitment

www.excelrecruitment.com

The Covid crisis has made many people reassess their priorities in life and examine what they really want. For some, unhappiness within their job can no longer be papered over. Here, Barry Whelan shares some wisdom for the way forward out of this impasse

eople are very reflective during the Covid pandemic; reflective on their happiness, wellbeing and the general meaning of life! And I am coming across lots of candidates who are unhappy in their work. Should you quit your job, take a risk and pursue something meaningful? In my opinion, you should be afraid to take risks and pursue something meaningful, but you should be more afraid of staying where you are if it is making you miserable. The first thing you should want to do is dispense with the idea that you get to have any permanent security outside of your ability to contend and adapt.

Clock is ticking You are paying a price by staying there and being miserable. The clock is ticking. If you are unhappy in your job now and you don’t change anything, in five years you will be much more miserable and you will be a lot older. You may say it’s a luxury to pursue something meaningful, as many of us have everyday matters to contend with: mortgages, children, bills that our jobs pay for etc. However, I disagree that it’s a luxury to pursue something that makes you happy or that you love. It’s a moral obligation to pursue what you find meaningful. That does not mean it will be easy; it may require sacrifice. If you need to change your job and you have a family, a mortgage and responsibilities, you don’t get to walk away from those responsibilities just because you don’t like your job. You need to have a solid strategy.

Think strategically You may have to go and look for a new job, educate yourself more, upskill, update your CV, overcome a fear of being interviewed or brush up on your social skills, to name but a few. All of these things take time and commitment. Ask yourself ‘what can I do about this job that is killing my soul?’ and think very strategically if you’re going to switch careers. It may even take a number of years to do properly. It is important to have an ethos, an ethical code. One of the first things you should figure out is, ‘if you could have what you needed and wanted, what would it be? What sort of friends would you have? What would your relationships look like? How would you educate yourself?’ You need to think through how you could properly arrange or rearrange your life if you had that ability. You can aim at that. ShelfLife December 2020 | www.shelflife.ie

While everyone has bad days or certain tasks they don’t enjoy, the pursuit of overall happiness within your job is not a luxury but a moral obligation to yourself, writes Barry Whelan

Escape route Set a goal, develop a vision and work towards it. If you do pause at a goal and aim towards it, you will move towards it. The goal will change because you will learn things along the way, but things will inevitably get better. It’s not a luxury, you are not just pursuing happiness, it’s a moral responsibility to yourself. Another thing to keep in mind is that in today’s working world, where jobs are relatively uncertain, you should always have an escape route planned. This plan should be active because if you don’t have an escape route and you can’t get away, you can’t say no. If you can’t say no, you can’t bargain. If you can’t bargain, you are trapped. If your entire being is objecting to something that someone is forcing you to do, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it. The facts are that you are going to hate some days, you won’t like your job sometimes even if it’s the best job you have ever had. Some days you will be sick and tired of life in general. You cannot run from any of these problems though. Whilst I am all for meaningful change, constantly quitting because you are unhappy means you are confused and reaching for something. Constantly focusing on the grass being greener on the other side, means you probably aren’t doing enough to water the grass you are standing on. ■

ANALYSIS

Great expectations

Colm Rooney from Shopper Intelligence outlines how to ensure you meet all your customers’ gifting needs this festive season

What gifts do we buy at supermarkets? This Christmas is going to be special, that’s for sure. We will all remember it. But how is it going to be different for retail? A large part of our Christmas shopping is moving online but in-store shopper behaviour is also changing. Based on a tracking study of shopper behaviour and motivations carried out by Shopper Intelligence Ireland between March and September 2020*, shoppers’ mindset has changed signiﬁcantly since the pandemic. Grocery shopping has become more important for us. We ﬁnd it more enjoyable than before (during lockdown it was our only social engagement!). We are less on an autopilot and browse more. And we are more excited by NPD and innovation. So the game has certainly changed and the opportunities are great. Could part of the opportunity also be that the weekly shop has become more of a destination for Christmas shopping this year? If so, it is important to understand what categories are most likely purchased as a gift in-store and how best to tempt these shoppers. It’s little surprise that eight of the top 10 gifting categories are alcoholic drinks (and six are spirits) but what might be surprising is just how different shopper motivations are for each and how best to tempt these different shoppers!

Tempting the wines and champagne shopper is quite different to spirits. They look for innovation/NPD and have extremely low brand loyalty. They are much more impulsive, so well-placed fixtures/displays with exciting, but not necessarily fixed range, can tempt wines and champagne shoppers. Flowers/plants is the most impulsive category in-store. It is highly engaging; shoppers want to browse and enjoy shopping the category. They don’t have a clear idea of what they want and are looking around to try something new but if they don’t find something they like, they’ll just walk away empty handed. “During the Christmas season, there’s a lot going on in the flowers and plants category,” says Jens Caro, business unit manager, Intergreen. “Obviously, this season is wellknown for its Christmas trees. But there’s much more happening around the floral shelves. Christmas season starts with the launch of poinsettias, a very popular item, mainly bought for oneself. In the final week up to Christmas we see a shift in buying behavior as shoppers prepare for Christmas eve. Christmas bouquets become very popular to dress-up a Christmas dinner and is also often bought as a gift, with volumes increasing up to three times a normal week.

What do Irish shoppers buy in supermarkets as a gift gift?

Top 10 01 Champagne & Sparkling Wine 02 Flowers & Plants 03 Brandy & Cognac 04 Irish Whiskey 05 Rum

Chocolate Confectionery

Red & White Wine

International Whisky

Gin

Vodka

Data from survey of 16,492 Irish shoppers, carried out Nov 2019March 2020. Data available for 91 FMCG categories.

Shopper Intelligence data has shown us the importance of an easy to navigate and proper shelf, especially during peak events like Christmas.” Chocolate confectionery shoppers are highly sensitive to in-store promos and will buy extra with the right offer. Shoppers are engaged and enjoy browsing the category. Displays are also a key impulse purchase triggers.

How to win shoppers in each gifting category? Spirits categories are pre-planned and can be footfall drivers when good pre-store promotions are used. Retailer leaﬂets, particularly for gin, rum and whisk(e)y are an effective investment. Offers, premium/ quality (especially Irish whiskey) and an enjoyable shopping experience are key for tempting shoppers. Shoppers have favourite brands (especially vodka) and are less likely to switch choice – keeping popular brands on stock can avoid losing sales. “Christmas is a period where we look to really drive spirits sales in the grocery channel,” says Jessica Nugent, category executive at Irish Distillers Pernod Ricard. “More than 25% of yearly spirits sales will go through the till in November and December so it is crucial to execute in-store during the period. The likes of FSDUs, gift packs and premium packaging can help to drive the spirits gifting occasion which, as we know from Shopper Intelligence data, is hugely popular. With such a vast portfolio of spirits, we see ourselves in a great position to capitalise on the gifting occasion and we are expecting it to be bigger than ever this year!”

The 10 categories mentioned above all have ‘gifting’ in common – but the path to purchase is very different for each and varying preand in-store triggers must be employed as required. Shopper Intelligence is an annual multi category, multi retailer study of Irish shoppers via online surveys. Enquiries to Colm Rooney: colm.rooney@shopperintelligence.com.

Shopper motivations in key GIFT categories BM=Benchmark of 91 FMCG categories’ average

Spirits Focus on retailer leaflets!

43%

Pre-store promos attract to go shopping (BM: 24%)

29%

Planned to buy a particular brand (BM: 18%)

27%

Low brand switch if choice is unavailable (BM: 30%)

Wines & Champagne

Flowers & Plants

Chocolate Confectionery

Well located, tempting shelf

Enjoyable shopping, quality

Visible display & promo

55%

Wish for new products / wider range (BM: 34%)

68%

Switch brand if choice is unavailable (BM: 30%)

55%

Buy because I feel like it (BM: 32%)

33%

Spend time to browse (BM: 19%)

58%

Look around to buy something new (BM: 34%)

60%

Enjoyable, interesting to shop (BM: 45%)

47%

Often buy extra on instore promo (BM: 36%)

38%

Only bought it because of promotion (BM: 11%)

29%

Purchase triggered by display / shelf (BM: 10%)

20 INTERVIEW

Making online deliver

With growth of 325% in the first six months of this year, it’s no surprise that a sameday grocery delivery platform is hitting the headlines for all the right reasons in 2020. Gillian Hamill talks to Buymie co-founder and CEO Devan Hughes to hear his thoughts on making the sector profitable

“I

f there was a word that would describe our thinking this year, expansion would probably nail it,” is how Buymie CEO and co-founder Devan Hughes sums up his company’s progress in 2020. Of course, it’s hardly surprising that a same-day grocery delivery platform experienced growth during the year of Covid-19. In fact, Buymie grew by 325% in the first six months of 2020 versus the same period in 2019. In June, the company closed a Series A funding round of €5.8 million in new investments into its business, to take total capital raised in 2020 to over €10.5 million by August. Another significant milestone was marked earlier this year back in May, when Buymie launched in the Bristol in partnership with Co-op, marking the start-up’s first expansion outside Ireland. The platform was already on a strong footing before Covid-19 accelerated online shopping in spectacular fashion. “We came out of 2019 off the back of an incredible year of growth,” says Hughes. “We grew our weekly sales by 200% in the 12 months from the beginning of 2019 onwards, so coming into 2020, we were already set to have a tremendous year. Same-day grocery commerce is one of the fastest growing, if not the fastest growing channel in FMCG grocery today, and so 2020 was set to be a great year for us. We couldn’t have predicted the direction that this year was going to head in and when March came around, we found ourselves front and centre of what I can only describe as a big shift in the consumer market at large and society at large.”

ShelfLife December 2020 | www.shelflife.ie

Misunderstood beginnings Yet back in 2016, such an advantageous position was far from inevitable. Today, Buymie partners with major ‘bricks and mortar’ retailers, including Lidl, Tesco, Co-op and newest recruit Dunnes Stores, and according to Hughes, “allows them to focus on what they do best which is growing their store network, investing in their in-store experience and in-store customers while we manage that scale of the online offering; providing a highservice, personalised experience and low cost entry as a channel. But the industry didn’t understand that when we first launched. “When we first launched actually, we had large enterprise retailers trying to sue us, trying to shut us down,” he reveals. “The industry rejected us in the very first year that we were in the market and so over time what we’ve realised is that we really have to spend time knowledge-sharing and in the last four and a half years, we’ve managed to connect with incredible industry leaders and c-level executives across every major retailer, not only in Ireland but in the UK. We’ve been sharing insights, learnings, data, consumer trends and technical know-how with partners and nonpartners for over four years so the partnership with Dunnes and others, has been really been built from cultivating a relationship and building trust with the retail industry itself.”

Customer trust Developing trust with the end consumer meanwhile, was intrinsic to getting Buymie off the ground back in 2016. Buymie employs

personal shoppers who will by default call the customer from the store and let them know if items are out of stock, and offer alternatives. Even if a customer can’t find something they’re looking for on the app, they can add a special request at the checkout for their shopper, who will look for and add the items where possible. Such attention to detail has paid off: earlier this year, Buymie announced the creation of 200 additional personal shopping roles for Ireland in response to growing demand. This level of care is vital for Hughes, who himself learnt the hard way just how easy it is to get a grocery order wrong. “When I started this business in February 2016, I quit my job and I essentially became Buymie.ie’s first personal shopper,” he tells ShelfLife. “In the first two years of trying to get Buymie up and running, I did about 1,800 grocery deliveries

INTERVIEW

Lidl reported in June that following its Buymie partnership, it was seeing active online customers grow by as much as 39% month-on-month

on behalf of our customers. In doing that, what I’ve been able to do is really understand the fundamental processes required to not only deliver a number of specific grocery items within a very short window of time but how to do it really well, because it’s really easy to screw up a grocery order. There’s a lot of complexity, you’re dealing with things like fresh fruit, short and long-dated items, you’re also dealing with personal preferences and if there’s one thing that people take very seriously it’s their food. When you’re providing a service like this, you only get one shot and if you don’t do a good job, you could lose that customer forever.”

Friction points The situation called for a re-imaging of grocery e-commerce, and Hughes undertook a survey of some 1,000 shoppers across Dublin city to understand the main friction points. “There was a couple that really stood out,” he says. “One was delivery windows; having to sit at home for two hours and [supermarkets] only being able to deliver the next day or two or three days out, that just wasn’t convenient enough for the mass majority of the market where people shop far more in an ad hoc manner and shop for what they need on that day. We knew that we had to offer a same-day offering and that we would have to build our system’s infrastructure and processes to be able to achieve that.” Ensuring that online shoppers don’t feel short-changed by short-dated items was another key consideration. “People felt they were second-class in terms of what they were getting off the shelf; that all the long-dated items were being kept in-store and provided for in-store shoppers; not to mention poor substitutions.” As Hughes points out: “If customers are ordering something, the vast majority of them are ordering something for very specific reasons, whether that be an allergy, or for a specific recipe. They really are very careful in terms of what they’re selecting,

so if you have just randomly substituted something, or what’s worse, just removed something from the basket, you could be ruining a person’s entire meal or plan. That again is just a massive friction point, so for us, it was essential to ensure we built our infrastructure to not only allow for the rapid transaction of cash and data between our customers but also allow communication directly between those stakeholders so that we could make sure that the customer’s expectations were managed.”

Unique customer mission Retailers’ feedback has been positive. In June, Lidl reported that following its Buymie partnership, it was seeing active online customers grow by as much as 39% monthon-month. At the same time, as a direct result of the Covid crisis in many cases, we have been hearing from a growing number of independent c-store retailers who have decided to team up with takeaway delivery platforms such as Just Eat and Deliveroo

to offer online deliveries. Aldi meanwhile, reported last month that its Aldi-Deliveroo partnership is now available to over 1.5 million Irish shoppers. Hughes, however, says Buymie offers a different proposition for a different market. “There actually is no natural competitor for us in the Irish market,” he tells ShelfLife. “It’s often misunderstood: who are we competing with, who are we not competing with. “Our customer mission is very unique,” he continues. “Buymie is a personal delivery service: same day, large basket delivery. If you look at the likes of Just Eat or Deliveroo, their average basket is circa €25, and they’ve probably four or five, maximum ten items and it’s delivered in approximately 28 minutes. Our average basket is north of 30 items, closer to €100 and we’re delivering it within one, two or three hours. The reason a customer comes to Buymie is very different to why they would go to Deliveroo; if they need a last minute addition item for a recipe they might go and use a Deliveroo and get it in 20 minutes but if

In partnership with Buymie, Dunnes Stores now offers a personal grocery shopping service to over 680,000 households in both Dublin and Cork

www.shelflife.ie | ShelfLife December 2020

INTERVIEW

use a shared infrastructure approach, use de-centralised technology to really open that up as a profitable online business for our grocery retail partners, which ultimately, was where the growth and the direction of the consumer market was headed.” In terms of pricing, Buymie has a fixed delivery fee of €4.99 or alternatively, the Buymie Plus subscription service offers unlimited free deliveries for €11.99 a month or €99 per year. The company also charges a platform fee of 15.75%, although this can be subsidised to as little as 5.75% by retail partners, with Buymie stating that these fees ensure personal shoppers are paid fairly for their time and service.

New cities

The Buymie grocery delivery service is available in 24 Dunnes Stores across Dublin and Cork, with slots available on the same day, and often in as little as one hour. Customers can also choose their preferred delivery slot up to seven days in advance

they want their full grocery shop, picked to their preference and delivered in a window that suits them, they’re going to come to us.”

Pursuing online profitably And while 2020 has accelerated the online trend, supermarkets’ difficulties with making online profitable have been well documented over the years. “There’s always been a lot of questions over why certain retailers don’t enter the online channel,” says Hughes. “There’s plenty of retailers, particularly the largest grocer in Europe, i.e. Schwarz Gruppe Lidl, for whom we were the first independent e-commerce platform to take them online back in 2018. That was the first time they went online in Europe in a very meaningful way so [various retailers] have taken a really considered approach in looking at the online sector and looking at what is the best way to do it.” At this point, Devan recounts the seed of the idea, which like many great Irish entrepreneurial successes before it, took place in Dublin pub. “In 2014, someone said to me, ‘Devan, do you know that online grocery market in Ireland and the UK is worth £9 billion but loses £300 million a year? That was the aggregate losses of all the grocery retailers trying to provide online delivery and that was just next day delivery.” Hughes subsequently looked to his background in the energy sector to find a solution. “When I looked at the online grocery sector,” he says, “the capital expenditure required upfront to build a network of delivery is significant but not only that, the economies of scale are not possible with that type of model.”

ShelfLife December 2020 | www.shelflife.ie

Shared infrastructure He uses an analogy with the energy market to explain what he means by this. “Twenty years ago,” says Hughes, when grocers set up a store, they used the same electricity grid to refrigerate their food and they used the same road networks to deliver their food to stores. However, 20 years ago, for some reason, they decided to build individual networks for distribution online and today, we have nine separate distribution networks, all individually owned by grocery retailers, trying to do the same thing, ultimately cancelling each other out and not able to achieve the level of scale that distribution networks need to, because the fundamental thing with any commodity distribution is that you need de-centralised, shared infrastructures to do it in a commercially viable way. Grocers knew they had to be in the online channel, so they were really sacrificing profit and margin to be able to grow in that space. I saw a real opportunity to take all of the best practices of the energy market and bring that to the grocery sector;

It’s certainly been a momentous year for Hughes. At the time of our interview, he and his wife Laiz Ferreira-Hughes had just had a baby boy named Dorian, with whom he says they are “absolutely besotted”. 2020 has also been transformational for the business. “At the start of this year overnight, our service became an essential service, and that’s really made not only ourselves as a team, but also our shopper network, think very differently about our service and the type of work that we’re doing,” he says. “Our goal is to be able to provide as much access as possible to staple food delivery for our customers across Ireland and the UK.” Buymie is currently available in Dublin and Cork, as well as large commuter towns such as Greystones, Maynooth and Howth. Hughes says the team have identified 15 UK cities where they think the business could be successful, and “our plans for Q1 are that we’ll be expanding into two more cities in the Irish market as well”. Hughes is unable to reveal these as yet. “There’s four in the mix at the moment,” he says, “and we’re in the final stages of really deciding which cities we think are right to go for. We would hope in the not too distant future to make some announcements.” Indeed, we’re sure 2021 will bring many more positive announcements for this business on the up. n

24 STORE PROFILE

Community retailing at its best Spar Mountrath, Co. Laois has not just survived 2020 but has thrived during it mostly due to owner Brendan Carroll’s impressive focus on the local community during Covid-19, which has seen this recently renovated store come into its own. Fionnuala Carolan reports

n the week that the country went into lockdown back in March, Brendan Carroll and his team sat down together and made a list of all the people in the area they could think of that might need their help. They called to all these peoples’ houses, offering their service, even if it was just for the Sunday newspaper and promised that it would be delivered along with any prescriptions they might need from the local pharmacy. When the deliveries became too much for his staff to manage they called in members of the local GAA to help out, ensuring no one was left stranded or in need. If this doesn’t scream community spirit, then what does? “We think of this as a community shop,” explains Carroll. “Covid was bad for a lot of people and it was really terrible for all the people who lost family members and people who lost their livelihoods but it was very good for gelling communities together. It brought out the best in people. Our staff really kicked into gear when Covid hit and everyone looked after each other and it really was all about the community coming together.”

STORE PROFILE

Retailer: Brendan Carroll Address: Spar Mountrath, Market Square, Mountrath, Co. Laois Staff: 29 Size: 2,350 sq ft Opening hours: 7am - 10pm Monday to Sunday.

Raised in retail Born and bred in Mountrath, Carroll has worked in this store since it opened in 1998, trading then as a Cleland’s, starting on the shop floor when he was a young teenager and subsequently joining the team as a trainee butcher when he left school after the Junior Cert. He went on to become head butcher and then in 2007 he became the joint proprietor with his brother Richard. Richard takes care of the accounting and financial side of the business while Brendan is on the shop floor and is essentially the face of the business.

Fresh food is a major focus at Spar Mountrath, which offers a wide butchery selection

ShelfLife December 2020 | www.shelﬂife.ie

Retailer Brendan Carroll outside Spar Mountrath, which is at the heart of the town’s community

Along with his brother, his sisters Mary and Denise have worked in the store all this time too so it is very much a family business.

Moving to Spar When the Carroll brothers purchased the store in 2007, it was trading under a different brand. Little did they know they were on the cusp of a recession and it was to be a tough ﬁrst few years in business. However, they weathered the storm and in 2018 decided to make the move to Spar and undertook a major renovation in the process. Everyone knows that there is no easy way to carry out a revamp. It takes investment, patience and hard work. The Carroll’s revamp was no different. It took six weeks to completely overhaul the shop. Carroll explains the extent of the work done. “We changed everything and no department in the shop was left untouched,” he says. “You become a master at surviving on four hours’ sleep a night. There was a lot of moving shelves at night. On the last couple of days of it, ﬁve of us worked from 7 in the morning, until 5pm the following evening. We walked

As the main shop in a small town, Spar Mountrath has to cater for every type of customer, from the weekly trolley shopper to those popping in for a quick top-up or Insomnia coffee

STORE PROFILE

out and took two days off to sleep!” There are 29 staff employed across the store and all are working with the Carrolls a long time. When planning the renovations in the store, they shared the plans with the staff and asked them for feedback on the area they worked in. This gave the staff a genuine interest in the revamp. Speaking about the signiﬁcance of this decision, Carroll says: “When they look at their area, they take pride in it now as they half designed it. I have to say that the staff were unbelievable at that time. And it helped when we were faced with Covid as we knew the staff would row in behind us again.” The rewards of the revamp have been deeply felt across the store and the community. “We would consider ourselves to be a mini supermarket now,” explains Carroll about the 2,350sq ft shop. “It’s great to see customers walking around the store and being excited by what they see. It’s such a modern shop for the middle of a small town in Laois. That’s testament to BWG, the staff and our local tradesmen who worked on it,” he says.

Impressive offering Fresh food is a major focus of this business and much of the food is prepared in the store and is sold under the Carroll’s own brand. “We prepare everything ourselves from our breads, scones, meals and cakes. We do all our own burgers, lasanges, roasts and we pack our own bacon and hams under the Carroll’s label. We created a brand so people can trust the product. Retailing is nearly 50% trust. It’s a relationship you are building,” believes Carroll. Being the main shop in a small town, the team have to cater for every type of shopper from the trolley shopper who wants to buy their Sunday roast, the person who wants the ready-cooked dinner served to them on their own plate and the person who just drops in for an Insomnia coffee. The shop has been designed to work equally well for all these elements.

Spar Mountrath houses an extensive off-licence category

They have recently started to switch their packaging to biodegradable on their prepacks wherever possible. Carroll says this is encouraged by BWG but also from the younger generation who are very clued in about the importance of sustainability. Himself and his wife Patricia have two children Donnchadh (12) and Cliodna (9). “It’s coming from our house too,” he says. “The kids would be reminding you about recycling and what goes into what bin and it makes you think about the importance of planning for the future.”

place during Covid-19 will be kept in place long after it has passed. “We took out a couple of fridges to make room for social distancing. Even going forward, we’re going to have a number of hand sanitisers around the shop. We installed screens all around our deli counters so everyone is standing in their own pod and you are not standing beside the next person. I think those sorts of measures are here to stay for the long term. From a normal winter ﬂu and cold perspective, people should be keeping their distance.”

Support from BWG

Onwards and upwards

Carroll is forthright in heaping praise on BWG for their support with the renovation and also throughout this year during Covid19. “We were sent two emails a day from head ofﬁce to make sure we were up to date with all the restrictions. BWG’s marketing department were very quick with providing signage. The signs were available even before restrictions were brought in. We would have been a full week wearing masks before it became mandatory.” Many of the precautions they have put in

Happy with where the business stands now, Carroll is looking forward to the new year and building on the relationships they have formed this year. “We had been seeing a steady increase since we moved to Spar but this year has been very good. It showed that you need a shop of this size in a small town. The local shop is vital for the community. We feel so lucky that we can get up and open our premises in the morning because we are well aware that so many haven’t been able to do that this year.” ■

“It’s great to see customers walking around the store and being excited by what they see,” says retailer Brendan Carroll, following a complete refurbishment at Spar Mountrath

The store has comprehensive health and safety measures to safeguard against the Covid-19 virus and staff wore face coverings in-store before it became mandatory to do so

www.shelﬂife.ie | ShelfLife December 2020

26 FEATURE: News

Brexit breaking point As the Brexit deadline of 1 January 2021 looms, there are still so many uncertainties surrounding the movement of goods between Northern Ireland and the UK in particular. A considerable worry for the grocery retailers in the north, is the supply of chilled meat products and if it is not resolved, it could cause major issues for retailers there with stock shortages and price rises across the board, particularly after the recently agreed grace periods come to an end. Fionnuala Carolan reports.

s we go to press, negotiators in Brussels are still locked in talks trying to find solutions to trade relations between the UK and the European Union which will have huge implications for business here in Ireland. There are still significant differences including fishing rights, the “level playing field” measures aimed at preventing the UK undercutting the EU on standards and state subsidies, and the way that any deal would be governed. Whatever is decided in the next few days, one thing is for sure; there will be permanent changes to the trading relationship between the EU and Great Britain going forward. The north has been a thorny issue in Brexit negotiations from the start and so much work has been done on avoiding a hard border and ensuring that the peace process is not compromised by creating new barriers between north and south. However, one of the most pertinent problems that has besieged the process is the issue of transportation of fresh food products from Britain into Northern Ireland.

Export health certificates Within EU food safety rules, animal-based products coming from outside the EU must be frozen, with the result that certain meat

products, which are fresh or chilled, will not be permitted. Under the Northern Ireland protocol, it will still be operating within EU food safety rules from 1 January, which raised fears that products would be prohibited from entering Northern Ireland from Great Britain. From January, animal products transported to Northern Ireland from Britain would require export health certificates, which will need to be signed off by a designated veterinary official in the exporting country which in itself will be an issue due to lack of capacity. Some products are banned outright; for others there is simply no animal health certificate to accompany them. Minced poultry, either frozen or chilled, does not have such a certificate. For minced beef and pork, the certificate requires that they be frozen and not chilled. Chilled sausages also need to be frozen and meat that is cut with added products from another country (even if in the EU) are prohibited because only the country in which the animals were slaughtered can provide the health guarantees to certify the product. The list of banned foods includes chilled minced beef, minced pork or sausages, chilled prepared meals, such as meat lasagna as well as poultry that is either frozen or chilled

European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen met with British prime minister Boris Johnson for face-to-face talks earlier this month following intense negotiations (Photo: Leah Farrell/RollingNews.ie)

(stricter rules apply to poultry). Broader restrictions could extend to foods including seed potatoes, seeds, breaded poultry, pork stuffing, marinated meat, barbeque products, meatballs, turkey meatballs, lamb mince, kebabs and flour with fortified additives. Thankfully, the immediate Brexit threat to chilled products such as sausages in Northern Ireland was lifted earlier this month. Minister for the Cabinet Office Michael Gove said the EU and UK have both agreed a sixmonth delay on mandatory health checks on all chilled meats going from Great Britain to Northern Ireland and a three-month grace period for all other food suppliers selling into the supermarkets and corner stores.

Retailers in the north Nevertheless, retailers in the north are understandably worried about their supply chains and access to certain products come the new year. The UK-EU joint committee are working on minimising checks on food moving from Britain to Northern Ireland but as of the start of December things were not looking too positive that a long-term solution would be found. If a deal is not reached, businesses in the north can expect significant disruption to supply chains and it could cost Ireland dearly, with tariffs threatening to make many exports to Britain uncompetitive. In early December, the Taoiseach Micheál Martin said that while talks were continuing, businesses needed to be “very alert and vigilant” in preparing for Brexit. He said: “Even with a deal done it will be challenging in terms of the changes that will occur and the additional documentation. In the event of a no deal, it will be significantly onerous on businesses out there, so things are on a knife edge here and it is serious.”

Trusted trader scheme

Marks & Spencer has warned that its business in the Republic could be affected if no deal is agreed with the EU and significant tariffs and bureaucratic costs are added to food imports

ShelfLife December 2020 | www.shelflife.ie

Iceland Foods, Sainsbury’s and other grocers have called for a “trusted trader” programme to create a certified, auditable fast-track system for goods to flow into the north with the same ease they do now. The UK government has promised a “trusted trader” scheme for retailers but details have yet to be agreed with the EU and retailers say there is now insufficient time to implement it. Aodhán Connolly, director of the Northern

FEATURE: News

Ireland Retail Consortium said that whatever is decided, that retailers will need an implementation period. “It could be six months, or 12, as long as it takes,” he said, adding that supermarkets would normally start planning for a process change of this magnitude 18 months in advance. Cold Chain Federation chief executive Shane Brennan agreed that more time is needed. “We need to allow a grace period before imposing checks on food transported into Northern Ireland,” he said. “It is the only way to avoid empty shelves and other economic harm for consumers there.”

Reduced product range There is concern that some supermarkets may ultimately withdraw from the region if the bureaucratic burden is too heavy and supermarket bosses have warned that additional bureaucracy could lead to higher food prices in Northern Ireland after 31 December. Simon Roberts, the chief executive of J Sainsbury, operating 13 stores across the north recently warned that its shops in the north might have to offer a significantly reduced range of products in January if no trade deal is reached with the EU. Tesco, Marks & Spencer and Iceland are also concerned due to the fact that much of their stock in the north comes from Britain. With profit margins already narrow, the higher costs could prompt some retailers to pull out of the north altogether.

In Howth earlier this month, fishermen Sean Hilliard from Wexford and Joe Whitty from Waterford working aboard the fishing boat ‘Tilly’, based in Kilmore Quay. Fishery is a major hurdle in the ongoing Brexit negotiations (Photo: Sasko Lazarov/RollingNews.ie)

M&S further warned that its business in the Republic could also be affected if no deal is agreed with the EU and significant tariffs and bureaucratic costs are added to food imports.

Look to the south If goods cannot be sourced from across the Irish sea, retailers like Tesco, M&S and Lidl who operate in the south, may begin to look at suppliers here instead. Lidl acknowledged that running its 39 Northern Ireland stores as part of its Ireland operation meant they were “protected from many of the challenges associated with Brexit”. It added that it had “plans in place to ensure the supply of our

imported product range will be maintained after 31 December”. Could the silver lining of a no-deal Brexit be that Irish suppliers might replace UK suppliers and Ireland becomes more selfsufficient? The big question is whether Irish suppliers would be able to cope with the added demand. Only time will tell if this is something that will need to be considered. One thing is for sure and that is if these talks don’t result in some practical solutions, 2021 could look bleak for business in the north and could create increased demands on suppliers across the whole island of Ireland. n

Barry Group Awards Mondelez Supplier of the Year 2020 2020 may have been the year that did not go to plan, but that did not stop Barry Group celebrating their Supplier of the Year Awards. These awards recognise the Groups top performing suppliers for the past year from many facets including service level, collaboration and partnership, retail support, innovation and promotional activity. During the virtual event, Jim Barry, Managing Director paid special homage to all of the Groups supply base in what has been an unprecedented year. “As an industry we have reacted very well. What I particularly liked was the sense of corporation between ourselves as a wholesaler and yourselves, as suppliers. I think that was to be admired because that had a huge impact for our retail partners”, said Barry.

Barry Group Supplier of the Year Category Winners

This year marked the introduction of a Special Recognition Award in the form of the Response to Covid-19 Award. The purpose of this was to highlight the exceptional effort that suppliers went to and their adaptability to the changing times that the sector has witnessed. Awarded in three categories, the recipients Bulmers, Aryzta and Lucozade responded with haste to ensure steady supply and support to the Barry Group team and their retail partners.

Best Central Billing Ambient Supplier: Tayto Snacks

On the night, Overall Supplier of the Year was awarded to Mondelez. Presenting the award, Jim Barry acknowledged that although their confectionary categories were under pressure, the Mondelez team dug deep and were undoubtedly worthy winners of Barry Group Supplier of the Year 2020.

Best Ambient Supplier: Mondelez Best Chill Supplier: Aurivo Best Alcohol Supplier: Molson Coors Best Chill Central Billing Supplier: Green Isle Best Innovation from a Supplier: Barry Fitzwilliam

Special Recognition Covid-19 Response Awards Response to Covid-19 Award, Alcohol: Bulmers Response to Covid-19 Awards, Chill: Aryzta Response to Covid-19 Awards, Ambient: Lucozade Overall Supplier of the Year 2020: Mondelez

www.shelflife.ie | ShelfLife December 2020

Outstanding performances In a year of repeated lockdowns, social distancing and Covid caution, the weekly grocery shop became more important (and memorable!) than ever for many shoppers. Fortunately, despite all the challenges 2020 presented, brands nevertheless stepped forward with new innovation to pique consumers’ interest on-shelf and in some cases, fill the gap for premium and affordable luxury options left by the absence of restaurant and café treats

Best of the Year

Vaping

Weight Management

28 CATEGORY FOCUS Best of the Year

nother year of trading is coming to a close, and what a year it’s been. But before we wave a long-awaited goodbye to 2020, we’ll ﬁrst take stock of the year as it was in the fast-changing FMCG and grocery sector. 2020 has been a year of uncertainty, challenge and change for the sector. Covid-19 has seismically altered the way we shop and the goods we consume. Retailers and suppliers have outdone themselves in working to meet consumers’ changing needs, particularly with regard to healthy and sustainable products. Notably, homegrown heroes have been a real hit, with shoppers in Ireland choosing to ‘support local’ during the ﬁrst Covid-19 lockdown period and spending €178m on Irish sourced grocery products in the four weeks ending 17 May 2020.

Strengthens your immune system* Made from only plants, vitamins and water (that’s it!), Mude is a range of truly healthy-for-you beverages that provide proactive energy, health and wellness, so consumers can take control of their day, with no guilt of being harmful to the planet: they can feel the physical and mental effects within ﬁve to 20 minutes of consumption. The range includes: Mude ImmunoBoost With 69% of people putting a ﬁrmer focus on health and wellbeing in response to Covid-19,

ShelfLife December 2020 | www.shelﬂife.ie

there’s never been a better time to discover Mude ImmunoBoost. Turbocharged with Beta Glucan and complex B Vitamins, it’s clinically proven to boost immune health.

Thanks to the soothing powers of ashwagandha plant, Mude Chill is the stress-busting solution we all need. Mude Sleep 34% of us are struggling with sleepless nights post-Covid. Take control of your dreams and get a head start on tomorrow with Mude Sleep, combining chamomile and valerian root for a truly restful slumber. Mude is now available nationwide. *(Source: Proven in more than 50 scientiﬁc studies, based on regular consumption of Mude’s unique blend of ingredients) (Data sources: PWC Global Insights Survey 2020; Glassdoor)

The Mude range is now available nationwide, with an option to suit every consumer’s needs

Mude Play Lacking energy? 40% of people report feeling the same during these uncertain times. Mude Play harnesses the power of organic green tea to revitalise body and mind, giving you a natural energy kick. Mude Work Along with a dip in energy, 42% of us have experienced decreased motivation over recent months. Mude Work is the ideal antidote: the active ingredient, yeast protein, helps you ﬁnd focus when you need it most. Mude Chill It’s no surprise that 40% of people have reported increased anxiety due to the pandemic.

Next generation snacks Sports nutrition brand Acti-Snack has announced the launch of seven new healthy Nut and Trail Mixes designed to naturally fuel the body and promote recovery in athletics, sports and health enthusiasts. Designed in partnership with performance nutritionists and adventure athletes, the brand is centred around tailored plantbased products that meet the body’s need to refuel and recover. Lorna Cooke, a leading Irish sports nutritionist at Sports Medicine NI, has been involved in the development of the product and explains how Acti-Snack is different from traditional sports snacks, and has concentrated on only using natural ingredients. “What sets Acti-Snack apart

from traditional protein snacks,” she says, “is the natural nutrition approach as well as unique flavour blends which reduce the problem of flavour fatigue that can be a real issue for endurance athletes.” “We noticed a real gap in the market for healthy sports nutrition and protein snacks that aren’t filled with artificial sweeteners or pseudo health credentials,” adds Bronagh Clarke, marketing director at Acti-Snack. “The Acti-Snack range is hand-crafted and baked and is designed with protein front and centre to help build muscle mass,” she continues. “However, we

The Acti-Snack Salt and Apple Cider Vinegar Keto Mix is the most popular ﬂavour in the range and ticks a lot of boxes for health-conscious consumers, with low sugar and keto products both ﬁrmly on trend

STRENGTHENS YOUR * IMMUNE SYSTEM

*Proven in more than 50 scientific studies, based on regular consumption of our unique blend of ingredients Clean Simple Ingredients because when did your mammy ever tell you to get more citric acid in your diet

Best of the Year

Vaping

Weight Management

30 CATEGORY FOCUS Best of the Year

know athletes need much more than that. We’ve also considered broader micro and macro nutrients that are needed for performance such as potassium, magnesium and iron to fight muscle fatigue. The products are all vegan, gluten free and 100% natural.” The range is designed to answer different need states, with high energy mixes to fuel athletes before and during an event or training, to all-natural recovery mixes, to low sugar Keto mixes*. As the first and only accredited Keto snacks in the UK and Ireland, these two specific mixes (Salt & Apple Cider Vinegar and Buffalo BBQ) feed growing dietary trends around the growing demand for lower sugar, lower carb options. Launching with seven new mixes, the Acti-Snack range is specifically designed to equip athletes and adventurers to help them achieve their goal. It includes ‘Energy’, ‘Natural’ and ‘Keto’ Mixes in a range of delicious flavours. The mixes are available in a variety of sizes from the 40g on the go packs for €1.75, to the Power Packs available in up to 200g retailing at €5 which are now available on shelves across Ireland. For more information, contact Barry Tyndall, +353 (0) 860 467713.

Auntie knows best! 2020 was a year of signiﬁcant achievements for the Aunt Bessie’s brand. Having previously enjoyed great success with Yorkshire Puddings, Aunt Bessie’s Aunt Bessie’s has now expanded its range to include big bags of Chips, Roasties and Homestyle Croquettes

decided to expand its offering this past year, extending the product portfolio to include Chips, French Fries, Wedges, and Roasties. Based on the success of this initial launch, and just in time for Christmas, Aunt Bessie’s has expanded its offering to include big bags of Chips, Roasties, Homestyle Croquettes and even renovated her famous Yorkshire Puddings which are now 25% bigger. Look out for big things coming from this brand in 2021!

Sustainably sourced ingredients A ﬁrm favourite at Irish tables for generations, Knorr Soups has launched an exciting new ‘Natural Soups’ range bringing excitement and energy to the wet soup category.

Knorr’s new Natural Soups range is available in three ﬂavours, Creamy Tomato & Basil, Garden Vegetable and Sweet Potato & Carrot

Currently available in three variants; Creamy Tomato & Basil, Garden Vegetable and Sweet Potato & Carrot, the Knorr Natural Soup range is made with sustainably grown ingredients you would find at home, meets the highest of nutritional standards and provides one of an individual’s five-a-day. Packaged in a glass bottle the range is fully recyclable and will provide customers with a tasty and nutritious solution that fits within their lifestyle, the Knorr Natural Soup range has an RSP of €2.79*. *(Pricing at sole discretion of the retailer).

Criminally successful

Aunt Bessie’s is well-known for making golden Yorkshire puddings easy to serve up and these famous treats are now 25% bigger

ShelfLife December 2020 | www.shelﬂife.ie

Guilty of being named the ‘World’s Most Admired Wine Brand 2020’ by Drinks International, 19 Crimes is a wine that shares the history of the infamous people who founded the land where its grapes are now grown. It highlights the plight of 165,000 convicts who made the long voyage by sea to Australia between 1788 and 1868, as punishment for committing one of 19 crimes. 19 Crimes wanted to bring

An interactive app animates the 19 Crimes convicts’ infamous true stories, ensuring the brand stands out on-shelf

Cono Sur believes that high quality wine production can work hand-in-hand with eco-friendly practices

the stories to life with a fun and intriguing twist to the standard wine tasting experience. To do this, the brand developed an interactive app which animates the 19 Crimes convicts’ infamous true stories. To grow awareness of the brand and the concept of the interactive labels, there was a PR drop to key inﬂuencers. This was extremely successful with everyone loving the twist on their standard drinking occasion and something new to bring to the experience. On the back of this success, 19 Crimes partnered with SuperValu to create a bespoke retail pack for Father’s Day which was criminally successful! With so much choice available, it is vital to improve and build on the in-store experience by adding something that stands out. The combination of awareness and something unique in the market brought not only a positive sales boost but a new cohort of customers seeking that unique gift and experience.

has a nice and bright colour with an expressive, refreshing, delicate, juicy, balanced taste. The Chardonnay has a seductively complex, very fresh and well-balanced acidity taste to it, undoubtedly young and friendly. Appealing in its rich and deep colour and governed by sweet wild fruit aromas, this Pinot has a personality of its own. Last but not least, is the Cabernet Carmenere Syrah, a wine of integrated character, that culminates in a chocolate ﬁnish with underlying woody and toasty hints.

Done the natural way Cono Sur has a deep commitment to the environment which is embedded in its new organic range. Since its conception, Cono Sur has been deeply committed to the development of its environmental policies, believing that high quality wine production can work hand-in-hand with ecofriendly practices. This is led by the brand’s key principles of going back to the origins, providing quality in a pure expression of nature all whilst showing respect to the environment. At Cono Sur, things are done the natural way. This year, Cono Sur launched four new organic wines; Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Noir and Cabernet Carmenere Syrah. Young and fresh, this Sauvignon Blanc

Perfect blend Blossom Hill Gin Fizz is a blend of sparkling crisp white wine, botanical infused water, and a dash of gin, and is available in two flavours – Lemon & Rosemary, and Rhubarb. At 8.5% ABV, Gin Fizz should be poured over ice and served with a simple garnish. First launched into the Irish market last summer, Blossom Hill Gin Fizz aims to tap into the growing gin trend achieving strong sales since launching. It was created based off the increased demand from consumers for new and exciting products within wine. Additionally, the gin market was thought to be quite old fashioned and outdated, leaving a gap in the market to attract a younger audience with the perfect blend of wine and gin. Firstly, there is the 75cl bottle that lends itself to the sharing experience in line with the standard wine occasion. The rise in on-the-go formats and gin fizz being synonymous with social occasions paved the natural way to launch the ready to drink can variation. The 20cl can format enables consumers to easily enjoy the serve on-the-go or makes the perfect stocking filler for the gin lover in anyone’s life! It makes the product more accessible which

CATEGORY FOCUS Best of the Year

Almost a third (32%) of shoppers in Ireland would be more likely to buy plant-based and biodegradable teabags

Vaping

Weight Management

in turn allows Blossom Hill to continue to drive growth through innovative, fun and accessible concepts. This is the perfect drink for those that don’t generally shop wine but would be interested in giving it a go. Consumers are looking for products that ﬁt into their lifestyle and Blossom Hill Gin Fizz fulﬁls this role.

Best of the Year

Making strides in sustainability

At 8.5% ABV, Blossom Hill Gin Fizz is ideal for customers who perhaps don’t usually buy wine but would like to give it a go

2020 was a deﬁning year for Lyons Tea, as it became the ﬁrst major Irish black tea brand to make its retail range plant-based and biodegradable, whilst keeping the same great taste consumers know and love. Almost a third (32%) of shoppers in Ireland would be more likely to buy plant-based and biodegradable teabags as they have a better impact on the environment*. Shoppers’ calls for sustainability have now been

Lyons Tea’s new teabags are plant-based and biodegradable

answered with Lyons Tea’s new plant-based and biodegradable teabags, helping retailers to meet this demand. Since introducing plant-based teabags to its retail range, Lyons Tea has produced 1 billion biodegradable plant-based teabags, saving 50 tonnes of non-biodegradable plastic, which is the equivalent of 10 million

with Aoife McCarthy,

*(Source: According to research of 1,000 adults in Ireland conducted by iReach Insights on behalf of Lyons Tea, August 2020)

Aoife McCarthy

brand manager, Lyons

Q: Lyons Tea recently introduced fully biodegradable teabags. Can you explain a little about how you achieved this and why it was an important goal for the brand? A: At Unilever, we know we have a responsibility to ensure our products are as sustainable and environmentally friendly as they can be. Like many other tea producers, we traditionally used trace amounts of polypropylene plastic to seal our teabags, but we knew this had to change. Over the last number of years, we worked closely with our R&D team to make our mission of removing plastic from our teabags a reality. We’ve now switched the traditional polypropylene sealing agent to a new plantbased corn starch alternative, which allows us to sustainably seal our iconic pyramid teabags without impacting the flavour Lyons Tea drinkers know and love. Q: Are improved sustainability credentials an attribute that your customers are actively seeking out? A: Believe it or not, since we made the switch, Lyons Tea drinkers in Ireland have now helped us save over 50 tonnes of plastic from going to the landfills. Now imagine what that figure will be in even just one year’s time? We can’t wait to see the impact this change can make in the long-term.

ShelfLife December 2020 | www.shelﬂife.ie

standard sized plastic carrier bags. Unlike traditional black teabags that contain small amounts of plastic which cannot be composted, Lyons Tea’s new retail range can be disposed of into a brown bin and composted to biodegrade back to nature. In addition to making its retail range plant based and biodegradable, 2021 will be another exciting year for Lyons Tea. In another environmentally friendly move, Lyons Tea will remove the outer plastic overwrap from all its tea boxes by next summer.

At Unilever, we always make our products the best they can be for those that use them, and when it comes to Lyons Tea, we know that sustainability is important. Through research we found that more people are looking for more ways to be environmentally friendly and live sustainable lives. Almost a third of the population would be more likely to buy biodegradable products to better protect the environment. We not only wanted to serve this need, but also make sure we were taking steps to ensure our own business is environmentally friendly. Obviously, we’re incredibly proud to be the first major black tea brand in Ireland to make the switch, but we hope this move will only open the flood gates for others to follow. We recently launched the Greener Tea Mandate to encourage other brands and retailers to make the switch too and offer tea lovers more options that are eco-friendly. Q: We know Lyons Tea uses 100% sustainably sourced and Rainforest Alliance Certified tea leaves. How has this positively affected tea gardens and the wider industry in concrete terms? A: It made sense for us as a business to make sure our tea is 100% Rainforest Alliance Certified. The work the Rainforest Alliance does

with individuals, communities and companies across the world to conserve biodiversity is incredible. As part of their mission, they have trained over 2 million farmers to make sure that crops are being farmed in a sustainable manner. Their huge efforts protect the forests and improve the livelihoods of farmers and forest communities for future generations. The work they do is incredible, and it’s worth taking a deeper dive into all they achieve to better understand why purchasing 100% Rainforest Alliance Certiﬁed tea is the way to go (www.rainforest-alliance.org/). Q: The Lyons Tea ‘Time to Talk’ and ‘Now We’re Talking’ campaigns supporting Pieta House have proved memorable in recent years. How do you intend to build on this and also deliver greater messaging around sustainability? A: At some stage of our lives, most people in Ireland will be affected by mental health issues in some way, shape or form, so raising awareness of mental-health issues in Ireland is a purpose we feel particularly passionate about. We’re extremely proud of the work we’ve done so far, but we’ll continue to look for new ways to de-stigmatise mental health and promote open conversations across Ireland.

Best of the Year CATEGORY FOCUS 33

Superb attention to detail The inspiration for the name of Tom and Norma Dinneen’s farm and cheese came from their gentle Montbéliarde cows, a breed that originate in France where they are synonymous with traditional cheesemaking. They have beautiful rust coloured markings, hence the name Bó Rua, the Irish for red cow. Using their rich and delicious cows’ milk (winner of the Gold medal for Best Dairy Milk at the 2020 Blas na hEireann, Irish Food Awards) the Dinneens use traditional methods to hand-craft and mature their award-winning Bó Rua Farm Cheddar cheese on their family farm in East Cork. Cheesemaking is seasonal, while the cows are outdoors, enjoying a grass diet. Bó Rua Farm Cheddar is carefully produced and gently aged to develop a firm yet delicately creamy texture and a full, approachable flavour. Norma and Tom have made it their mission to oversee every step of their pasture-to-plate produce to ensure they craft the finest of cheese and their attention to detail has certainly paid off with Two Stars at the Great Taste Awards 2020 and the Gold Medal for Best Irish Hard Cheese at the Blas na hEireann, Irish Food Awards in 2019. Bó Rua Farm Original Irish Farm Cheddar has recently been centrally listed in SuperValu stores nationwide. Bó Rua Farm is situated in Ballyknock, Ballynoe, Fermoy, County Cork. For more information, telephone 0879755484 / 0868385547, email info@boruafarm.ie or visit www.boruafarm.ie.

Focused on simplicity Earlier this year, Danone Dairy Ireland introduced its new yogurt range, Danone Yogurt, the brand’s biggest launch in three years. The new Danone Yogurt range has been developed in conjunction with families to reﬂect the simplicity they are seeking in a world where they have more choice than ever. The new and exciting yogurt range caters to increasing calls from Irish shoppers for food brands to create simple, sustainable great tasting products that align with their personal, health and family values.

THE ONLY MAJOR TEA BRAND TO SWITCH TO TEA BAGS

Danone Kids offer an ideal option for school lunch boxes, with no added sugar or sweeteners

Danone Yogurt caters for everyone with simple, recognisable ingredients that consumers will recognise: just milk, live cultures and a fruit and veg layer*, all with no added sugar** or sweeteners. In addition, Danone wants to make recycling easy by using 100% recyclable pots*** and cardboard and clear on-pack recycling labels. The range includes formats for the whole family, including family multipacks, kids pouches and single pots. Flavour combinations include Peach & Raspberry, Mango Carrot & Banana and Strawberry. This brand was launched to help Irish families build more sustainable eating habits for the health and the planet. Danone is proud to be a B Corp company, which means it is committed to using business as a force for good. The new Danone Yogurt range is stocked in Dunnes, SuperValu and Tesco nationwide. For more information, visit www.danoneyogurt.ie.

Best of the Year

The winner of Two Stars at the Great Taste Awards 2020 and a Gold Medal at the Blas na hEireann Awards 2019, this cheddar has impeccable credentials

The Danone Yoghurt range features formats for the whole family, including family multipacks, kids pouches and single pots

Vaping

Bó Rua Farm Cheddar has a ﬁrm yet delicately creamy texture and a full, approachable ﬂavour

Bulmers Rosé made a timely re-emergence onto shelves nationwide in July, adding some much-needed colour to 2020 with a new improved recipe. Initially trialled across a limited period in summer 2019, Bulmers Rosé returned for 2020 with a sweeter, more distinctive summer ﬂavour making it appeal to those who enjoy other ‘pink’ drinks like gin and wine. Produced in Clonmel, Co. Tipperary, the home of Irish cider, Bulmers Rosé is fermented for up to 18 months and made with the same 17 varieties of apples and dedication to the craft as the Original. With an ABV of 4%, Bulmers Rosé comes in a 330ml bottle and is best served over ice, just like the Original, providing an ideal accompaniment to brunch and lunch; and as a pre, during or after-dinner drink. Bulmers Rosé is best served over ice and made to be shared with friends.

Weight Management

Sweeter, more distinctive ﬂavour

*(The kid’s pouches are blended with fruit purée) **(Contains only naturally occurring sugars) ***(Kids pouches are recycled through Terracycle)

An Irish must-have Denny celebrated its bicentenary this year and since 1820, has been at the forefront of delivering products that consumers love. Denny started the year strongly

MAKE THE SWITCH #GREENERTEA

The Denny Meat Free range has been developed using soya protein, coconut oil and the famous Denny signature seasoning

www.shelﬂife.ie | ShelfLife December 2020

Best of the Year

Vaping

Weight Management

34 CATEGORY FOCUS Best of the Year

with a new TV advert ‘Only Denny Will Do’, celebrating 200 years of making memories with Irish households. Denny is performing strongly across its core portfolio where the brand holds the number one position in the sausage category across the island of Ireland, growing rapidly at +23% MAT. Signiﬁcant year-on-year sales growth highlights ‘Only Denny Will Do’ when it comes to sausages for Irish consumers. Denny also remains the number one brand in sliced cooked meats across the island of Ireland, with another solid year of growth at +14% MAT*. Additionally, Denny launched its most signiﬁcant innovation in recent years with the new Denny Meat Free range, consisting of three products; sausages, burgers and mince. Developed using soya protein, coconut oil and the famous Denny signature seasoning, the range delivers the familiar taste of Denny. The range has performed exceptionally well across the trade generating great consumer sentiment. Overall, 2020 has been a very strong year for Denny, delivering strong growth +15% MAT*, with 2021 set to be another massive year for the brand. *(Source: Nielsen Data up to 6/9/20)

Exceeding sales expectations Irish company, VivaGreen’s new Tru Eco range of reﬁllable, ecofriendly laundry and household cleaning products, targeting ecoconscious consumers, continues to grow. John Mac Mahon, manager of Twomey’s SuperValu, Deansgrange says: “Since we started stocking Tru Eco in September, we have seen

the range exceed all sales expectations with sales continuing to increase week on week.” The VivaGreen Tru Eco range, which is made from plant-based and biodegradable ingredients, and is free from harsh chemicals, includes All-Purpose Cleaner (500ml and 1.5L), Washing-Up Liquid (500ml and 1.5L), NonBio Laundry Detergent (1.5L), and Fabric Softener (1.5L). Tru Eco bottles are made from 100% recycled plastic, and they are reusable, recyclable and reﬁllable. The Tru Eco range, developed by VivaGreen’s environmental scientist Dr Anne Marie Mahon, ensures that sustainable practices are met by using naturally-derived, biodegradable ingredients, that are free from harsh chemicals but work together to deliver a powerful performance, and this was central to product development. Tru Eco products are Guaranteed-Irish, vegan-friendly, cruelty-free and septic tank safe. “Today, people are more conscious about supporting local, doing their bit to help the environment and minimising the use of chemicals in their homes and our new Tru Eco range, and all of our other eco-friendly products, meet these consumer demands,” says Russell Walsh, joint managing director, VivaGreen. The Tru Eco range is supported by a national media and targeted digital marketing campaign driving people to their local stockists. For more information, visit www.vivagreen.ie or call (01) 905 9909. For stockist enquiries, contact VivaGreen’s distribution partner Brandshapers Ltd, email: info@brandshapers.ie or call: +353 53 917 9007.

VivaGreen joint managing directors Russell and Garrett Walsh developed the Tru Eco range to meet consumer demand for eco-friendly cleaning products

The Tru Eco range uses naturally-derived, biodegradable ingredients, that are free from harsh chemicals but deliver a powerful performance

ShelfLife December 2020 | www.shelﬂife.ie

Oat experts

Fat Frog Hard Pink Soda is a new edgy hard pink lemonade in 33cl cans. Fat Frog focuses on why consumers buy RTDs; easy emotional refreshment

Uniquely positioned to stand out Award-winning beverage company Cult Drinks has launched a new flavour in the renowned Fat Frog brand – Fat Frog Hard Pink Soda. This edgy hard pink lemonade in 33cl can joins Fat Frog Original, the bestselling Hard Citrus Soda. In March 2020, Cult Drinks relaunched Fat Frog for the new generation of RTD drinkers. Based on extensive market research by Trinity Brand Group, the new bright, bold, and gender neutral branding is uniquely positioned to stand out in a category which has been flooded with homogenous hard seltzers. Fat Frog is all about the fun not the fads and is focused on why consumers buy RTDs; easy emotional refreshment. With 780+ points of distribution across ROI including symbol groups, independents and major multiples, the brand reports 100% of customers have placed repeat orders with order volumes tripling on average. The new Fat Frog is engaging consumers like never before, attracting a broader age range and demographic, bringing a new customer to the aisle. As well as full in-store POS, the Fat Frog Pink launch is being supported primarily across social media and key influencer partnerships including the sponsorship of a mockumentary series with comedy influencer Darren Conway and his DJ Fresh Vibes character. For more information, get in touch at sarahjane@cult-drinks.com.

Flahavan’s, Ireland’s favourite porridge brand, has been milling locally sourced oats in Kilmacthomas, Co. Waterford for 235 years. Now in its seventh generation, this family business has been at the forefront of category innovation for the past two decades, pioneering a dramatic change in the way consumers think about oat-based foods and their compelling health beneﬁts. By putting the consumer at the heart of its new product development, the company has been able to strategically expand its portfolio beyond the hot oats category, as was evident in August 2020 when it launched a new range of vegan friendly ‘No Added Sugar’ Oat Drinks to cater to the needs of younger audiences seeking plant-based products. As oat experts, the move into this new market sector represented a natural step for a brand with such established heritage, history and provenance. Available in all major supermarkets, the three new variants include Vitamin Rich, Organic and Barista and are made with 100% Irish oats. Targeted at younger healthconscious consumers choosing plant-based products for both lifestyle and dietary reasons, Flahavan’s Oat Drinks range has had strong marketing support across OOH, digital and social channels, aimed at amplifying awareness and education about the new range as swiftly and effectively as possible. The range has received strong positive reaction and trial among plant-based consumers to date, while its Barista variant is gaining traction across independent cafés, coffee shop chains and other foodservice channels.

Flahavan’s Oat Drinks launched earlier this year in August, with three variants, Vitamin Rich, Organic and Barista

Best of the Year CATEGORY FOCUS

Glenisk Go Shots are high protein yogurt tubes, ideal for teenagers and young adults on-the-go

Another feather in its sustainable cap… (sule) 2020 saw Frank and Honest launch its new aluminium capsules range, marking the next step in the coffee company’s sustainable journey. The beneﬁt of aluminium capsules is that they can be recycled after use and deliver a better quality product. These new capsules mean that all plastic has been removed from its coffee capsules. Using aluminium in capsules reduces the

product’s environmental footprint as it’s lightweight and recyclable but it also signiﬁcantly improves the quality of the coffee as it’s airtight – it keeps the ground coffee inside fresh for longer and fully protects it from moisture, oxygen, light and heat. This improves in-cup quality so your customer’s coffee always tastes amazing. The new aluminium capsules are also compatible with all generation Nespresso machines excluding Nespresso

Best of the Year

As well as growing sales of its Organic Yogurt by 50% during the ﬁrst lockdown of the year, 2020 has been a year of innovation and investment by Glenisk – Ireland’s number one yogurt brand. Glenisk remains a brand that consumers trust when it comes to health, quality, taste and innovation, producing premium Irish milk and yogurts from its base outside of Tullamore, Co. Offaly. Glenisk this year cemented its commitment to sustainable production and environmental protection with the backing of the One Million Trees campaign – together with Self Help Africa, pledging to plant one million trees in Africa and 100,000 in Ireland. This local to global initiative is just one of several steps being taken by the business to lead the way in sustainable food production. In May, Glenisk introduced the ﬁrst carbon neutral milk carton to the market, removing the plastic screwcap on its Organic and Goats’ Milk ranges in place of a brown board paper carton made from 100% renewable materials. New carbon neutral yogurt pots

will be introduced across the trade in Q1 2021. Glenisk also launched two new product ranges during the year – a new no-added-sugar Quark, featuring an on-pack partnership with Kathryn Thomas and Pure Results, as well as new on-the-go Go Shots, a high protein yogurt tube for the teenage and young adult consumer base. For more information, visit www.glenisk.com.

Vaping

Investment and innovation

Weight Management

The One Million Trees campaign saw Glenisk together with Self Help Africa, pledge to plant one million trees in Africa and 100,000 in Ireland

Glenisk introduced a new no-added-sugar Quark this year

Vertuo. From bean to cup, Frank and Honest has put processes in place to ensure it looks at sustainable optimal solutions for each stage of its coffee-making journey. For more information on Frank and Honest’s sustainable solutions, visit www.frankandhonest.ie. All Frank and Honest coffee cups and lids are 100% compostable and Frank and Honest Coffee is 100% Rainforest Alliance Certiﬁed. Frank and Honest Coffee was also recently awarded the Guaranteed Irish symbol in recognition for its role in supporting Irish jobs and communities nationwide. It is available in SuperValu and Centra stores in over 660 locations across the country. The group also has stand-alone cafes in Dunboyne, Co. Meath as well as Sundrive Road, Dublin. Follow the Frank and Honest story on: www.facebook.com/ frankandhonest and www.instagram.com/ frankandhonestcoffee/.

Frank and Honest Aluminium Capsules are airtight, so the ground coffee inside is kept fresher for longer

W E N

VivaGreen.ie www.shelﬂife.ie | ShelfLife December 2020

36 CATEGORY FOCUS Best of the Year

Best of the Year

Vaping

Weight Management

Now widely available across key retailers, the brand is looking forward to bringing Jack Daniel’s Apple to more and more consumers in 2021, either in their homes, or favorite local bar. Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Apple is distributed exclusively by Edward Dillon & Co Ltd. For further details, contact your account manager or sales representative for further details. (Drink responsibly. Get the facts. Be Drink Aware, visit drinkaware.ie) Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Apple combines one of Ireland’s favourite fruits with the world’s number one selling American whiskey

How do you like them apples? This year, Jack Daniel’s launched the newest edition to its family; Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Apple. This crisp and delicious new ﬂavour from the expert distillers at Jack Daniel’s offers consumers a new and approachable way to enjoy Jack Daniel’s. Did you know apples are one of Ireland’s favorite fruits?* So why wouldn’t Jack Daniel’s pair this great taste with the world’s number one selling American whiskey?** The ﬂavoured spirits category has been growing year on year in Ireland, with consumers actively looking for new tastes and experiences when enjoying a tipple. And what better way to give consumers what they want than mixing Jack Apple with refreshing tonic water for a new refreshing drink of choice. Since launching in May, Jack Daniel’s Apple has grown to 11th place (MAT)*** within the total spirit category, which is a strong result after only six months on-shelf, cementing this innovation as a delicious choice for Irish consumers.

By mixing Jack Apple with tonic water, consumers can create a new refreshing drink of choice

ShelfLife December 2020 | www.shelﬂife.ie

*(Source: Bord Bia Insight Centre Understanding consumer awareness of Irish eating apples 8 December 2016) **(Source: https://www.thespiritsbusiness. com/2020/06/the-10-best-selling-worldwhisky-brands/11/) ***(Source: Nielsen Off Trade Data, MAT Oct 2020)

A satisfying snack In September, award-winning cheddar cheese brand Kilmeaden took a step into the snacking world with cheddar snack bars. The bars are all-natural containing just one ingredient; cheese! The new 20g snack bar is naturally high in protein – something that tops many consumers’ nutrient list. It helps to satisfy those cravings with only 78 calories per bar. The low carb, low sugar snack will maintain healthy bones thanks to its high calcium count – without any additives; perfect for professionals and kids alike.

The new Kilmeaden 20g cheddar snack bar is naturally high in protein

Kilmeaden is now going head to head with other snack bars as the brand enters a new category. As a trusted brand among Irish consumers, Kilmeaden offers a satisfying yet nutritious snack for busy eaters on-the-go and is especially handy for those following a vegetarian or ﬂexitarian diet. Available in multipacks of ﬁve x 20g bars (RRP €2.70), or as single 20g bars to eat when on-the-go (RRP: 70c). “These bars have been designed to help Irish consumers make healthier snacking choices,” says Kilmeaden brand manager, Cara Millaney. “Cheddar cheese is the perfect snack - high in protein, low in sugars, satisfying and very tasty. We’re sure these snack bars will be welcomed by anyone who loves cheese!”

Kind Breakfast Bars are made with ﬁve whole grains; oats, millet, buckwheat, amaranth and quinoa

Breakfast without the bowl When it comes to snacking, Kind believes that you shouldn’t have to choose between tasty and nutritious, and this is certainly the case with the brand’s new breakfast range. Kind Bars are now the number one brand in the ‘fruit, nut and cereal singles’ category with 37% share*. Building on this success, Kind has launched its Kind Breakfast multi-pack range across the market. Kind Breakfast bars are made with ﬁve whole grains; oats, millet, buckwheat, amaranth and quinoa, to be enjoyed on-thego, with a coffee on your morning

commute (even if it’s just from the bedroom to the kitchen these days), dipped in Greek yoghurt at your desk, or sitting at your kitchen table with the kids. Kind Breakfast Bars are made with whole and natural ingredients, high in ﬁbre and gluten free. They are available in three great ﬂavours: Blueberry Almond, Honey Oat, and Peanut Butter. Currently stocked in Tesco, Spar, Eurospar, Fresh and Musgrave Wholesale outlets nationwide. Available in multipacks of three, with individually wrapped packs of two 25g bars, at RRP: €3.99 per box. Find Kind at KINDsnacks.ie. *(Source Nielsen data MAT to end Q3 2020)

Elegant portfolio Kylie Minogue Wines is an exquisite, elegant portfolio of bespoke wines, crafted with passion and integrity. Launched this year in Ireland on Kylie’s birthday, on 28 May, the rosé quickly become one of the most successful launches in its category ever. This Signature range comprises of three wines from France. A delicate and pale dry rosé made from Cabernet and Carignan grapes, a light and zesty Sauvignon Blanc from Gascony and a smooth and juicy Merlot from the Pays d’Oc. Available in a threebottle gift pack this Christmas, the Kylie Minogue Wines range is proudly distributed by Barry & Fitzwilliam.

Kylie Minogue Wines are available in a three-bottle gift pack this Christmas

Best of the Year CATEGORY FOCUS

Lindt Lindor Salted Caramel is available in a slim stick format; a perfect on-the-go treat

Maintaining its position as the number one boxed chocolate brand, Lindt Lindor continues to outperform the market achieving double digit growth of +16.1% and holding a market share of 15.9%.* Lindor’s success comes not only from the much-loved classic Lindor milk recipe but also through its continual innovations to the market that are guaranteed to excite and delight shoppers. This autumn welcomed the launch of the latest edition to the Lindor cornet range. Experience bliss with Lindt Lindor smooth melting salted caramel chocolate truffles. The Lindt master chocolatiers combine expertise and the finest ingredients to produce the perfectly round milk chocolate shell with salt crystals filled with an irresistibly smooth melting caramel centre. With a unique recipe and taste profile that only Lindor can deliver, Salted Caramel looks certain to be a massive hit this Christmas. The Lindor Bar offers the same classic smooth melting recipe as the iconic Lindor truffles, but comes in a 100g bar format, 12 squares of smooth melting bliss. Lindor Salted Caramel is also available in a slim stick format, it is the perfect on-the-go treat promising to be a “blissful”, indulgent experience for taste buds. The tempting Lindor range are products of the care and passion that Lindt’s Swiss master chocolatiers put into creating each and every recipe, with a format for every occasion. *(Source: AC Nielsen Scantrack total market MAT latest 52 weeks to 1st Nov 2020)

Müller Corner Icelandic Style Skyr is the largest ever Müller Corner, containing 13g of protein

“Demand for Skyr products continues to grow and we know that taste is by far the most important factor when choosing yogurts**. “We’ve already seen with the recent success of Müller Corner that formats like split-pots can deliver growth if the idea is strong enough,” he added. “We’re excited to introduce a new generation of Müller Corner to the established split pot market, and shaking it up by making it deliciously thick, bigger and with a transparent Corner so that shoppers can see the high quality, delicious whole nuts and granola inclusions.”

Sussed Vegan Power Bites are made using 100% natural ingredients

Power bites? You’ve got it sussed! Small Irish food producer, Sussed has just launched Vegan Power Bites made using only the finest ingredients sourced from 100% natural ingredients. Ideal for fuelling, endurance or recovery, Sussed Vegan Power Bites are 100% natural, gluten, dairy, GM and palm oil free with no added sugar. Available in two mouthwatering flavours, Blueberry and Almond & Peanut Butter, these Vegan Power Bites are deliciously made using Sussed Healthy Heart rapeseed oil to create the hearty snack that helps everyone lead a happy and healthy life. What’s more, Sussed Vegan Power Bites are bursting with fruit and nuts acting as a good source of protein and fibre as well as one of an individual’s five-a-day. The Sussed Vegan Power Bites are the latest addition to the ever-growing Sussed range which until now has largely focussed on healthy oils. The latest additions are Gold Seal Balsamic Vinegar

Two tasty ﬂavours of Vegan Power Bites are available: Blueberry and Almond & Peanut Butter

Best of the Year

Melt into a moment of bliss

Vaping

With double digit growth of +16.1%, Lindt Lindor holds a market share of 15.9%

Müller, Ofﬁcial Yogurt of Athletics Ireland, is Ireland’s favourite yogurt brand, and the 10th most chosen brand overall*. Müller shook up the super thick yogurt segment with its ﬁrst ever Skyr product, Müller Corner Icelandic Style Skyr. It is available in three variants: Icelandic Style Skyr with Raspberry and Hazelnut Granola, Nuts and Chocolate Coated Balls Granola and Banana and Almond Granola. It is the largest ever Müller Corner and it contains 13g of protein. Available as a single pot (180g), the RRP is €1.89. The dairy company is continuing with its strategy to add further inspiration to its core range of branded yogurts as it targets category growth. Michael Inpong, strategy and marketing director at Müller Yogurt & Desserts said: “We’re constantly creating innovative, fun and delicious new products, like this one, which meet changing shopper needs.

Weight Management

Delivering on taste

of Modena and Extra Virgin Olive Oil, joining the ranks of the popular Sussed 2 cal spray, Sussed Rapeseed Oil 500ml and Sussed Omega 3 oil. Sussed Vegan Power Bites are a new year must-try. For more information on Sussed and its product range, visit sussed.ie.

Fuelling performance Strathroy Protein Milk is a natural product made healthier for athletes who want a refreshing nutritious dairy product for refreshment, recovery and repair after exercise, matches or a work out. With a unique athlete-friendly 500ml bottle, Protein Milk is designed to be carried in the kit bag for pre or post sport hydration. Already the Protein Milk has been the performance fuel of choice used by all Ireland winning teams, county championship winners and individual athletes across rugby, football, camogie and hurling, athletics and triathlon.

Available in an athlete-friendly 500ml bottle, Strathroy Protein Milk is ideal for pre or post sport hydration

*(Source: Kantar Brand Footprint 2020) **(Source: Kantar Usage data, January 2020)

A new generation of Müller Corner has joined the split pot market, whereby transparent pots allow consumers to see the high quality inclusions

www.shelﬂife.ie | ShelfLife December 2020

38 CATEGORY FOCUS Best of the Year

Weight Management

Number one hard seltzer

Best of the Year

Vaping

White Claw Hard Seltzer, America’s most successful new alcohol brand in a generation arrived on Irish shores in May of this year. Distributed by Barry & Fitzwilliam, White Claw Hard Seltzer is now the number one hard seltzer brand in the country by both value and volume. Pioneering an entirely new category in alcoholic beverages, White Claw Hard Seltzer has become something of a cultural phenomenon, with passionate consumers in their millions championing the brand online.

launch has been in Ireland,” says Louise Priestman, PepsiCo Ireland. “In the first three months, the brand has delivered an RSV of nearly €300k and reached a distribution of 35%. Not only that, but we are double the rate of some of our biggest competitors.” Great for sharing, Wotsits Giants are baked not fried, contain no preservatives and are suitable for vegetarians. “Delivering the same great burst of flavour but at two times the size, we can’t wait to see what 2021 brings for this new brand,” Priestman adds. Wotsits Giants Really Cheesy and Flamin’ Hot 130g bags are available in all major Irish supermarkets. In the first three months since launching, the Wotsits Giants range has delivered an RSV of nearly €300k

Each blend of Tea+ has its own delicious fruit ﬂavour and includes powerful nutrients like Vitamin C, Vitamin D, Ginseng and Selenium

Nutrition never tasted this good! If there is one thing the Irish enjoy as a nation, it’s a comforting cup of tea! Tea+ is a tasty new range of vitamin-infused teas, designed by experts to help maintain general health and wellbeing. Each blend has its own delicious fruit flavour and includes powerful nutrients like Vitamin C, Vitamin D, Ginseng and Selenium. It’s a perfect accompaniment to those cold winter evenings. Tea+ contains a unique blend of vitamins, herbs, fruit and green tea with the aim of helping people reach their daily wellness goals in a convenient, nutritious and tasty cup of tea. Tea+ Vitamin D Vitamin Tea €4.99 With Vitamin D, lemongrass and a warming mango and pineapple flavour, this tasty tea is sure to brighten up your day, and is the ideal way to increase Vitamin D intake with 200% of an individual’s daily NRV in every cup. Tea+ Defence Vitamin Tea €4.99 With essential ingredients like Vitamin C, Vitamin D, Echinacea and Ginseng, this warming tea is an uplifting treat when you are feeling flat. Designed to support the immune system when you need it most, Tea+ Defence Tea is packed with botanicals. Tea+ Cleanse Vitamin Tea €4.99 This cleansing and warming drink is a blend of green tea, milk thistle, dandelion root, fruit, Vitamin C and Selenium which

ShelfLife December 2020 | www.shelﬂife.ie

contributes to the protection of cells from oxidative stress, with a natural apple and blackcurrant flavour. Tea+ Energy Vitamin Tea €4.99 Including Vitamins B6 and B12 which contribute to the reduction of tiredness and fatigue, this mood-boosting tea will help to keep you active and energised for longer. Vitamins B6, B12 and folic acid also contribute to the normal function of the immune system, with a natural raspberry and pomegranate flavor. Tea+ vitamin teas are a convenient and comforting way to take your daily vitamins and are the perfect option for people who prefer taking their vitamins in a drink instead of tablet form. Suitable for vegetarians and vegans, each Tea+ drink is free from artificial sweeteners and preservatives. Each Tea+ box contains a 14 day routine (14 tea bags) and is priced at €4.99. Tea+ was established in 2015 by husband and wife team, James and Jade Dawson who had set their sights high for the growth of the business. The pair applied for Dragon’s Den and after a brilliant pitch, James shook hands on a deal with Tej Lalvani, the CEO of Vitabiotics. Tea+ is available from SuperValu, health food stores and pharmacies nationwide and online. For more information, visit www.vitabiotics.com/pages/ teaplus, @teaplusdrinks www. instagram.com/teaplusdrinks/.

White Claw Hard Seltzer has only 95 calories, 4.5% ABV and just 2g carbs

White Claw Hard Seltzer is made from the finest natural ingredients; a blend of sparkling water, gluten-free triple distilled spirit, and a hint of natural fruit flavour. The product is available in a range of three flavours – raspberry, natural lime and black cherry. At only 95 calories, 4.5% ABV and just 2g carbs, White Claw Hard Seltzer delivers a wave of pure refreshment like no other. Known for its strong track record in alcohol beverage innovation, Ireland-based Mark Anthony Brands International developed the White Claw Hard Seltzer brand for launch in the US in 2016, disrupting the alcohol beverage industry with what has been coined as “the hard seltzer revolution”.

A real ﬂavour punch In September 2020, PepsiCo launched its new supersized Wotsits Giants range in Ireland. Coming in Wotsits Giants Really Cheesy and Flamin’ Hot and at two times the size of the originals, Wotsits Giants deliver quite the ﬂavour punch and are ideal for sharing at home with pals or family. “We are so proud of how successful our Wotsits Giants

The Wotsits Giants range has already reached a distribution of 35% since launching just three months ago

Best of the Year CATEGORY FOCUS 39

with Adam Smart,

Adam Smart

general manager, Ireland, PepsiCo

Q: How is the company currently performing and what are the major factors that have led to these results? A: We are fortunate that the categories we operate in have been less impacted than many others and our brands do bring smiles to consumers’ faces during these unprecedented times. The savoury snacks category overall is in strong double digit growth*, and our brands have performed very well, ahead of the total category. However, our mix like many others has been a challenge with volume shifting from single serve into larger sharing and multipack formats. We have maintained our strong customer partnerships and have leveraged some fantastic global assets. Being able to bring the Champions League trophy to Ireland just before lockdown and then partnering across multiple trade partners when the competition returned in August were special highlights. As we head into Christmas, our Doritos partnership with Sony is giving our consumers the chance to win much sought after PS5 consoles. The other area where we have seen great advances is our e-commerce partnerships

The new Walkers Max Double Crunch ridge crisp range is generating strong sales

which have extended beyond our traditional grocery e-commerce and where we have seen signiﬁcant growth in volume. Q: How have your NPD plans changed as a result this year? A: We have been really proud of our NPD successes in 2020, driven by the fact that consumers, more than ever want ‘new news’ from the brands they trust. The launch of our Flaming Hot Doritos, our new Walkers Max Double Crunch ridge crisp range and our Wotsits Giants range, have been a huge success, all rooted in the at home family sharing occasion, driving an incremental €1.3m retail sales value (RSV)* into the segment. Q: How has PepsiCo Ireland reacted to changing consumer trends, in particular, the demand for healthier snacks? A: The business is deeply committed to offering improved snack choices for our consumers and we’ve been taking signiﬁcant voluntary action for well over a decade. We are recognised as an

Best of the Year

A: This has been a challenging year for us all and we’ve been very focused to ensure our plans were responsive to the changing needs of our employees, consumers and customers. One of our key priorities was to maintain continuity of supply to our customers to keep the shelves stocked through the peaks of demand. Crucial to this was adapting promotional plans during and post lockdown and redeploying our ﬁeld sales teams into under pressure channels to help keep the shelves full. We also made a conscious decision to continue to invest in top class shopper marketing campaigns like ‘Grab Summer by the Snacks’ and our UEFA ‘Football is Back’ campaigns to help keep the momentum in the category and drive growth for our customers. Of course, our single biggest focus was on the wellbeing and safety of our own PepsiCo staff, ensuring that our incredible frontline ﬁeld teams had the right protection and resources to do their job. It’s hugely important to me that PepsiCo Ireland continues to be a great and safe place to work.

industry leader in voluntary reformulation and innovation. In 2006 Walkers switched to healthier oils with around 70% less saturated fat. When it comes to salt, we’ve reduced sodium levels in standard potato crisps by 25% and savoury snacks by 55%. We’re driving more permissible family snacks with no artiﬁcial colours or ﬂavours and multipacks available in 100 calorie portions or less across our Wotsits, Quavers and Monster Munch range. We continue to lead the way in ‘Better for you snacks’ through our Walkers Baked range, which has 50% less fat than average crisps and holds the number one position in the healthier crisps segment*.

Vaping

Q: How have you responded to the challenges posed by the Covid-19 crisis?

Weight Management

Q: What do you see on the horizon for 2021 and what are your plans for growth next year? A: I hope 2021 will be a year of rapid recovery both for businesses and the nation. 2021 will undoubtedly be a year of economic uncertainty for consumers and therefore partnering with our customers to satisfy the needs of the ‘value shopper’ will be a key pillar for us. As we see people returning to the workplace, we want to partner with this sector whether it be convenience or food service and we think we can play a role in helping these sectors ﬂourish once again with exciting Walkers NPD and shopper activations around lunchtime meal deal solutions. We are optimistic about our categories and our business as we go into 2021 and we have some exciting plans for our core portfolio and new innovation ideas on the horizon that I believe will meet the diverse needs of the Irish consumers. ■

With 50% less fat than average crisps, the Walkers Baked range holds the number one position in the healthier crisps segment

Doritos has partnered with Sony to give consumers the chance to win much sought after PS5 consoles

The launch of Wotsits Giants, alongside Flaming Hot Doritos and new Walkers Max Double Crunch, have driven an incremental €1.3m RSV

*(Source: Nielsen, Total Scantrack RSV Nov 2020). **(50% less fat than regular crisps).

www.shelﬂife.ie | ShelfLife December 2020

42 CATEGORY FOCUS Vaping

Best of the Year

Vaping

Weight Management

Time to exhale Vaping has been growing in popularity in recent years due to its perceived health benefits over smoking and as a more socially accepted alternative to smoking. The market is constantly evolving with new flavours and products keeping the sector fresh

aping was created to give traditional smokers an alternative to smoking tobacco and is often used as a way to reduce a regular smoking habit. Millions of smokers worldwide have now moved to vaping and the market has responded with increased choice in the sector. One of the most attractive traits of vaping is that it allows you to measure your nicotine consumption, with many people starting with high levels of nicotine and reducing the amount over time. E-juice is available in a variety of strengths, ranging from nicotine-free to high-strength nicotine. You can choose exactly how much nicotine is in your vape, if you decide to use any at all. The Royal College of Physicians in the UK, representing over 35,000 doctors worldwide, has stated that vaping is at least 95% safer than smoking based on its extensive research. One of the biggest advantages of vaping is that you and your environment won’t smell of smoke while you consume it and it is acceptable to vape indoors as opposed to always standing out in the cold. Vaping may have an aroma from the ﬂavours used, but the smell of vapour can be pleasant and is very faint. Smaller devices like pod vapes are designed for convenience and low vapour, whereas the highpowered mods are better suited for cloud chasing, the activity of blowing large clouds of vapour using an electronic cigarette. There are a huge array of e-juice ﬂavours to choose

ShelfLife December 2020 | www.shelﬂife.ie

from and new ﬂavours being developed all the time. Common ﬂavours include menthol, tobacco, mint, fruit and berry. Many vapes come with rechargeable batteries to power the atomizer and most of these are designed to last throughout the day without having to recharge. Vaping products provide strong margins and are proving very popular with consumers so be sure to have a good selection of the leading brands on hand to take advantage of the category. Some of the leading brands in the sector are Logic, Hale and Vype, which we look at in detail below.

Making it simple 2020 has been complicated enough; your customers’ vaping products shouldn’t be. Logic is focused on providing the straightforward choice to the vaping experience. Logic is proud to be Ireland’s number one electronic cigarette

brand*. With the category constantly growing and evolving, one aspect that remains is JTI’s commitment to providing high quality products that meet strict standards in a wide range of flavours to meet your customers’ needs. Logic is keen to express its thanks to you as retailers, in helping JTI and Logic to achieve this position. Logic’s mission is to make vaping simple for Ireland’s adult vapers, and with Logic Compact things couldn’t be simpler. The pre-filled e-liquid pods click into place magnetically, meaning there is no re-filling, no mess and no fuss. It really is that simple. This user-friendly approach has clearly worked: Ireland’s vapers have responded by making it the leading pod device on the market since its launch in 2019*, and the launch of the Intense range means there are now more reasons to choose Logic Compact. Compact Intense nicotine

salt e-liquids are designed to create a richer vapour and more intense flavour for a more satisfying and enhanced vaping experience. The new e-liquid range launched across five flavours; American Tobacco, Spearmint, Peppermint, Polar Menthol and Mixed Berries, so now your vaping customers will now have even more options to choose from for use with Logic’s newest and smartest device. The five new flavours are available in 18mg/ml nicotine strengths. JTI’s salesforce and customer services team is on hand to provide expert support and advice about the Logic range and help you maximise vaping category sales. You can order Logic products through the web ordering portal JTI Engage, your local JTI trade marketer, by calling JTI customer services on 01-404-5400, or through cash and carry. *(Source: Nielsen period ending 1 November 2020)

Logic’s mission is to make vaping simple for Ireland’s adult vapers

ELECTRONIC CIGARETTE â&#x20AC;&#x201D; CONTAINS NICOTINE NICOTINE IS AN ADDICTIVE SUBSTANCE

LOGIC COMPACT

WHATEVER YOUR CHRISTMAS LOOKS LIKE THIS YEAR, ENJOY THE LITTLE MOMENTS.

logicvapes_ie LogicVapesIE

logicvapes.ie

Best of the Year

Vaping

Weight Management

44 CATEGORY FOCUS Vaping

Hale produces all its fully TPD-compliant e-liquid in an ISO:9001 (2015) accredited manufacturing facility in Carlow

Ireland’s leading vaping brand Hale is a fully Irish-owned and operated company, which over the past seven plus years has become Ireland’s leading vaping brand. Hale believes it stands above the rest thanks to its network of 50-plus dedicated stores, a Retail Excellence awardwinning website, availability in 1.500 plus convenience locations, and an ISO:9001 (2015) accredited manufacturing facility in Carlow producing all of its fully TPD-compliant Hale e-liquid. Hale’s expert team has helped tens of thousands of

consumers will choose to support local. Hale states its products offer the highest margin available in the e-cigarette category. Its nationwide team of representatives are available to provide support, information, point of sale material, and to organise stock replenishment. Hale’s team pride themselves on taking the hassle and confusion out of e-cigarettes and allowing retailers to focus on the important things, like what to do with all the extra revenue coming through your tills per year thanks to Hale.

The perfect vape Vype’s stylish, modern design matches consumers’ lifestyle and its small size ﬁts neatly in

any pocket. The brand states ceramic heating technology gives the perfect vape, delivering 275 puffs per cartridge.* Designed specifically for the Vype ePod, each vPro cartridge gives a burst of intense flavour that appeals to consumers’ tastes and sense of adventure. All Vype ePod eLiquids contain nicotine salts to deliver bold flavours and a smooth vaping experience while staying true to the quality promise of Vype. PJ Carroll offers you, and your customers the new awardwinning vaping device**, for a genuinely satisfying alternative. Customers can choose from a range of 12 and 18 mg ePod vPro flavours including Golden

tobacco, Chilled mint, Very berry, Vanilla medley, Just mango, Garden strawberry, Peppermint tobacco and Creamy mint. Finally, the company is also offering a gold and black ePod device kit only for €5 to encourage customers to try the Vype ePod. For more information about Vype products and offers, go to b2b.pjcarroll.ie, contact your PJ Carroll sales representative, or contact the company’s telemarketing department on 1800 604500. ■ *(Based on average usage pattern) **(Source: Winner of the e-cigarette category 2020. Survey of 10,399 people in UK and ROI by Kantar TNS. For adult smokers and vapers only. Vype e-cigarettes contain nicotine. 18+ only)

The Hale Glow is an all-inone, pen-style device with an integrated drip tip that makes for the perfect kit to get started with

people make the change and continue to do so year-on-year. Hale liquid is the only e-liquid to carry the Guaranteed Irish mark. Despite the challenges that were presented throughout 2020, the Hale brand has seen growth in all channels. It is clear this year more than ever that, given the opportunity,

ShelfLife December 2020 | www.shelﬂife.ie

Designed speciﬁcally for the Vype ePod, each vPro cartridge gives a burst of intense ﬂavour that appeals to consumers’ tastes and sense of adventure

Vype is offering a gold and black ePod device kit only for €5 to encourage customers to try the Vype ePod

ePod

YOU REINVENT THE GAME Like ePod reinvents vaping, thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s why consumers choose us.

CHECK IT OUT AT B2B.PJCARROLL.IE For adult smokers and vapers only. Vype e-cigarettes contain nicotine which is addictive. 18+ Only. Read leaflet in pack.

46 ADVISOR: HR

Grievance investigations

An effective grievance policy should encourage consistency, transparency and fairness in the handling of workplace complaints. Not only is this vital for workplace morale, but ultimately, failure to follow-through could result in a case of constructive dismissal, writes Caroline McEnery

CAROLINE MCENERY

managing director, The HR Suite

grievance is a complaint which an employee or group of employees has concerning his or her terms and conditions of employment, working environment or working relationships. Employee grievances can arise for a variety of reasons including the following: changing work practices, alleged discrimination, bullying or harassment, health and safety issues, promotion and grading, issues with fellow employees etc. Detailed below is a step-by-step process on how to manage the early start of a grievance. It is equally important that employees understand what is not a grievance. An example would be receiving constructive feedback and guidance from a supervisor on everyday work procedures relating to the employee’s role. However, an employee may feel they have been excessively criticised if they can give examples of other employees being treated more favourably.

Essential steps

A good grievance procedure gives employees a course of action if they have a complaint and helps to resolve problems quickly and often informally

Training: It is advised that as a company you should provide appropriate training to any staff members who have employee management functions. Consciously unbiased: It is important that management approach any grievance with a clear, unbiased opinion from the outset. Keep in mind that you need to be neutral. Do not let your past experiences with any of the parties involved inﬂuence and cultivate an opinion in advance of the procedure ever being invoked. Policy: The ﬁrst and most important step is to have a policy in place. The aim of a good grievance procedure is to encourage consistency, transparency and fairness in the handling of workplace problems or complaints. It provides employees with a course of action if they have a complaint and helps to resolve problems quickly and often informally. A grievance procedure will provide a mechanism to solve problems and no employee shall suffer any form of victimisation as a result of raising a grievance under this procedure. The procedure should be applied fairly and consistently to all staff.

Three routes

CONTACT THE HR SUITE:

If you require further information or advice on HR, please do not hesitate to contact The HR Suite’s consultants on (01) 9014335 or (066) 7102887 or email the company at info@thehrsuiteonline.com.

Your company policy should have several routes for your employee to invoke should they so wish. A typical policy will have three routes; informal, mediation and formal. Anyone in a management role should fully understand what the routes are and clearly explain this to the employee. This will normally be a difﬁcult time for the employee and it is management’s role to ensure they have conﬁdence in the policy. The three routes are summarised below: 1. Informal: It is preferable if all complaints could be dealt with informally whenever possible. This can resolve matters proactively, quickly and effectively, with the minimum of

ShelfLife December 2020 | www.shelﬂife.ie

conflict and stress for both individuals involved. a). The employee addresses the concerns directly to the manager in private. b). The employee asking for an informal meeting to be facilitated by the company between both parties and the manager, in private. 2. Mediation: This is not about blame, but about understanding the conflict and finding agreed ways of future interaction and behaviour. There is no right or wrong or blame in mediation. A trained mediator would facilitate a meeting with both parties if they both agree to this option. This option is particularly effective where personality conflicts are central to the problem. 3. Formal: The formal route is also open to your employee. The employee needs to provide you with a written statement. You would also be meeting with the manager to discuss the complaint. Further investigatory meetings may take place with any witnesses, if deemed appropriate. The decision regarding the outcome of the complaint will then be made to the employee.

Keeping communications open In this case, the next step is to speak with the employee. • Make sure your meeting is held in private with no interruptions. • Explain the policy and the routes available in easy to understand language. • You should listen sympathetically, without agreeing with the employee. Remember you have heard one version of the scenario. • Explain to the employee that if they do not wish to invoke the policy in this instance, the procedure is always available to invoke at any other time. It is important that the manager follows this meeting up in writing and confirms what was discussed and includes a copy of the grievance procedure. It is advisable to give the employee a date to reply by as it helps to close out the matter if no further action is being taken. Once the employee confirms the desired route, it is the role of the manager to ensure it is invoked. Failure to follow through on this may result in a case of constructive dismissal, i.e.: “I had no other choice to leave my job because my manager was bullying me and the company failed to do anything about it.” Representation: The employee should have the right to be accompanied by a work colleague or a chosen representative at any formal meeting under the procedure. A witness may address the meeting but not speak on the employee’s behalf. Finally, if in doubt about how to complete this correctly, it is important to seek professional advice on how best to proceed. If you are an organisation based in the Republic of Ireland and require further information or advice relating to a grievance or alternative HR issue, please do not hesitate to contact our office on (066) 7102887. ■

Weight Management CATEGORY FOCUS 47

Weight Management

Healthy heroes Nielsen’s second Annual Global Wellness Report 2019 found that around the world, consumers are struggling with their health. For example, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO), more than 1.9 billion people globally are overweight. However, Nielsen’s data shows that consumers are invested in their health. In fact, 72% of global consumers say they would buy foods that include superfoods, the analyst reports. As a result, retailers, manufacturers, health care providers and even governments

Get your year off to a healthy start!

are reacting to the evolving health needs and concerns of consumers around the world, but Nielsen states there is still more work to be done. In a previous 2015 survey, Nielsen found that half (49%) of global respondents believe they are overweight, and half (50%) are trying to lose weight. Interest in all things healthy is nothing new in Ireland. Over the years consumer interest in healthier options has soared in popularity. Retailers nationwide have been proactive in catering to this demand, and today healthy snacking is easier and more affordable than ever before. “The vast majority of consumers report eating foods they feel to be healthy at least some of the time, but opinions and attitudes on what a healthy diet is vary greatly,” says Karen Formanski, Mintel health and wellness analyst. “Brands making

better-for-you claims need to stay on the pulse of trending diets, yet not lose sight of the tried-andtrue, traditional ideas surrounding healthy eating,” she adds. “Brands can reach a wide audience with an overarching message of fresh, real ingredients, along with options curated to speciﬁc dietary concerns.”

Best of the Year

hile shoppers may be busy stocking their cupboards with mince pies and chocolates, one thing’s for certain: come 1 January, folks nationwide will be looking to start the new year on a healthy footing. After enjoying an indulgent festive season, many consumers want to kickstart a ﬁtness and healthy eating regime. According to Nielsen, there’s no doubt that health and wellness is on the minds of consumers, retailers and manufacturers around the world – and for good reason.

Vaping

‘New Year, new me’ promises will be at the front of many shoppers’ minds come January. How can you fulfil their needs and help them kickstart their weight loss journey while still enjoying wholesome fare? Gillian Hamill reports

Celebrating eating well At Unislim, the company’s focus is on celebrating eating delicious, nutritious food. In a year where everything changed, the one constant we had was food. The nation learned how to make sourdough starters and explored food avenues we would not have considered 12 months ago. With a glimmer of hope, we can now see the faint shimmer of light at the end of the tunnel. With a huge sigh of relief, we can return to the familiar. The

Stock up now! Make the most of 300+ Unislim classes & 50k members nationwide!

Rustic Cut Chips

Sweet Potato Fries

Be GorgeUs!

Get yours today Selling Points

• 300+ Unislim classes in Ireland with 50k active, loyal members • Gluten Free, Vegan, Low Fat • Healthy Margins = Healthy Profits

Unislim Gorge Us Rustic Cut Chips and Skinny Sweet Potato Fries are both great options for tasty mealtimes for health-conscious shoppers

www.shelﬂife.ie | ShelfLife December 2020

Best of the Year

Vaping

Weight Management

CATEGORY FOCUS Weight Management

Gorge Us range uses only the finest ingredients and the best potatoes. The brand currently has two impressive vegan-friendly products on the market; Unislim Gorge Us Rustic Cut Chips and Skinny Sweet Potato Fries. The Gorge Us family goal is to offer a healthy, delicious, wholesome and great-tasting option for vegans, slimmers, and health-conscious foodies. Created by Unislim’s top food experts, the Gorge Us range is vegan-friendly, gluten free, low in saturated fats, contains no artificial colours, preservatives or flavourings and has been approved by Ireland’s top dieticians. Unislim is a family-run, Irishowned company. It is Ireland’s leading slimming and healthy lifestyle club since 1972. Unislim offers its 50,000 members a personalised and effective weight loss plan, which encourages them to make healthier food choices. With a network of more than 300 supportive weekly classes all over Ireland, there is a class near your store. Visit Unislim.com for more information.

Super stuff

Avonmore Super Milk is enriched with added vitamins D, B, E, extra calcium and folic acid

Avonmore products are enjoyed on a daily basis in households across Ireland. Quality is a priority and something Avonmore is passionate about, ensuring the best tasting milk reaches consumers. Avonmore Super Milk continues to be a key growth brand for the milk category delivering year-onyear growth over the last number of years. Enriched with added vitamins D, B, E, extra calcium and folic acid, Avonmore Super Milk contains more of these important nutrients than fresh milk. Sunshine helps our bodies produce vitamin D, however in

ShelfLife December 2020 | www.shelﬂife.ie

Ireland we don’t get enough sunshine so that’s why we need to top up our levels through foods that offer plenty of vitamin D – like Avonmore Super Milk. Vitamin D helps the absorption of calcium from food and drink which is important for maintaining bone and muscle health and also helps support a healthy immune system. The brand has been extended to include a Fat Free variant which is available in a 1L format. So now you can get all of the beneﬁts of Avonmore Super Milk without the fat.

Naturally nutritious

With more than 56% market share, Flahavan’s is Ireland’s favourite porridge brand

Whatever level of exercise you do, it’s important to nourish your body and to choose natural foods that deliver slow-release energy for your body - porridge oats do just that. A bowl of Flahavan’s sustains you longer - it’s high in fibre, low in fat and it’s a great source of vitamins and minerals which help contribute to the normal function of muscles and bones, while also contributing to normal energy yielding metabolism. It’s simple - the slowrelease energy and fibre in oats makes you feel full for longer and therefore less inclined to snack, which can help with weight management. Natural wholegrain oats have also long been proven to help lower cholesterol, while also providing an excellent source of fibre to support positive digestive health. Flahavan’s is Ireland’s favourite porridge brand with more than 56% market share* – a testament to its consistent quality, strong brand communications and the loyalty of its consumer base. Traditional porridge remains at the heart of the company’s business in Ireland, with Progress Oatlets and Organic Porridge experiencing the strongest growth in 2020 as a result of shifting consumer habits and more time spent at the breakfast table. While health remains at the

forefront of consumers’ minds, then natural, locally-sourced high quality Irish porridge oats will continue to be at the top of their shopping lists when making choices around breakfast. *(Source: Kantar Worldpanel, 52 weeks to October 2020)

Making life sweeter Covid-19 has impacted so much of our lives over the last nine months and it is expected to do so well into 2021; even if the recently announced vaccines do arrive soon. Two most notable aspects of Covid are furlough and working from home and whilst doing so, people are rarely consuming anything out-ofhome. As a result, consumers are drinking more tea and coffee at the “home office”. Self-isolation too has played a significant role. Shoppers are purchasing much less on-the-move in places like the coffee shop and much more via supermarkets and local convenience outlets for at-home consumption. Both have seen a massive increase in sweeteners sold compared to last year and Hermesetas Sweeteners report increases in excess of 25%. We’ve learnt also that two of the more vulnerable groups to the virus are diabetics and the obese or overweight. Both use sweeteners to replace sugar for health management reasons. They are two of the major sub-groups of sweetener users and are “heavy users” due to higher than average consumption. In addition, those who have been thinking about adapting their lifestyle for weight management reasons have finally been pushed by government and scientists’ advice towards losing weight. All in all, sweeteners have become a muststock opportunity for retailers to meet their shoppers’ needs today

and for the future. The trends to increased sweetener consumption are not just a one-off blip, they have become more ingrained everyday habits of society as a result of the extended time of the pandemic. For quality and trusted sweeteners, Hermesetas Mini Sweeteners are Ireland’s number one volume tablet sweetener and of course for cooking, baking, sprinkling on cereals or into hot drinks, there’s Hermesetas Granulated. Depending on the type of user – small quantity and convenience for personal use or larger volume for family share in-home or for individual higher sweetness levels, the great sweet taste of Hermesetas comes in 300, 600 or 1,200 tablets pack sizes or a 90g jar. The larger the pack, the better the value, which is important for many, so Hermesetas recommends stocking at least two sizes of tablet packs. And with all the extra home baking that has been going on as the nation occupies ourselves and our young ones with new pastimes, there is also Hermesetas.com for great

Hermesetas Granulated is ideal for cooking, baking, sprinkling on cereals or into hot drinks

Hermesetas Liquid is ideal for those who wish to add a sweetener to drinks such as smoothies, as well as desserts, muesli and yoghurt

Hermesetas Mini Sweeteners are Ireland’s number one volume tablet sweetener

Weight Management CATEGORY FOCUS 49

Weight Management

Low fat meals in minutes

Big citrus taste After a full month of indulging which peaks at Christmas, most consumers start the new year by committing to a healthier lifestyle and cleaner diets. However, great taste and enjoyment still remain their top priorities when shopping for drinks. As consumers are looking for meal accompaniments and alternatives to alcoholic drinks, ﬁzzy drinks continue to be hugely popular but are seen to be a less healthy “guilty” choice, particularly as most are high in sugar. At Danone, the team doesn’t believe shoppers should have to choose between enjoying a refreshing tasty ﬁzzy drink and being health conscious – why not have both? That’s why

Danone created L’mon – to give consumers a tasty, low sugar alternative without compromising on taste. L’mon, from the makers of Volvic, is a new range of zesty sparkling drinks, made in the UK, that combine sumptuous citrus blends, with at least 25% real fruit juice and British spring water. Each 330ml can of L’mon delivers the taste experience of a soft drink but without the nasties, with less than 38 calories per can. All the products are low in natural sugars, with no added sugar*, free from artiﬁcial colours, ﬂavours and preservatives and only use naturally sourced ingredients. L’mon is available in three citrusy variants: Lemon & Orange, Lemon & Lime and Lemon &

Morgan’s Seafood Kitchen offers busy consumers healthy, low fat meals in minutes

fresh, locally sourced vegetables, basmati rice and a delicious sauce. Each meal contains an average of 360 calories and is ready in four minutes in the microwave, retaining the high

nutritional content of the seafood and fresh vegetables. To find out more, visit www.morgansfinefish and follow @morgansseafoodkitchen on Facebook and Instagram.

Best of the Year

tasting recipes using Hermesetas Granulated and for healthier lifestyle tips for all. A great help for sweetener users. Hermes Sweeteners also provides the SteviaSweet brand of naturally sourced stevia sweeteners. It is also available in tablet form in a handy oneby-one dispenser and is so convenient. SteviaSweet is the perfect alternative to sugar but with zero calories for a healthier lifestyle. The brand’s website mysteviasweet.com provides lifestyle hints and tips and more. Help your shoppers to a healthier lifestyle and maximise your category sales with a range that provides a choice to suit everyone’s pocket and sweet tastes, from the Hermesetas and SteviaSweet brands. Contact Allegro on 01 858 0600 for further information and purchasing.

Vaping

SteviaSweet contains zero calories for a healthier lifestyle

Morgan’s Fine Fish has used its extensive seafood knowledge to develop Morgan’s Seafood Kitchen, an exciting range of low fat, high protein ‘ready to cook’ seafood meals. Tapping into the evergrowing demand for healthy convenient offerings, the range includes three tasty meals with clean label ingredients: Katsu Fish Curry, Spicy Lemongrass & Lime Seafood and Caribbean Prawns. Morgan’s Seafood Kitchen is available in select Dunnes Stores, SuperValu and independent stores throughout Ireland. Priced at €4.99, the meals for one contain a selection of quality raw seafood (salmon, cod, hake, prawns and smoked ﬁsh) with

Grapefruit. When tested with consumers, L’mon scores ‘Outstanding’ as a product proposition and sits at the top 20% of non-alcoholic beverages in terms of purchase intent.** Adding L’mon to your product repertoire can help you meet consumers’ needs for tasty and healthier beverages in ‘Dry January’, while it will boost your category growth! The brand’s website www.sparklinglmon.co.uk provides information on the products’ ingredients and nutritionals, and has answers to many questions that consumers usually have. ■ *(Contains naturally occurring sugars from the fruit juice) **(Source: Bases research September 2020)

Each 330ml can of L’mon contains less than 38 calories

www.shelﬂife.ie | ShelfLife December 2020

50 ADVERTORIAL

Tracking traceability attitudes New Irish research shows commercial benefits of sharing traceability information with consumers

Traceability

TOP 10 Best performing categories

01 Milk 02 Deli Counter Cheese 03 In Store Bakery 04 Butcher Counter Pre-packed Fish 05 Pre

06 Fresh Beef

In which categories are Irish shoppers most satisfied with Traceability?

1 & 2. Last year, GS1 Ireland partnered with Shopper Intelligence to survey circa 11,000 Irish grocery shoppers, to measure behaviours and attitudes towards traceability. The research revealed a number of interesting insights and highlighted some key business beneďŹ ts for both brands and retailers alike, from investing in and building consumer trust in their traceability. In 2020, this study expanded to include approx. 20,000 Irish grocery shoppers, enabling us to track these metrics to see how behaviours remain steady or evolve over time. We can also gauge attitudes against a backdrop of other metrics such as sustainability and price and look at demographics such as age and location. In analysing the cohort of shoppers that deem traceability to be important, the data continues to highlight the business case for delivering on traceability and communicating that message clearly with Irish shoppers. This is a group of shoppers who shop more frequently, and spend more on the categories where traceability is important to them.

08 Baby Milk/Food 09 Fish Counter Fish 10 Potatoes

THE IRISH GROCERY SHOPPER

GLOBAL

2 Importance

Satisfaction

01 Fish Counter Fish

01 Milk

02 Butcher Counter

02 Deli Counter Cheese

03 Fresh Beef

03 In Store Bakery

04 Milk

04 Butcher Counter

05 Burgers/Meatballs

-6% to MFP average

Pre-packed Fish 05 Pre

06 Fresh Beef

06 Fresh Chicken 07 Sausages/Bacon

-1% to MFP average

07 Fresh Chicken

08 Cooked Meats

-5% to MFP average

08 Baby Milk/Food

Pre-packed Fish 09 Pre

09 Fish Counter Fish

10 Deli Counter Cheese

10 Potatoes

THE IRISH GROCERY SHOPPER

GLOBAL

ShelfLife December 2020 | www.shelďŹ&#x201A;ife.ie

07 Fresh Chicken

ADVERTORIAL

3 There is a business case for being trusted for Traceability…

3. Those shoppers for whom traceability is important are “Spend Drivers”

Frequent shoppers

1+23%

• They shop these categories more frequently High spenders

+50%

Try new / different

• They spend more on these categories per trip

• … and they can be tempted to spend extra on “new and different” and on “premium”

Finally, these shoppers are open to further engagement in-store, to being provided with ideas and inspiration, if we give them the right information about product traceability and credentials of origin, emphasising “Irishness”.

Pay for premium

54% 4%

58%

+25%

+22%

Effective communication of traceability credentials can drive traffic/footfall in-store to a particular store.

x% = difference vs those who think Traceability is not important (1,2)

Consumer demand for data and transparency is a primary driver for traceability today:

4 How should we communicate to them pre-store? Effective communication of traceability credentials can drive traffic/footfall in-store

Plan the category

77%

+4%

Promos attract to store

• Those shoppers for whom traceability is important are “Traffic Drivers”

Buy extra on Promo

38% %

47% %

+24%

Less likely switch brand

28%

+24%

Loyal to store if satisfied

49% %

-5%

• They are planners • Pre-store promotions can drive them into the store and in-store promotions can encourage them to buy extra • Once assured of traceability credentials, they are loyal to both brand and store

+35%

x% = difference vs those who think Traceability is not important (1,2)

5 And how can we tempt and satisfy them in-store? Browse more

• Those shoppers for whom traceability is important are “open to disruption”

Enjoy shopping

% 24%

3.3

+0.9

+9%

Want more theatre

27%

Want more information

21% %

+8%

+7%

Irish is important

3.8

+1.4

x% = difference vs those who think Traceability is not important (1,2)

• They want to browse, and they enjoy shopping these categories • They are looking for more theatre and inspiration, and importantly, more product information • Unsurprisingly, “Irishness” and product authenticity is equally important to them

Risk management and regulatory compliance were the original drivers for the adoption of traceability practices following events such as the BSE and Pork Dioxin crises. In a new world of interrupted supply chains, delivery delays, and concerns about the environment and sustainability, buying local and certainty around the origin of a product has never been more to the fore. The transition from paper-todigital traceability has accelerated exponentially this year, in particular. Momentous progress has been made in many industry sectors, from grocery and consumer goods, to healthcare and construction, to create ‘digital twins’ for products and to source, record and track products digitally. “Traceability is a complex metric and business driver to navigate,” says Denis O’Brien of GS1 Ireland. “It comprises, on the one hand, a detailed amount of internal inventory and production data and, on the other, sharing and communicating that data in a way that is meaningful to consumers. That’s the real data challenge for most organisations that we deal with on a day-to-day basis.” Denis O’Brien, GS1 Ireland.

For advice on transforming your production data to meet consumer demands for transparency and product data, contact GS1 Ireland today on 01 2080660 or visit https://d36.co/14k3t.

www.shelﬂife.ie | ShelfLife December 2020

NOFFLA NEWS

www.nofﬂa.ie

Missed opportunity to reduce excise has denied lifeline to drinks industry Evelyn Jones, government affairs director at NOffLA, outlines the sector’s disappointment at the failure by government to implement a much-needed excise cut in Budget 2021

Evelyn Jones, government affairs director at NOffLA

Like other small, independent businesses, off-licences are hopeful, but also concerned by what the new year has in store, with the economic climate looking uncertain. Our members have gone to every length to ensure that customers can continue to shop locally and shop safely. This has meant both increased ﬁnancial and labour investments from NOffLA members and we would like to thank and congratulate them on their efforts. Visiting restrictions and a lack of interaction between friends and families due to Covid-19 has seen trade level-off for our members in recent months. We continue to be undercut on price by the multiples without Minimum Unit Pricing (MUP) legislation, and if this were to continue into 2021, independent

off-licences throughout Ireland would struggle. We were disappointed to see no reduction in excise levels in Budget 2021, which NOffLA had called for along with our drinks sector colleagues. This would have been an immediate and cost-effective measure to protect local, community jobs and encourage business investment across the wider sector. Our own annual survey showed that over a third of NOffLA members (37%) would increase their staff numbers and two-thirds (66%) would invest in their businesses, if excise rates were reduced. We feel this was an opportunity missed by government that could have provided a lifeline to the drinks sector and we feel it is paramount that this is considered seriously in 2021.

Star Award winners: A fantastic opportunity to drive festive sales! At this time of year, you are no doubt being visited by a lot of new customers who perhaps are not regular wine drinkers or don’t consider themselves knowledgeable about all things vinicultural. Nevertheless, they want a bottle or two that is sure to impress around the Christmas dinner table, even though there may be fewer faces than usual joining them this year. What’s more, during the evenings leading up to Christmas, a little luxury (at an affordable price!) is more universally deserved than ever, after the challenging year that has been 2020. The annual Irish Wine Show Star Awards can be a great help for these customers in providing them with reassurance that whatever their budget (whether that’s under €10, €15, €20, €25 or €60), they will walk out the door with a choice that family

ShelfLife December 2020 | www.shelﬂife.ie

and friends won’t turn their noses up at. This year, NOffLA awarded its annual Irish Wine Show Star Awards to a grand total of 45 wines at SIP 2020, which featured in a special virtual ceremony this year. In excess of 600 wines were submitted to the Star Award adjudication panel of NOffLA judges and independent wine journalists. Points were awarded on the basis of appearance, smell, taste and value for money criteria, and the winning 15 were selected as the best wines from key suppliers across a number of price categories. Across more than 315 NOffLA member outlets nationwide, the winning wines are recognisable by distinctive award symbols on each bottle. Ensure you don’t miss out on sales during the all-important pre-Christmas

period, by displaying these wines prominently in-store and emphasising the Irish Wine Show Star Awards 2020-2021 Collection as ideal Christmas

gifts, in a variety of special gift packs. These will drive consumer interest and help convert unsure new shoppers into ardent supporters in no time!

NOffLA members can promote the Irish Wine Show Star Awards 2020-2021 Collection as ideal Christmas gifts, in a variety of special gift packs

NOFFLA NEWS

www.nofﬂa.ie

45 award-winning wines: 20 reasons to stock them this Christmas .

.IRI

WINE SH 1

-2 0 2

20 2 1 2

0 20 -

AWA R D

G OLD

SI LV E TA R

.IRI

WINE SH

W O

NOffLA outlines the beneﬁts of stocking its Star Award-winning wines 2020-2021

AWA R D

Once award-winning wines are set up in a prominent in-store position, sales will be self-perpetuating

1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

The 45 Irish Wine Show Star Awards are available in all NOffLA outlets. Your local opposition won’t have this luxury. Margins are minimum 25% return on all winning wines. Award-winning wines cover New World and Old World categories. Under €10 category is currently the number one retail selling point on the Irish market, plus the selection covers pertinent price points above this. 6. Award-winners are current and relevant i.e. wines were judged in August. 7. The wines are ideal for recommendation by less wine-conﬁdent members of staff. 8. Display big = big sales. Once award-winning wines/sections are set up in a prominent in-store position, sales will be self-perpetuating. 9. Having the Star Awards endorses NOffLA members’ wine credentials. 10. Award-winning wines don’t have presence in the multiples. 11. Supporting these awards strongly strengthens NOffLA’s position in the Irish drinks industry. 12. You are supporting wine companies who support NOffLA. 13. A ready-made wine promotion for members this winter/spring 2021. 14. Reason to liaise with your local wine press. Good story. 15. Broaden your horizons in relation to potential new suppliers. 16. These awards are the envy of the Irish wine retailers. 17. Wines can form the basis of your corporate brochure this Christmas. 18. NOffLA Star Awards = Unique selling points we all crave. 19. Substantial POS available on all award-winning wines i.e. neck collars and posters. 20. 15 Silver Star and 15 Bronze Star Awards to promote as well.

Now you can give one good reason why you should not stock the NOffLA Star Award-winning wines? ■

OFF TRADE NEWS

Introducing The Busker: A new whiskey launches in Ireland The Busker, a new Irish whiskey with a unique and disruptive twist, has just launched in Ireland. The Busker is geared to those looking for something new and contemporary. The Busker includes all four types of Irish whiskey (Single Grain, Single Pot Still, Single Malt and a Blend). The Busker Blend - Triple Cask Triple Smooth - combines grain with a high percentage of malt and pot whiskey. Matured and ﬁnished in three different casks (Bourbon, Sherry, Marsala), this whiskey brings a new meaning of smoothness to Irish whiskey. The Busker Single Collection, represented by the three traditional Irish whiskeys (Single Grain, Single Pot Still and Single Malt), is produced under one roof at the world-class Royal Oak Distillery. Each whiskey boasts an unmistakable taste proﬁle, with nuances ranging from vanilla and oak, to rich spicy notes. The Busker Blend suggested retail price is €29.99 and €39.99 for the Single Grain, Single Malt and Single Pot Still. The Busker will be available at all independent off-licences nationwide.

The Busker Blend and Busker Single Collection are produced at the world-class Royal Oak Distillery

Topo Chico Hard Seltzer: Now available exclusively in Tesco Topo Chico Hard Seltzer is available in three ﬂavours: Tangy Lemon Lime, Tropical Mango and Cherry Acai

Coca-Cola has announced that its new offering, Topo Chico Hard Seltzer, is now available exclusively in Tesco stores nationwide in the Republic of Ireland. Developed by a team of company experts from around the world and launched in Latin America in September this year, Topo Chico Hard Seltzer is a sparkling water with alcohol and natural ﬂavours. The new drink is inspired by the 125-year old Topo Chico sparkling mineral water brand, which has long been a popular mixer for bartenders and mixologists in the US and Latin America. “We’re really excited to introduce this great new global brand to the Irish market,” said Petre Sandru, country manager, Coca-Cola Ireland. “Topo Chico Hard Seltzer is a fantastic product that will offer our consumers in Ireland and Northern Ireland something new and delicious. We will also be the ﬁrst and only hard seltzer brand to provide a mixed pack, offering shoppers the opportunity to trial all three delicious variants.” ■

www.shelﬂife.ie | ShelfLife December 2020

54 OFF-TRADE NEWS

Graham Norton launches new Sparkling Rosé as Frizzante sales soar Barry & Fitzwilliam is delighted to launch Graham Norton’s Own Sparkling Frizzante Rosé wine from Italy to the Irish market just in time for Christmas. The new pink Frizzante - a collaboration between Graham Norton and Kiwi wine company Invivo & Co - has been made in response to the growing numbers of people in Ireland seeking lighter styles of quality sparkling wine, and is a welcome partner to the alreadypopular Graham Norton’s Own Frizzante. The latest addition is made with the Glera grape (otherwise known as the ‘Prosecco’ grape), and is grown and produced in the same way as Prosecco. It has been blended with Pinot Noir grapes to make a lighter, drier style of sparkling rosé wine. Like its twin, the white Prosecco, ‘Graham Norton’s Own Italian Sparkling Frizzante Rosé’ is crisp, fresh and delicately structured. It has a delicate strawberry drive throughout thanks to the addition of Pinot Noir in the winemaking and is well-balanced. The Sparkling Rosé is made sustainably with Invivo & Co’s Frizzante producer partners in Italy and is vegan-friendly. The Irish have already responded in their masses to the launch of Graham Norton’s Own Frizzante, released in 2018; sales increased by more than 15% into 2019 and over 300% in the ﬁrst half of 2020. Over the past six years, Graham Norton’s Own wine range has won over 50 medals including four trophies from the UK’s People’s Choice Awards, Gold at the Global Sauvignon

Virtual cocktail series ‘shakes it up’

Light berry notes combine with sweetly scented notes of tropical ﬂowers to make a refreshing tipple, and a slightly lighter option at 11% ABV

The ‘Shake it Up’ virtual cocktail series recently launched with brands like Smirnoff, Gordon’s Gin, Baileys, Seedlip and Roe & Co taking centre stage. Each Friday night for a six-week period in the lead-up to Christmas, inﬂuencers including Darren Kennedy, James Kavanagh, Guy Sinnott, Melissa Riddell and Fionnuala Jay collaborated with these brands to create an Instagram live cocktail class for everyone to enjoy. Each Friday, the virtual interactive class had a different theme and recipe, with alcoholic and non-alcoholic cocktail options.

Masters and Gold at the Prosecco Masters. Graham Norton’s Own Italian Sparkling Rosé Frizzante will be stocked in Tesco, www.WinesOfTheWorld.ie and independent off-licenses nationwide, priced at €12.

Diageo launches new ten-year sustainability action plan Diageo, maker of Guinness and Baileys, has announced a range of 25 ambitious goals in its ‘Society 2030: Spirit of Progress’ plan, designed to make a positive impact on the world by 2030, aligning with the United Nations’ aims for a ‘decade of action’. Building on a long track record of environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) progress globally, Diageo will focus its action over the next ten years in three core areas, carefully selected to align with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): promoting positive drinking; championing inclusion and diversity; and pioneering grain-to-glass sustainability.

In Ireland, the Guinness and Baileys brands will lead the implementation of Diageo’s 2030 targets. Every drink produced will take 30% less water than it does today, packaging will be 100% reusable, recyclable or compostable and the production operations on the island of Ireland will become net carbon neutral. The brands will also work in collaboration with farmers and those in its value chain to halve their indirect carbon emissions by 2030. Diageo Ireland also announced in September that the proposed Guinness Quarter development at St. James’s Gate aims to be Dublin’s ﬁrst carbon neutral district.

New D8 craft beer supporting My Lovely Horse Rescue D8 Beers, a new concept beer collective, has announced that the sole beneficiary beneficiary from the sale of its debut Winter Ale will be My Lovely Horse Rescue. The animal rescue charity was established in 2011 by prominent Irish musicians Cathy Davey and Neil Hannon, The Divine Comedy frontman who wrote the infamous Father Ted song for which the charity is named. D8 Beers is partnering with the charity after Covid-19 had a significant impact on the sector’s ability to fundraise, with the organisation expecting a shortfall in funding of €90,000 this year. The beer can be purchased exclusively online at d8Beers.com.

ShelfLife December 2020 | www.shelﬂife.ie

Pat Rigney

Pat Rigney from The Shed Distillery elected chair of Drinks Ireland Pat Rigney, the managing director and founder at The Shed Distillery, which makes Drumshanbo Gunpowder Irish Gin, has been elected chair of Drinks Ireland, the Ibec trade association that represents drinks manufacturers and suppliers on the island of Ireland. Pat Rigney takes over the position of chair from Oliver Loomes, country director of Diageo Ireland. Prior to Covid-19, the drinks industry was experiencing strong growth. In 2019, it generated exports to over 140 markets, worth €1.45 billion. Drinks Ireland will help support the sector in recovering from the impact of the pandemic in 2021 and beyond. ■

RIGHT – I’M HAVING A

PLEASE ENJOY FATFROG RESPONSIBLY WWW.DRINKAWARE.IE

KITC TCH HE EN N DISCO NEW

ALCOHOLIC

PINK

LEMONADE IN 33CL CAN

AND DANCING LIKE 2020 NEVER HAPPENED

FATFROG.IE

GRAB YOUR FESTIVE PACKS For more information please contact:

(NI) Coca-Cola Hellenic Northern Ireland Limited, Knockmore hill, 12 Lissue Road, Lisburn, County Antrim, Northern Ireland, BT28 2SZ. Tel: 028 9262 0520 or (ROI) Coca-Cola HBC Ireland, Huntstown Business Park, Cappagh Roaad, Ballycoolin, Dublin 11. Tel: 1890 262 226 or your local Coca-Cola Area Developer. Â©2020 The Coca-Cola Company. All rights reserved. COCA-COLA is a registered trademark of The Coca-Cola Company.