Cash and carry

Supplying the masses

Y o u c a n ’ t r u n a s u c c e s s f u l s m a l l r e t a i l o r h o s p i t a l i t y b u s i n e s s w i t h o u t t h e s u p p o r t o f a s t r o n g c a s h a n d c a r r y c l o s e b y . W e t a k e a l o o k a t I r e l a n d ’ s t o p r a t e d c a s h a n d c a r r y b u s i n e s s e s a n d t h e g r o w i n g l i s t o f s e r v i c e s t h e y o f f e r t o t h e i r c u s t o m e r s . F i o n n u a l a C a r o l a n r e p o r t s

BWG’s Value Centre, Musgrave MarketPlace and Stonehouse Marketing Ltd are among the leading and most sophisticated logistics operations in the country. Between them, they service thousands of retail and hospitality businesses in every corner of Ireland and drive one another on with ever-increasing service levels and efficiencies. These cash and carry businesses offer customers access to competitively priced products and innovative offerings via the buying power of a group. They have become ever more sophisticated in recent years with the likes of BWG’s ShopLink portal allowing customers to order in real time. The e-commerce platform can connect to a retailer’s EPOS and is fully integrated and live with the supply chain enabling them to do business more efficiently.

In order for the supply chain to run smoothly, the cash and carry business must work closely with suppliers to ensure a market-leading range for their retail, licensed and hospitality customers. They need to be able to offer a host of services such as emergency top up delivery, special offers tailored to local businesses and to be able to track market trends and meet demand in an ever-changing market.

Key trends strongly influence the products the cash and carry outlets offer and the main players have responded quickly to fulfil new health and wellbeing demands over the past five years.

Reducing the environmental impact of these huge operations has been a real focus too. From the use of solar energy to employing the most energy efficient fuels and vehicles, lower carbon output has been the goal in all aspects of the business. These practices are mirrored across the supply chain but have been championed at cash and carry level.

Covid-19 and Brexit have placed greater demands than ever on the local cash and carry as retailers were under pressure for extra products as people panic bought during these times. Cash and carry businesses garnered great loyalty from their customers for helping them go above and beyond to service the country when we needed it most.

Value Centre goes the extra mile

With 22 locations all around Ireland, Value Centre is always close to its customer base

FACTFILE:

Name: Value Centre, 4 Aces, Better Deal Number of branches nationwide: 22 Number of customers: Over 20,000

Number of lines in product listing:

Over 10,000 Tagline: ‘Your Local Wholesaler’ Ordering options: Online, in-branch, telesales, dedicated sales developers Typical opening hours: 9am - 5.30pm Retail partners: XL

Size-range of outlets:

12,000 sq ft – 60,000 sq ft

Paul Bealin

Q&A with Paul Bealin,

sales director, Wholesale Division at BWG Foods

Q: As your customers’ day-to-day business lives are extremely busy, how have you innovated to ensure your service makes it as easy and convenient as possible for them to secure orders when needed?

A: One of our greatest strengths is that, as Ireland’s largest national network of cash and carry branches with 22 locations all around Ireland, we are always close to our customer base. Our business model is one based on meeting the needs of our customers allied with our expert team of buyers who closely monitor consumer behaviour and the latest trends to ensure we have the right product mix available at all times.

Our award-winning e-commerce platform ‘Shoplink’ can connect seamlessly to EPOS and is fully integrated and live with the supply chain. Customers can access ‘Shoplink’ 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, enabling them to do business with us more efficiently and giving them back more of their time for other aspects of their business. With a free and flexible

delivery service, if the customer can’t come to us, we will do our utmost to ensure next day delivery. We also offer an emergency top-up service for customers.

Q: How have you adjusted to consumer trends including a greater focus on health and wellbeing and more adventurous palates, to guarantee your customers are able to meet these needs?

A: What is becoming ever more evident is that consumers today are more health conscious, are eating less processed foods and are looking for more convenient ways to allow them to follow a healthier lifestyle and diet.

We have responded to this growing trend and are delivering to our retailers a topclass fresh offering to cater to the modern consumer who still seeks out the occasional treat and loves their coffee. The introduction of our BWG Training Academy, a new dedicated training and education centre, providing practical courses, has proven very successful in promoting higher standards within our fresh departments.

Q: Strong value is obviously critical – how are you working to ensure customers receive the best pricing and promotions?

A: We are confident that we have a strong offer for our customers. We are constantly analysing the market and adapting and

Your Local Wholesaler For Over 50 Years

BETTER DEAL

CASH & CARRY

Value Centre says it constantly analyses the market to ensure customers have access to the best and most competitive offers out there

adjusting to ensure our customers have access to the best and most competitive offers out there. We run national promotions every three weeks, with further tactical activity generally centred on seasonal opportunities offering customers incredible value all year round. We are working tirelessly to meet the needs of our customer base and part of this is ensuring each Value Centre branch has its own local deals for its specific customer base.

Q: Sustainability has become more important than ever – how are you improving sustainability across your operations?

A: As members of Origin Green, BWG Foods is committed to an ambitious sustainability strategy aimed at significantly reducing the environmental impact of our largescale nationwide supply chain. As part of the new strategy, BWG Foods is switching to cleaner energies and has committed to installing renewable energy solutions across its operations. A core component of the new strategy is to reduce the group’s energy output and to increase energy efficiency across our nationwide network of 22 Value Centre and cash and carry branches, as well as our 240,000sq ft national distribution centre. Overall, the group plans to reduce its energy usage by over ten percent across our entire operations by 2024.

Q: The past 18 months have shown the dedication and resilience of Ireland’s retail and wholesale sector. What are you proudest of in terms of how your group has navigated the challenges presented by the pandemic as well as Brexit’s impact on supply chains?

A: With 22 locations all around Ireland, our local knowledge is what sets us apart because we understand and care about what our customers need and want. We are flexible and are committed to helping our customers succeed and work alongside them to achieve that end goal.

The strength of our unique position in the Irish marketplace as part of a truly global organisation was truly evident at the height of the global pandemic and resultant Irish lockdown. While other Irish wholesalers struggled to meet demand in some lines, we were able to secure stocks of commodity lines such as pasta directly from Italy, at a best in market price, to ensure our customers were never left short.

Value Centre’s “local knowledge is what sets us apart because we understand and care about what our customers need and want,” says Paul Bealin

Musgrave MarketPlace at a glance

FACTFILE:

Name: Musgrave MarketPlace Number of branches nationwide: 10 Major locations nationwide: Dublin (Ballymun, Robinhood, Sallynoggin), Cork, Galway, Limerick, Waterford, Belfast, Derry, Lurgan. Number of lines in product listing: Over 14,000 Ordering options: Online, collect, delivered, click & collect, telesales, business development manager Typical opening hours: Monday to Friday - 8am – 6pm, Saturday: 8am – 4pm, Sunday: 10am – 4pm, Late opening Thursday Ballymun & Robinhood: 8am – 8pm Size-range of outlets: 35,000 – 75,000 sq. ft.

Musgrave MarketPlace has outlets in Dublin, Cork, Galway, Limerick, Waterford, Belfast, Derry and Lurgan

Q&A with Tom Shipsey,

chief executive officer, Stonehouse Marketing Ltd

Q: How have you innovated to ensure your service makes it as easy and convenient as possible for customers to secure orders when needed?

A: We have always prided ourselves on our service and the quick turnaround in reply to and working with our customers’ needs. Each of our members ensure they have tailored their offering to the needs of their customers. It’s that flexibility and tailored approach that has seen us prosper over the past year.

Q: How have you adjusted to consumer trends including a greater focus on health and wellbeing and more adventurous palates, to guarantee your customers are able to meet these needs?

A: Since the pandemic, there certainly has been a renewed consumer focus on health and diet. We have in conjunction with our supplier base ensured that the right packs are being offered to our retailer base for sale to consumers. With more people at home our retailers have seen a large increase in all grocery products from breakfast cereals, ready meals and preserves. Many of these are now either low or no sugar items.

Stonehouse Marketing Ltd delivers tailored approach FACTFILE: Name of group: Stonehouse Marketing Ltd Number of branches nationwide: 23 Number of customers: 6,000+ Tagline: Serving the Independent Retail and Hospitality Sector

Ordering options:

Web/telephone/direct calls Tom Shipsey Typical opening hours: 08:30 to 18:00

Size range of outlets:

Convenience/foodstore/supermarket and vast array of hospitality customers Retail partners: Costcutter, Gala and Carry Out that together with our suppliers we performed exceptionally well in ensuring continuity of supply. Brexit has put further constraints on our logistics. Supply is certainly an issue. We continue to deliver as best we can, as soon as product arrives to our depots, thus minimising out of stock issues for our retailers and consumers. Our members pride themselves on their versatility, speed and agility to deliver. This, they have done exceptionally well. n

The range, frequency and depth of promotion has increased across the Stonehouse Group within the last 18 months, according to Tom Shipsey

Our members have like many other proprietors adjusted our buildings to ensure customer comfort and safety. Furthermore, we have increased our telesales/online and delivery options to further ensure customer comfort and ease of shopping.

Q: Strong value is obviously critical – how are you working to ensure customers receive the best pricing and promotions?

A: The range, frequency and depth of promotion has increased across the Stonehouse Group within the last 18 months. We have a larger range of SKUs identified as value propositions for our retailers and consumers. Larger packs, different formats etc have further enhanced our offering. Our Wow offerings have been extended again reflecting our value proposition to our customers.

Q: The past 18 months have shown the dedication and resilience of Ireland’s retail and wholesale sector. What are you proudest of in terms of how your group has navigated the challenges presented by the pandemic as well as Brexit’s impact on supply chains?

A: Despite lockdown, our owners took a pragmatic approach to delivery and customer interactions. Our primary focus was always on staff safety and the safety of those we encountered. We continued to call and deliver to our customers, ensuring supply for the consumers who “had moved home”. In many instances this resulted in large changes to our logistics and supply forecasting. I am delighted