ShelfLife Magazine August 2021 by Mediateam

LARGEST INDEPENDENTLY AUDITED GROCERY TRADE CIRCULATION IN IRELAND

August 2021

Leading the charge

Maxol Group CEO Brian Donaldson is pressing ahead with a €7m investment in upgrades to forecourt network

Indoor dining dilemma Failure to accommodate convenience sector within guidelines has resulted in many retailers not reopening seating areas

The winning Westons Ahead of the anticipated £4bn sale of Selfridges, Dan White takes a closer look at the Weston family fortune

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OPINION 3

ShelfLife August 2021 Vol. 28 No. 8 Editor GILLIAN HAMILL (01) 294 7776 gillian.hamill@mediateam.ie

Inﬂationary pressures pile on as Northern Ireland Protocol looms closer on horizon

Staff journalist JULIA O’REILLY (01) 294 7709 julia.oreilly@mediateam.ie Contributors CAROLINE MCENERY FIONNUALA CAROLAN BARRY WHELAN 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 Publisher JOHN McDONALD (01) 294 7744 john.mcdonald@mediateam.ie Printing W & G Baird Ltd

Warning bells have been ringing loud and clear as the Northern Ireland Protocol inches ever closer. The protocol, aimed at preventing a hard border within the island, will involve numerous further checks on goods arriving in Northern Ireland from Britain later this year. Last month, we reported that retailers representing more than 75% of Northern Ireland’s grocery market had written to David Frost, the UK’s Brexit minister and European Commission vice president Marcos Sefcovic urging action, as the extended grace period regarding checks is currently due to finish at the end of September. According to the supermarkets, if a solution is not found, they will face greater costs and complexity in moving goods from Britain to NI from October onwards. And although they welcomed extensions to grace periods, the retailers believe “much more needs to be done before the end of September”. Marks & Spencer chairman Archie Norman has been forthright in clearly laying out the consequences if action is not taken. “There is no other outcome for consumers in Northern Ireland in the end other than higher prices," he wrote in a letter to David Frost. "Being able to keep the show on the road, let alone growing, is going to be very challenging," Inflationary pressures were also clearly spelled out in a recent survey by Ibec’s Food Drink Ireland (FDI) of its members in July. Alongside factors such as Covid, the FDI said: “Brexit has added significantly to trading costs including transport and logistics and additional administration both for trade with the UK but also for trade with the EU using the land-bridge.” The FDI has subsequently called for a rapid roll out to the sector of funding from the Brexit Adjustment Reserve, and a renewed focus across government on reducing the cost of doing business in Ireland. Gillian Hamill, editor, ShelfLife magazine

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.

Contents August 18

COVER STORY 20

Maximising Maxol Following Maxol’s recent announcement of a €7 million investment in upgrades to its forecourt network, CEO Brian Donaldson, discusses the group’s move from a fuel centric brand to one known more for its food offering

NEWS&ANALYSIS 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

4 6 8 39 58

News grid Seen and heard CSNA news Food & drink NOffLA news

FEATURES&REPORTS 10 Dan White charts the success of the Weston family in the wake of the possible Selfridges sale

Circulation audited by Audit Bureau of Circulations.

ShelfLife is a member of Magazines Ireland

18 Daybreak store proﬁle: Arthur McGuire of McGuire’s Daybreak speaks to Julia O’Reilly about the store’s successful recent renovation

26 Nearby store proﬁle: Jason Leonard from Nearby Drumkeeran explains why the new symbol brand from S&W Wholesale is just right for them

28 To dine or not to dine: Retailers tell Fionnuala Carolan why it’s just not worth opening their indoor dining facilities under the current regulations

ADVISOR 24 HR 54 Recruitment 56 Marketing

MARKETING& CATEGORY FOCUS 30 Breakfast 34 RTD beverages 40 Symbol groups 60 Market movers

NEWS

NEWSGRID The top news stories in FMCG S&W Wholesale launches new symbol brand Nearby S&W Wholesale recently launched a new symbol brand – Nearby. Nearby will play a vital role in a wider modernisation strategy which the group says will help independent retailers forge deeper connections in the local community. “To take away the pressure, we don’t ask for a long-term contract, marketing fees, weekly advertising or control over what happens in the store,” said Arron Potts, head of retail development, S&W Wholesale. “What we do offer is an attractive brand, bespoke signage, consumer promotional activity, central billing and a dedicated business development manager to guide you with your business needs.”

Households still spending an extra €200 on groceries Grocery market sales declined by 5.9% in the 12 weeks to 11 July 2021, according to the latest ﬁgures from Kantar. In the most recent four weeks, sales dipped by 3.6% as Irish shoppers enjoyed warmer temperatures, renewed freedoms, and the return of live sport. While the market is in year-on-year decline, sales remain strong compared with pre-pandemic times and the average household spent €189.98 more in the latest 12 weeks than the same period in 2019.

RGDATA makes Budget 2022 submission RGDATA has called on the government to support local regeneration and manage the costs of employment in its Budget 2022 submission. The association highlighted the challenges members have faced over the past year, stating: “Faced with Brexit and Covid-19 and their attendant economic consequences, businesses have had to make signiﬁcant adjustments to maintain their operations and will be challenged for some considerable period. Ensuring that businesses are well prepared to support a jobs-led recovery is vital if Ireland’s general economic wellbeing is to be secured,” said RGDATA director general Tara Buckley.

and retail from across Ireland

NI supermarkets call for urgent solution to avoid Brexit trade disruption

NWFE brands include Kings, Wild West, Speyside and Cruga

Retailers representing more than 75% of Northern Ireland’s grocery market have called for urgent action to avoid trade disruption under the Brexit protocol terms. The Northern Ireland Protocol, aimed at preventing a hard border, will involve numerous further checks on goods arriving in Northern Ireland from Britain later this year. According to the supermarkets, if a solution is not found, they will face greater costs and complexity in moving goods from Britain to NI from October onwards.

Valeo Foods Group to acquire NWFE

Musgrave to join action over anti-competitive card fees Musgrave is joining a legal action to seek compensation from Visa and Mastercard over the charging of ‘intercharge fees’ to retailers. Musgrave has told retail franchise partners that it is joining a legal action in the British courts, which involves other retailers although the group’s fellow litigants were not named. While Musgrave has invited franchise partners to join the action, the group said that every retailer needs to decide for themselves if they wish to participate. Musgrave has also said that it is unable to give legal advice or direction about making this decision.

Irish forecourts lead the switch to electric vehicles in Europe

Leading the Charge.

EV Charging Report 2021

Valeo Foods Group, owner of brand leaders Rowse honey, Kettle crisps and Jacob’s biscuits, has agreed to acquire NWFE (New World Foods Europe), the leading producer of meat snacks in the UK from the Australian based FMCG entrepreneur Tony Quinn. Valeo Foods, a portfolio company of CapVest Partners LLP, was recently acquired by Bain Capital Private Equity and the transaction is due to close in the coming weeks.

Lidl Ireland granted ﬁnal planning permission for new Kilkenny store Lidl Ireland has been granted ﬁnal planning permission to knock and rebuild its store on Waterford Road, Co. Kilkenny, which will see a substantial €9m investment in the local area. The current store will be replaced with a larger and more modern model, powered by 100% green electricity. It will also feature a roof-mounted solar panel installation and electric vehicle charging points in the store’s spacious car park.

Donnybrook Fair to expand with new Dundrum store

EV Charging Report 2021

Research carried out across 19 countries last year showed that Ireland has the highest percentage of service stations with electric vehicle (EV) charging points on-site. Irish forecourts are now four times more likely than their British counterparts to have EV charging facilities in place. Fuels for Ireland’s Kevin McPartlan has called on the Minister for Transport Eamon Ryan to ensure that Irish forecourts can access Climate Action Fund resources to install more charging points so that Ireland can reach its target of one million electric vehicles by 2030.

Upscale grocer Donnybrook Fair will expand to Dundrum Town Centre in the coming months, with a large food hall, restaurant and bar. The new opening will be the sixth store for the Musgrave-owned brand which presently has four stores in Dublin (at Donnybrook, Stillorgan, Malahide and Baggot Street) and an outlet in Greystones, Co. Wicklow. Donnybrook Fair’s new store will be based in the recently renovated unit in Pembroke Square at Dundrum Town Centre, which was due to be occupied by Fallon & Byrne. ■

For more details on all the above and the latest grocery-related news as it happens, visit www.shelﬂife.ie. ShelfLife August 2021 | www.shelﬂife.ie

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SEEN AND HEARD

Bewley’s hits the road for The Great Bewley’s Staycation Bewley’s, Ireland’s leading coffee and tea company, is going on tour this summer with ‘The Great Bewley’s Staycation’. Throughout August, Bewley’s will be taking its brand-new airstream on the road and treating customers to complimentary coffee, tea, and treats. What’s more, Bewley’s is offering one person the chance to win an exclusive Bewley’s barista training session at Bewley’s Grafton Street as well as the opportunity to take home the ultimate coffee machine, the Sage Barista Express and a year’s supply of Caldos coffee beans. To enter, members of the public are invited to capture a picture of themselves having a Bewley’s coffee in their favourite Irish location, uploading the shot to their Twitter, Instagram or Facebook page and tagging @bewleysireland as well as using the hashtag #TheGreatBewleysStaycation.

Outdoor socialising in the rain? You’re covered with Five Farms ponchos

The Great Bewley’s Staycation showcases some of Ireland’s most picturesque and unique destinations

Fercullen Irish Whiskey wins Gold at International Wine Spirits Competition Powerscourt Distillery has announced the latest additions to its evergrowing medal collection. Fercullen Whiskey received four medals at the 2021 International Wine Spirits Competition (IWSC) Awards, including Gold for its 18-Year-Old Single Malt. Judges remarked that the 18-year-old malt was: “A remarkable whiskey with excellent balance and complexity.” Fercullen Whiskey also received Silver for its 14-Year-Old Single Malt, and Bronze for both its 10-Year-Old Single Grain and 8-YearOld Premium Blend. Released by master distiller Noel Sweeney, Fercullen’s 18-YearOld Single Malt has been matured in bourbon barrels to deliver an exceptional whiskey perfect for celebrating special moments. Tasting notes reveal oak and bourbon tones which marry to give plenty of depth and character while retaining exquisitely balanced flavours.

Be ready for any change in the Irish weather this summer with the Five Farms poncho

Five Farms Irish Cream Liqueur is supplying the perfect complement to its consumers to ensure they can continue to socialise outdoors regardless of the Irish summer weather - the Five Farms poncho. “We committed ourselves to come up with something practical and fun to help our on-trade, bars, restaurants and hotel customers on their return to business,” said co-founder Johnny Harte. “With the Five Farms poncho you can socialise outdoors regardless of what the Irish weather brings.” Entirely sourced and produced in Co. Cork, award-winning Five Farms is crafted from single batches of fresh cream sourced with premium tripled-distilled Irish whiskey. Five Farms is available through the Musgrave Group of SuperValu and Centra stores nationwide, O’Brien’s off-licences plus a host of independent outlets nationwide.

Fercullen Whiskey’s 18-Year-Old Single Malt was lauded by judges for its “balance and complexity”

Deep RiverRock launches Immune System range Deep RiverRock’s latest ‘Immune System’ variants are primed to capture the growth of the flavoured water segment

ShelfLife August 2021 | www.shelflife.ie

Deep RiverRock has launched its ‘Immune System’ range with several new fruity flavours. New variants include Forest Fruits Sparkling, Lemon & Lime Sparkling and Strawberry Still. With added Vitamin B6 and Zinc, the range supports a healthy immune system and contributes to overall wellbeing. The latest variants are primed to capture the growth of the flavoured water segment as well as meeting ‘better for you’ consumer needs. Supported by a 360-degree marketing campaign, the new range will be introduced to consumers with out-of-home advertising, PR, digital, social, influencer outreach and a strong presence in stores across the island. The launch will also benefit from a significant sampling blitz to encourage trial, through customer partnerships, sponsorship platforms and direct-to-consumer. n

CSNA NEWS

CSNA NEWS Association responds to Tánaiste’s comments on vaccinations

JOHN PAUL LONERGAN, national president, CSNA

Scam alert!

Some members may be aware that An Tánaiste Leo Varadkar recently chose to use the medium of a radio interview with Pat Kenny to suggest that those employers that were placing conditions or refusing permission to their staff to attend a vaccination appointment should be “named and shamed”. He also expressed an opinion that such actions were petty and meanminded. For the avoidance of doubt, all retailers should welcome the opportunity to have their staff vaccinated; the CSNA alongside other representatives and trade unions had pleaded with the Tánaiste to allow them to be treated as frontline essential staff. There is a clear distinction between asking someone who is scheduled to receive their ‘jab’ during working hours to repay the time away,

Members of the public queuing outside the Croke Park vaccination centre in Dublin

as opposed to docking their pay. We suggest that you facilitate the earliest opportunity of vaccination and secure the agreement of your employees that any time away from scheduled rostered work due to their travel and attendance will be paid, but that the time will be worked back within an agreed period.

Online Lottery sales the big winner in 2020

Be alert against fraudsters who request a ‘Trial or Test voucher’

Members are reminded to train your staff, particularly those that are recently employed with you, to be aware of the attempts made by people telephoning stores, pretending to be from the merchant service provider; companies such as Payzone, Visa etc. They will ask to print a ‘Trial or Test voucher’ and call out the serial number; they only have to be “lucky” once a day to return a proﬁt for their endeavours; remind your staff to be alert against this potential threat. Do not entertain these fraudsters.

The annual report of Premier Lotteries Ireland (PLI) showed that sales for the totality of products increased in 2020 when compared with the previous (2019) year. However, when examined more closely, the CSNA found that all of the increase was accounted for by the very substantial growth of the online offering. The sales attributed to in-store agents actually recorded a reduced level of sales, both in terms of turnover (-€23m) which was 2.85% less than 2019, and in respect of the share of sales versus online. Shops accounted for 85.2% of sales, down from 90.9% the previous year. 2019

2020

Sales In-Store

€806.1m

€783.1m

(€23m) (2.85%)

Sales Online

€80.7m

€135.8m

+€55.1m +68.3%

Total Sales

€886.8m

€918.9m

+€32.1m +3.62%

The annual report also noted that an additional 130,051 players had registered to play online in 2020, an increase of almost 42%, bringing the total number of PLI online players to 441,735. What we considered most interesting was the very (+18.7%) signiﬁcant increase in the average

National Lottery in-store sales accounted for 85.2% of total sales in 2020, down from 90.9% the previous year

play per online player, when compared to 2019. The 312k players collectively spent almost €81m in 2019, an average annual spend of €259 per player. However, last year the 442k players splurged almost €136m, a ﬁgure that equates to €307 per head, almost one euro per week extra. With bingo halls and physical bookmakers’ shops closed for a substantial portion of the period, coupled with the possible boredom experienced from people being in lockdown, it would appear PLI has managed to reap the rewards of a changed environment. We can only hope that the sensational growth in online will taper backwards before it makes further dents in retail agents’ sales.

UPS will now deliver John Player products following Nightline acquisition

John Player deliveries will now carry a UPS label with all the relevant delivery information

We have been made aware that from 13 August 2021, all John Player deliveries to your store will be provided by UPS following its recent acquisition of Nightline. There will be no change to the delivery process. All deliveries will continue with the same personnel and equipment as you currently experience.

Please note that all deliveries will now have a UPS label which carries all the relevant delivery information. This ensures full visibility and notiﬁcations on all shipments that you receive. If you have any questions, please call your local John Player sales representative or the customer services team at 01 2434800.

Keep updated on the Covid-19 situation on the CSNA website: www.csna.ie ShelfLife August 2021 | www.shelﬂife.ie

Test purchase alert: Ensure all staff follow policy on age-restricted products All young people should be asked for photo ID when purchasing age-restricted products

During the summer months, those charged with ensuring compliance by retailers, agents and licensees regarding the sales of age-restricted products, have a large pool of minors and young people from whom they can select to assist them in carrying out test purchases. The simplest and most effective way of preventing a sale of an age-restricted product to a minor is to seek photo ID. The penalties for not adhering to the law are substantial; not only ﬁnancially but also in terms of your reputation. Please take ﬁve minutes to remind all your staff of the store policy on sales of age-restricted products, namely alcohol, Lottery and tobacco purchases. It will be time well spent if it prevents a loss of licence or agency.

CSNA CONTACT DETAILS

CSNA meets with government to discuss sick pay scheme The association recently met with senior ofﬁcials from the government department charged with designing the bill providing for the introduction of a Statutory Sick Pay Scheme (SSPS). The Department for Enterprise, Trade and Employment is preparing the Bill for pre-legislative scrutiny by the relevant Joint Oireachtas Committee (chaired by Sinn Fein TD Maurice Quinlivan). The association was anxious to ensure that elements of the bill we suggested in the consultation process would not be watered down, and that certiﬁcation of illness would be required and presented in an agreed format and timeframe. The association will be making further representations to both Revenue and the Department of Social Protection regarding employers’ PRSI and repayments. ■

The CSNA is continuing to represent retailers’ interests regarding the proposed Statutory Sick Pay Scheme (SSPS)

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

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2021

ANALYSIS

Dan’s Digest

With Dan White VieWs on the latest eConomiC & politiCal neWs

Westons’ multibillion Irish retail payout With speculation mounting on the anticipated £4bn sale of Selfridges, Dan White takes a closer look at the fortunes of the Weston family as the undisputed champions of Irish retail

he likely £4bn sale of Selfridges, which includes both Brown Thomas and Arnotts, will be another massive Irish retail payout for the Canadian Weston family. No other family, not even the Musgraves or Dunnes, have done better from Irish retailing over the past half-century. Through a series of shrewd investments and well-timed disposals, the Westons have created billions in value for themselves. Now they look set to repeat the trick once again.

Stories circulate In mid-July, apparently well-informed stories first began to appear in the business press of a possible sale of Selfridges. Apart from the eponymous Oxford Street store, Selfridges also includes two stores in Manchester, one in Birmingham, the upmarket Dutch retailer de Bijenkorf with seven stores, luxury Canadian retailer Holt Renfrew with a further seven stores as well as Brown Thomas and Arnotts in this country. The stories followed a familiar pattern. Firstly, there were reports of a “mystery bidder” prepared to offer up to $5.6bn (€4.73bn) for the collection of luxury retailers. This was followed shortly afterwards by stories, all as yet officially unconfirmed, that investment bank Credit Suisse had been appointed to oversee the auction process. It has been speculated that the various Selfridges outlets had been feeling the strain during the pandemic, which saw the disappearance of a number of UK retailers including Debenhams and Arcadia and the further rise of online giant Amazon. Despite ShelfLife August 2021 | www.shelflife.ie

these reputed difﬁculties, Selfridges still represents a “trophy asset” and there will be no shortage of potential buyers with a Middle Eastern sovereign wealth fund being the most likely purchaser. Even without formal conﬁrmation, one thing is very clear: Selfridges is now very much up for sale.

Alongside its Oxford Street, Manchester and Birmingham stores, the Selfridges portfolio includes the upmarket Dutch retailer de Bijenkorf, luxury Canadian retailer Holt Renfrew as well as Brown Thomas and Arnotts in this country

Not coincidental timing The timing of the reputed Selfridges sale is almost certainly not coincidental. In April the family patriarch, Canadian businessman Galen Weston, died. It was he who oversaw the original acquisition of Selfridges in 2003 as well as Brown Thomas between 1971 and 1984. Along with much more besides. It was Galen Weston and his brother Gary who in the late 1960s and early 1970s developed the chain of supermarkets that would become Quinnsworth. It was eventually sold to Tesco in 1997 for £630m. In order to compete with Dunnes Stores to become the anchor tenant in the new shopping centres that were springing up all over the country at this time, the nascent Quinnsworth needed a sister company that sold clothing and household goods.

Success of Penneys Penneys, which trades as Primark, outside the Republic of Ireland, opened its ﬁrst store on Dublin’s Mary Street in 1969. Under the management of the late Arthur Ryan, Penneys/Primark has grown to become a retailing colossus. For the year to 14 September 2019, the last full year before lockdown, Penneys/Primark

had total sales of almost £7.8bn and profits of £913m. From just one store on Mary Street, it has grown to almost 400 stores with a combined floorspace of more than 16 million square feet and operates in 12 countries. Penneys/Primark accounts for over 60% of parent company ABF’s profits and has much higher margins and returns on capital than most of ABF’s other businesses. This means that it accounts for at least two-thirds and probably considerably more of ABF’s total market value of £16.2bn. ABF is in turn 54.5% owned by Weston family company Wittington Investments, which implies that Penneys/ Primark has added at least £5bn, probably somewhere between £6bn and £7bn, to the family fortune. Add it all up, Penneys/Primark, Quinnsworth, Brown Thomas and Arnotts, and Irish and Irish-managed retail operations have added between £6bn and £8bn (€7.1bn to €9.5bn) the Weston family coffers. That makes them the undisputed champions of Irish retail over the past half century.

ANALYSIS

Tax revenues roar back Since Covid-19 first struck this country in March 2020, the fiscal news has been almost uniformly bad. Public Expenditure Minister Michael McGrath warned his Cabinet colleagues last month that total Covid-19 spending would hit at least €30bn by the end of the year. This has pushed general government debt, which already stood at an elevated €204bn at the end of 2019 to €218bn by the end of 2020 with the figure likely to be well over €230bn by the end of this year.

GDP growth prediction However, it hasn’t been all bad news. As economies, including our own, have opened up again, they are experiencing strong growth. The European Commission is now predicting Irish GDP growth of 7.2% this year and a further 5.1% growth in 2022. Unfortunately, this strong economic growth hasn’t fed through into the public ﬁnances. Up to now at any rate. The July exchequer ﬁgures showed very strong growth in virtually all tax headings as the economy roared back to life.

€2.5bn, up by €865m on July 2020 and €350m ahead of target. There are also signs that pandemicrelated spending may be winding down faster than anticipated as the return to work gathers pace. While total spending for the ﬁrst seven months of 2021 of €47.2bn was €1.3bn ahead of the same period last year, it was €1.8bn less than planned. However, the cumulative deﬁcit since the start of 2020 has now climbed to €18bn.

Amazon fulfilment centre Statistics from the Central Bank in Dublin (above) show online spending by Irish consumers is currently running at over €2.5bn a month

Total tax revenues in July were €6.7bn. This was up €1.4bn on the 2020 ﬁgure and €630m ahead of the budget day target. All the major tax headings showed strong growth with income tax receipts of €2.1bn coming in €500m above last year and €100m ahead of target.

VAT the star performer However, it was VAT that was the undoubted star of the show as the tills hopped at the country’s retailers following the end of lockdown. Total July VAT receipts were

There may be more good news for the exchequer on the VAT front. Online spending by Irish consumers using credit or debit cards is currently running at over €2.5bn a month, according to the latest Central Bank statistics. Most of this goes to foreign websites with no VAT paid to the Irish exchequer. That’s going to change and soon. Amazon is currently developing a 650,000 square feet fulﬁlment centre at Baldonnell. When this comes on stream, a large chunk of this lost VAT revenue will be repatriated. €1bn a month of repatriated online sales would result in a €2.4bn annual boost to the exchequer. ■

www.shelﬂife.ie | ShelfLife August 2021

Grocery & Convenience sector continues to perform strongly acting as a catalyst for investment in online and offline channels.

Retail Convenience: H1 2021 Review Summary

Key Activity in the Sector in H1 2021

•

Robust performance: Exceptional performance delivered by the sector linked to COVID-19 continued into H1 2021. Shopping behaviour and frequency patterns returning to more normalised trends linked to the vaccine roll-out. Sustainable Future: A commitment to reduce carbon footprint retains a strong focus from all leading brands in the Irish market. Store revamps, fleet management, use of alternative energy sources all being proactively utilsed to improve the sectors environmental credentials. Investment: Store purchase activity has been particularly strong in H1 2021 and this trend along with increased store revamp activity is expected to continue in H2 2021. Bank of Ireland continues to actively engage and support grocery retailers with their investment plans.

•

Approval Activity Value %

H1 2021 Key Trends •

•

Strong growth in take-home grocery sales linked to COVID-19 continued. Growth of 18% delivered in 2021 ytd v pre-pandemic performance in 2019 per Kantar Grocery market share. Supervalu and Dunnes continued to compete strongly for the no. 1 spot in grocery market share; Supervalu benefiting from its extensive community focused store network and online capability and Dunnes delivering a strong performance in the Dublin region. Aldi and Lidl continue to maintain a strong foothold in the Irish market. COVID-19 has driven a large divergence in performance amongst convenience focused operators. Neighbourhood stores (Centra & Eurospar) have reported a strong performance whereas many city-centre stores have seen a significant deterioration in footfall linked to increased working from home practices, reduction in tourism/sports events etc. Forecourt stores have delivered an improved performance with many acting as regional top-up stores. The Irish consumer now expects a frictionless/accessible shopping experience with strong investment in click & collect services being noteworthy across all leading brands. The provenance/origin of products continues to inform/guide shopping trends and behaviour.

Sector Developments – H1 2021 Key Numbers

€874m BWG group sales in the 6 months to 31 March 2021.

60%

Increase in online capacity delivered by Tesco Ireland in 2020.

Approval Activity Value % in H1 2021

28%

Sales delivered by Supervalu Food academy producers between 2016 and 2020.

Additional amount spent on take-home grocery in Ireland in the year end 31st March 2021 per Kantar.

€75m

Investment from Lidl in its regional distribution centre in Co Westmeath.

11% 44%

59%

33%

■ Refinance ■ Freehold ■ Revamp ■ Working Capital

Bank of Ireland business banking data

Sector Developments: Investment and Consolidation •

€170m

Compared to Approval Activity % in H1 2020

12%

• •

•

€2bn

Shopping patterns have reverted to more normalised trends as vaccine rollout continues. The frequency of trips to convenience/grocery stores has increased with an additional 2m trips recorded in June 2021 compared to June 2020 (per Kantar – Irish grocery market share). Retailers are continuing to implement pragmatic succession planning structures to ensure that appropriate long-term value is delivered from their business. COVID-19 has been a catalyst for some retailers to investigate future options. A strong pipeline of store revamps and purchase activity has been generated in H1 2021. Progressive retailers continue to recognise that in-store investment is necessary to maintain customer engagement and loyalty.

Supervalu, Lidl, Aldi and Dunnes all outlined plans for new store openings in 2021 across all regions with a noteworthy focus on satellite towns of Dublin, Cork and Galway. Musgrave Retail Partners which own the Supervalu and Centra brands appointed Ian Allen as managing director. Buymie, led by Devan Hughes has partnered with selected Dunnes, Lidl and Tesco stores to provide same-day grocery deliveries to consumers in Dublin, Galway and Cork. The evolution of the grocery delivery sector and click and collect continues with the UK witnessing a range of new market entrants such as Weezy, Jiffy and Getir over the past twelve months. The UK competition authority has cleared the €6.8bn acquisition of Asda by the Issa brothers/TDR capital. The new owner’s strategy for the Asda Northern Ireland business will be monitored closely.

A renewed focus on store investment and consolidation within the sector. Margin preservation and environmentally friendly practices key linked to changes in consumer behaviour.

Retail Convenience H2 2021 Outlook Market

H2 2021 Key Numbers

€4m Investment by the Pettit Group in their new flagship Supervalu store in Southern Cross, Bray, Co Wicklow.

1million Number of indigenous woodland trees that Aldi has committed to plant pre 2025 in Ireland to support its reduction in carbon emissions target.

22,000sq/m

149million

The scale of Plexiglass utilized by Tesco Ireland across its store network to deliver a safe environment for customers and staff during COVID-19.

The volume of in-store contactless payments in Q1 2021 per Banking & Payments Federation of Ireland as consumers move away from cash based transactions.

•

Significant revamp programme will be rolled out in H2 2021 nationwide by leading grocery operators as the ever more discerning consumer seeks excellence in store standards.

•

Detailed analysis pre and post revamp will be an imperative to ensure that a maximum return on investment is delivered via sales mix improvement, margin growth and cost saving. The “localisation” trend will continue with store revamps taking a more bespoke, community focused approach.

•

Increased consolidation expected in the market with larger independent grocery/convenience operators expanding their store network thus creating multi-store groups operating under the Supervalu, Centra and Eurospar/Spar banners in particular.

•

The long-term model adopted by city-centre and high convenience Forecourt retailers will be examined – can they effectively pivot towards grocery top-up and/or a hub for people working from home through increased delivery capability and/or partnerships with local restaurants/ bakeries/café’s etc.

•

Corporate social responsibility linked to sustainable and environmentally friendly in-store activities will be a key area of focus for all retailers – energy efficient equipment, elimination of single-use plastic, improved recycling facilities and reduction of food waste. This will enable an improved cost base whilst meeting consumer expectations in respect of ethical trading.

•

Development of a frictionless, reliable and efficient online service to meet increased demand for a digital offering will rank high on investment priorities for the sector. Retailers will examine the benefits of 3rd party partnerships, “darkstores” and improved click and collect offerings to meet the nascent growth in this channel.

H2 2021 Retail Convenience Sector Outlook •

Robust Outlook: Overall a resilient sector to economic shocks; Sales performance during COVID-19 has bolstered cash reserves.

•

Funding Activity: Strong active pipeline of store purchase and revamp proposals– retailers recognise that customer experience/excellent standards will be key to attract and retain market share.

•

Investment/Consolidation: Increased investment in partnership agreements and further consolidation of the market (especially forecourt sub-sector) expected in H2 2021.

Funding Activity •

Revamp activity to continue linked to a proactive revamp strategy from progressive retailers nationwide.

•

Store sale activity primarily linked to succession planning will continue to develop in H2 2021. Leasehold retailers will continue to see opportunities to purchase the freehold interest of their stores.

•

Refinance activity projected in the sector in H2 2021 linked to exiting banks and loan book purchasers seeking to deleverage.

Bank of Ireland •

In Bank of Ireland we recognise that we have a unique opportunity to support our customers and to enable Irish businesses and the communities we jointly serve to thrive.

•

Our proven financial capabilities and appetite, combined with comprehensive sector expertise, provide us with a strong platform to meet the funding requirements of Irish retailers.

•

We understand the investment cycle, including the need for regular expenditure to maintain growth and profitability in this dynamic sector, and we have a strong appetite to support progressive, innovative retailers in the further development of their businesses in 2021.

Owen Clifford owen.clifford@boi.com 087 907 9002

Owen Clifford is Head of Retail Convenience within Bank of Ireland since 2015. Owen is responsible for the continuing development of the Bank’s growth strategy in this key area and has actively supported leading retailers and stakeholders in the sector to grow and develop their business in a sustainable manner.

Owen has brought extensive industry knowledge and experience to this role, having worked in the retail sector with Musgrave Retail Partners Ireland where his role involved supporting independent retailers to maximise their profitability and to develop long-term, sustainable business models. During this time Owen built up a significant knowledge base, and a network of connections with expertise, in the areas of Finance, Operations and Legal/ Regulatory requirements specific to the Retail Convenience sector. Owen holds a first class honours degree in Law and Accounting from the University of Limerick and is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants Ireland and an Associate of the Irish Taxation Institute.

Sources: www.checkout.ie, www.shelflife.ie, Bank of Ireland business banking data – June 2021, Irish Times, Irish Independent, Kantar Grocery market share – January: June 2021. Banking & Payments Federation of Ireland, Supervalu Food academy press release, Tesco Ireland press release. Bank of Ireland is regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland. This document has been prepared by Bank of Ireland for informational purposes only. Not to be reproduced, in whole or in part, without prior permission. Any information contained herein is believed by the Bank to be accurate and true but the Bank expresses no presentation or warranty of such accuracy and accepts no responsibility whatsoever for any loss or damage caused by any act or omission taken as a result of the information contained in this document. You should obtain independent legal advice before making any decision.

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STORE PROFILE

Without a hitch

Julia O’Reilly caught up with Arthur McGuire of McGuire’s Daybreak to discuss the store’s recent renovation, the importance of good staff, and the support he’s received from Musgrave through the years was a challenge to make ends meet for many years. We were trying to make repayments and develop the business at the same time.”

Tough times

Retailers Arthur and Bernadette McGuire say that the boost created by their recent renovation has been “just phenomenal”

or nearly 90 years, a shop on Raven Terrace, Galway City, has sold groceries to the locals and those that travel through the area. Enviably located just a stone’s throw from the Spanish Arch, the shop ﬁrst came to be in 1935, when Arthur McGuire’s mother opened its doors. “She was just 17 years old at the time,” says McGuire, the owner of McGuire’s Daybreak. “It all started from there. My dad owned the pub next door, which was run as a separate business. I grew up around both businesses, and when I got married in 1980, I took over running the shop from my mother.” Those were trying times for small businesses owners, he says. “I tried to develop the business over the following years, and in 1983 I bought the pub that was next door to the shop. At the time, there were four buildings

STORE PROFILE

Retailer: McGuire’s Daybreak Address: 2 Raven Terrace, Galway, Ireland, Staff: 13; nine full-time and four part-time Opening hours: Monday – Sunday, 6.45am – 10pm

on the street, and three of them were pubs. Many years later, I was able to knock the two into its current form. “Things were really difﬁcult for us at the time,” McGuire continues. “I was only 26 when I bought the pub. I borrowed £100,000 at a staggering 18.5% interest rate for the buying and renovating costs. That level of interest is unheard of in today’s climate. It

‘The Big Night In’ is an important sales occasion in-store, merchandised with on-trend signage reading, ‘Stay in, chill out and treat yourself to an old favourite’

ShelfLife August 2021 | www.shelﬂife.ie

Just as the going got tough for McGuire, Musgrave introduced an enticing proposition to retailers. “We were an independent store, and I loved being my own man,” he says. “But at the same time, I recognised that symbol groups were becoming a huge inﬂuence in Ireland. To bring your business to the next level, you had to be part of one of these groups.” When Musgrave introduced Day-Today to the market, offering retailers a chance to be part of a symbol group, while retaining signiﬁcant control, McGuire grabbed it. “I never looked back, Musgrave really was a godsend to me,” he says. “The whole team has been absolutely phenomenal over the years in every aspect of our business. I have nothing but the highest of praise for all the Musgrave hierarchy, from the top down.”

Rapid renovation McGuire was particularly grateful for the work the Musgrave team put into his store’s recent revamp. A rapid-ﬁre affair, the extensive renovation went off without a hitch thanks in part to meticulous planning on Musgrave’s end. “On 28 February 2021, we closed our doors at half six and we opened them again on

The 9 Grams coffee concept is performing well, despite stiff competition for coffee sales within the local area

STORE PROFILE

5 March, effectively as a whole new store. We had 14 people on hand for the renovation. It was four full days’ work – 24-hour days. On the organisational side, Musgrave made sure it ran like clockwork. There was not one glitch in the whole operation, all the equipment arrived on time, all the tradespeople arrived on time. Everybody really stepped up to the mark, the level of change we achieved in that time was incredible. “We’re delighted with the result, and our customers are too. The boost we have seen from the reboot has been just phenomenal. We always had a strong deli, but the Munch & Co. concept has brought it to a much higher level, and we have seen growth of about 15% since. “The 9 Grams coffee concept is also performing well. There’s stiff competition for coffee in our area. Thankfully, we have seen a big increase in growth since the revamp, but there’s more to be had, and through social media, advertising and so forth we’re working on improving it further.”

Sales boost Another welcome area of growth came from unexpected means. After McGuire established a dedicated off-licence area in line with government regulations, alcohol sales shot up by 30%. “We always had a name for having a broad range of wines and the craft beers,” he says. “Within the Daybreak group, we were named Wine Store of the Year for nine years running. We have only slightly under four metres of wine, but we carry over 190 varieties. Before we did these changes, I think people had been rushing past them. Whereas now, they’re in the section and they’re spending 15 or 20 minutes reading about grape varieties. Now we have customers saying, ‘God, I never knew you had this range’, but we always did, it just stands out more now. “It’s the same with craft beers, we carry a huge range for a store of our size,” he continues. “There are three standalone craft

The introduction of the Munch & Co. concept has delivered growth within the deli department of approximately 15%

Retailer Arthur McGuire is understandably proud of the store’s off-licence department which has resulted in it being named Daybreak Wine Store of the Year for nine years running

beer pubs in our area. A few years ago, we recognised that there was huge potential to develop our craft beer business to tap into that clientele, and it’s been going well for us. It’s important to tap into customer bases that exist in the area you’re in.”

Stellar staff Keeping staff happy is one of the secrets to McGuire’s success. “Staff can make you or break you,” he says, “if you have a good team, you have to look after them.” And from talking to McGuire, it seems he’s doing just that. With 13 staff in total – nine full-time and four part-time – McGuire works hard to foster a positive working environment in his store. “We treat everyone as a family, not as staff, and they reciprocate that,” he says. “Prior to Covid-19, we would go out at least once a month. It creates a nice atmosphere in the shop. Show interest, invest time and energy in your team, and they’ll show it back to you in spades. You can have a beautiful

store, wonderful products, all the gadgets, but if you don’t have good staff then you’re wasting your time. Customers pick up on the working environment, and if they get a nice, homely feeling in a shop, they’ll want to spend more time there.” As well as his own staff, McGuire is full of praise for the team at Musgrave, who he thanks for making the revamp process as seamless as possible. “The level of professionalism and integrity from each and every one of their team was just fantastic,” says McGuire. “Liam Coady and Leonard Doyle, who are both business development managers at Musgrave, were a great help in the development and the rebranding stage. A lovely man called Philip Kelly, who is the fresh food advisor for Musgrave, spent nearly a full week with us introducing new elements to our deli from the Munch and Co. menu. Musgrave Cash & Carry in Galway were a huge help as well. We really appreciate all the help we’ve received through the years in making our store a success.” ■

Excellent customer service is a major component of the store’s success, with Arthur McGuire saying of his team: “We treat everyone as a family, not as staff, and they reciprocate that”

www.shelﬂife.ie | ShelfLife August 2021

20 INTERVIEW

Charging ahead While 2020 was clearly a challenging year for Ireland’s forecourt industry, Maxol, named ‘Best of the Best’ at the NACS European Convenience Retail Awards, is “back on track” with a €7 million investment plan for 2020, CEO Brian Donaldson tells Gillian Hamill Brian Donaldson, Maxol Group CEO

ot on the heels of Maxol’s announcement of a €7m investment for its forecourt network across the Republic of Ireland last month, CEO of The Maxol Group, Brian Donaldson was in a justifiably buoyant mood when we caught up with him over Zoom to discuss the group’s latest tranche of investment for 2022. Since 2012, Maxol has already invested over €220m in its 236-strong network across Ireland and the latest announcement will include more than €1m each on the refurbishment of two high-profile sites: Maxol Ballycoolin, Dublin and Maxol Riverside in Navan.

return and that’s always been our mantra. “We don’t like having a lot of debt on our books,” he continues. “Therefore, we try to manage it as tightly as we can because you never know what’s round the corner. You only have to look at the crash in 2008 and the casualties that arose from that. Some players [in our industry] were very fortunate to escape due to the amount of debt they had taken on, but that’s not our style. We’re very much balance sheet driven; the majority of our company-owned sites are freehold, we own them and that means we’re in control of the site. It also means we’re not paying large annual rents to landlords, and we’re very agile.”

Back on track

100% Irish

“Much like last year, 2021 hasn’t been quite the year we had planned for,” Donaldson says in his characteristically upfront fashion. “Our investment programme in Ireland came to a halt on several occasions due to the pandemic, but we remain committed to our plans, and it is great to be back on track and looking ahead to the future with confidence.” In many ways, Maxol as a family-owned business under the McMullan family, appears to be reaping the rewards of a financially prudent approach. Although the group has continually ploughed money back into developing the business over the years, Maxol has been careful not to over-extend from a debt perspective.

As further evidence of the group’s financial prudence, Maxol operates “a very tight overhead structure with our core business”, employing “no more than 85 people, of which five are members of the McMullan family”. What’s more, its focus is 100% on Ireland: “All of our money goes into Ireland,” says Donaldson. “We don’t have businesses sitting over in mainland GB and we don’t

have any businesses in the States or in Europe. All our money is going back into the domestic economy in Ireland, and I think that’s what sets us apart - we’re truly local, truly family and truly 100% Irish-owned. That’s our big difference and I think in the next number of months and years ahead, that’s going to mean an awful lot to the Irish consumer.” As of course, do “first-class standards and service”, both attributes reflected in Maxol Newbridge winning the inaugural Best of the Best Store award at the annual NACS European Convenience Retail Awards held in June – a coup which Donaldson says is a testament to everyone involved and of which they should be very proud.

Transition “The past ten years have seen us transition from being a fuel centric brand to one that is more known for our food offering,” he continues. “To achieve this, we have been redeveloping existing service stations by introducing more eat-in and seating areas, together with family friendly spaces, wherever possible.”

Financial control “Family businesses always take a longer-term view in terms of investment and we have been very careful not to lose the run of ourselves,” says Donaldson. “The McMullan family reinvests significant amounts of the profit back into the business which is all about building the future for the next generation. Certainly, one thing that we’ve always been very strong on is financial control, financial management. We’re very much P&L driven and investments need to make sense for that investment to go ahead, projects will come to table, but we will only proceed with those where we see the best ShelfLife August 2021 | www.shelflife.ie

Maxol Clarecastle last year won first prize in a new global challenge, the ‘Global Forecourt Experience Challenge’, which recognises teams for their cleanliness and safety efforts on-site during the Covid-19 pandemic

INTERVIEW

Indoor dining Speaking of seating areas, it is impossible to ignore the elephant in the room. Although our interview took place before the government’s announcement that indoor dining could reopen for vaccinated customers on Monday, 26 July, Donaldson nevertheless shares his thoughts on the difficulties involved for the convenience and forecourt sector. “Within our sector, it’s a high turnover with a high frequency of visits and a short stay per visit. Therefore, it’s going to be a challenge to resource and manage all of the proof of vaccination controls for someone who might be sitting down for five to ten minutes,” he says. “We have fed those concerns back to the government to say, look, we know that you’re trying to get restaurants back open, but I think what you need to be looking at is whether there could be some flexibility for our sector, particularly for those high turnover locations where people aren’t going to be spending an hour or two to sit down for a meal.” Afterall, as Donaldson points out, it was the convenience and forecourt sector’s strict adherence to Covid-19 hygiene and safety measures that helped give government confidence that the non-essential retail sector could be safely reopened. “One of the things that I think our sector can be very proud of is that we set the principles, the ground rules for highstreet retailing to reopen. We were able to prove to the government that we could trade the whole way through Covid safely through implementing best practice.”

Change in buyer behaviour Forecourt volumes were obviously majorly impacted during the first lockdown in 2020, due to the restrictions placed on travel. “They were reduced by anything up to 70% depending on the location. In the main, the more transient the location the more the volume percentage fell - but nevertheless, as a

Maxol created 20 new jobs in Wicklow following a €3.75 million investment in Maxol Rathnew, which opened last year

business we quickly became ‘that community store’, that hub for all of the local residents and all of those businesses that still had to work through Covid to provide essential services. To be quite honest it became almost like a military exercise in terms of making sure we were doing the right things at the right time as more and more information came through. For us, it was important to show solidarity in clear communications with all of our retailers. It was a matter of making sure we gave them the up-to-date information on how best to navigate their way through Covid19. We worked very closely with our strategic partners such as BWG Foods, the Musgrave Group and also the Henderson Group in Northern Ireland.” Thankfully, the second lockdown was less severe, as people had greater confidence in making journeys. “At this moment in time,”

Maxol Dooradoyle, located on St Nessan’s Road, Co. Limerick, underwent a substantial investment of almost €1 million in 2020

says Donaldson, “we are seeing city centre type locations disproportionately hit in terms of volumes and turnover not recovering, due to less traffic coming into those locations as office workers continue to work remotely from home. Thankfully, the majority of our network is within the suburbs, all within community neighbourhood type locations.” “A big change” in buyer behaviour has occurred whereby shoppers are increasingly using Maxol stores not just for impulse purchases but for their top-up grocery shopping. “Therefore, what we had to do as a business is make sure that we expanded our range so that people could come in and do a larger, more competitively priced type shop, getting everything necessary for their family needs.” That said, Maxol was already less impulsefocused than some competitors in the forecourt sector. “Our model has always been not as

Earlier this year, Maxol Newbridge won the NACS European Convenience Retail Best of the Best Store Award

www.shelflife.ie | ShelfLife August 2021

INTERVIEW

it would be reliable and come from a quality source.”

EV charging

Maxol Ardbrae, located on Vevay Road, Bray, Co. Wicklow, reopened last year following a €1.7 million investment, with new food offerings and customer seating

extreme,” says Donaldson. “A lot of our competitors moved purely to impulse, and that might well have been down to the types of locations they’re serving.” Yet with “the backbone of Maxol’s model” being neighbourhood locations, Donaldson says that the latest Maxol store concept “still had a much greater range of products compared to our competitors; all that we’re doing is now extending that and giving a wider choice, certainly within fresh and chilled, and ambient.” In fact, during the pandemic, more shoppers’ eyes have been opened as to the range and value available at Maxol, Donaldson adds. “We have been making sure that our stores are set up for the needs of the people within that area. We aren’t applying a one-shoe-fits-all approach, we are looking at each of the demographics of each location. We’re working hand-in-glove with our independent retailers along with our supply partners to make sure we’re giving our customers what they need.” Careful consideration is given to stocking the ranges customers want, including delisting products that are not moving. Technology plays a key role in this task. “We continue to invest very heavily in ‘big data’,” says Donaldson, “understanding the trends, understanding what’s moving, understanding on-shelf availability, the importance of sell-by dates; making sure that we are becoming not just good retailers but exceptional retailers in terms of the service that we give.”

Coffee, it’s doing extremely well for us, our turnover is now well in excess of €8 million a year, and that’s for a brand that we only launched towards the end of 2018.” He attributes Rosa’s success to several factors: investment in the latest machines, quality coffee beans and sustainable cups and lids. “We’ve done it right from day one and we’re very consistent in our approach and that’s the same with our deli business; we’ve invested very heavily in the supply chain, the training and the ongoing product development and that’s been achieved by listening to our customers and to what they want.”

A testament to the brand The shift to a more food-centric brand was fully laid out in the group’s five-year strategic plan in 2016. Alongside the success of the deli, coffee and bakery departments, two specific examples which show how far Maxol has progressed, include Maxol’s own milk and sandwich range, now provided through Deli Lites. “What we have achieved really reinforces and is a fantastic testament to the brand,” Donaldson says. “People said to me, ‘How can you have Maxol milk when your brand is fuel?’ It wasn’t any problem whatsoever. If anything, the endorsement from our name being on it, meant the product was very trusted, people knew that

Rosa Coffee “Covid has accelerated the change in consumer behaviour,” he continues, “and what we have done with all our independent retailers is work with them to make sure that we continue to adapt because everything evolves. Certainly, we have seen in the last 24 months, there’s been quite a dramatic shift. In terms of our coffee business under Rosa

ShelfLife August 2021 | www.shelflife.ie

Launched in 2018, turnover of Maxol’s Rosa Coffee “is now well in excess of €8 million a year,” says Brian Donaldson

Another area in which Maxol is moving with the times is within electric vehicle chargers. “We were one of the first players to put in EV chargers way back in 2010/2011 with ESB and to be quite honest that revolution didn’t happen for all the reasons that are well known to all of us. However, we know that every government across the globe is now mandated in terms of getting to a net zero carbon environment by 2050. Our view is that electrification is coming and we have been preparing for electrification for four years. “We have had a dedicated team looking at equipment and payment platform models. We were probably one of the first companies in Ireland to go to Norway with our board of directors to do a study tour looking at what’s happened within that particular market, which is way ahead of any other country across the globe. Based on our learnings there, we have a model which we can roll out, we even have a brand name for what we would be selling electricity under in terms of superfast chargers. We have a payments model already under trial in Northern Ireland in Townparks in Antrim. We’re working closely with the Electric Vehicle Association in Northern Ireland (EVANI) to get their feedback because again we’re trying to look at this through the eyes of our EV customer.”

Learnings from Norway Some of the key learnings from Norway include the importance of equipment reliability; “a lot of equipment is breaking down quite frequently,” Donaldson says. There can also be issues with queuing which would necessitate a “model where you can book your space, and thirdly, it needs to be a very simple payments platform. At the moment in Norway, there could be anything up to 13 different payment platforms needing anything up to 13 different apps and that’s very inconvenient and confusing and doesn’t always work for customers if they call into a location where they don’t have the right app downloaded.” Following Maxol’s 100th anniversary in 2020, Donaldson says, “my job is making sure that the business has got the foundations for the next 100 years”. With the group’s current category management, coffee, deli, carwash, fuels and branding refresh, “we are making sure that we’ve optimized the return from our existing traditional business, and we still have a very strong future well into the next decade, but it’s important we now lay down different foundations in different sectors which will grow and build over the next ten years.” n

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24 ADVISOR: HR

Navigating hybrid working With Covid-19 radically shifting many workforces towards greater ﬂexibility and more working from home, The HR Suite’s Caroline McEnery outlines how to decide what type of hybrid working model will suit your workforce best and how to implement these changes into your long-term operations

CAROLINE MCENERY

managing director, The HR Suite

wide range of research indicates that after the pandemic, the majority of workers want to continue to work from home at least some of the time, presenting new opportunities for organisations to establish new ways of working. There is no exact deﬁnition of hybrid working as it can mean many things for different companies and industries. But essentially it means a working arrangement between an employer and an employee, where the employee works sometimes in the ofﬁce and sometimes at home. At present in Ireland, all employees can ask their employers for the right to work remotely, but there is no legal framework around which a request can be made and how it should be dealt with by the employer. Currently, the government is in consultation to develop a framework for employees on the right to request remote working which would allow remote working to form part of their terms and conditions of employment.

Experiment results

80% of employees now want to work remotely or work in a blended environment, according to Amarach Research

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.

We saw in March 2020, a quick change in how people work, which gave employers the push to allow employees to work remotely. Now that employees can return to the workplace, employers are seeing them request that the company work within a hybrid model. Exactly how to implement hybrid working will vary from organisation to organisation, and even from team to team – these new ways of working should be tailored to the unique needs of the individual, team or department. While we can class the previous 16 months as an experiment, for the vast majority of employees, it has been a positive experience. As a result, 80% of employees now want to work remotely or work in a blended environment, according to Amarach Research. There is a huge appetite for remote and blended working arrangements when the Covid-19 restrictions end. The role of the line manager will be key to establishing these. In particular, managers will be responsible for effective communication and teamworking within newly hybrid teams. Employers are encouraged to discuss the hybrid working dynamic with all employees and decide what the general consensus is. This can be completed through an employee questionnaire and will involve assessing roles to gauge how much remote working can continue in the future.

Types of activity It’s important to remember that jobs can be time flexible, location flexible, or a mix of both. Most jobs are typically comprised of several types of activity which influence the

ShelfLife August 2021 | www.shelﬂife.ie

type of ﬂexibility that can be undertaken. The balance of these activities can help you to consider whether a role can be hybrid and how much remote work can be undertaken: • Activities that are undertaken with other people, at the same time and at the same place, may not permit hybrid working, or only a minority of time spent working remotely. • Activities that are undertaken with other people at the same time in person or remotely; such roles may be able to undertake some hybrid or remote working. • Activities that are largely independent and can be undertaken anywhere or at any time; these roles may permit a signiﬁcant amount of remote working.

Increased productivity Although it may not be possible to meet all employee preferences or expectations, when people are able to work within their preferred style this can help them to be productive, support employee engagement and is also good for wellbeing. Employees should be made aware that personal preferences cannot all be met and given a timeline for providing more information wherever possible. Also, it is important to note for some companies, the hybrid working model will not work, for example the retail industry and the hospitality industry. There are many additional benefits for employers and employees who engage in a hybrid working dynamic. These would include a better work life balance, less time spent commuting and being more proactive while in the office space. It is also estimated that more than a million workers will benefit from tax breaks aimed at incentivising remote working on a permanent basis in October’s budget.

New normal Tánaiste Leo Varadkar has stated that he hopes the working environment will not return to the way we once used to work, but a new normal based on people’s personal choices. Firms such as Microsoft, Apple, and Google have stated that they will be using a hybrid work model when employees are permitted back to the ofﬁce environment. How hybrid working needs to work and be managed in practice will vary broadly according to the type of work being undertaken. Be prepared to collaborate with your team and adapt your approach as you learn what works and what does not. You may need to try different methods and approaches to determine what works best for your particular situation. If you are an organisation based in the Republic of Ireland and require further information or advice relating to HR, please do not hesitate to contact The HR Suite’s ofﬁce on (066)7102887. ■

At Nearby, we provide the support and market knowledge that your store needs to thrive in today’s market. We look for retail partners who are passionate about their customers, their products and the future of their store. The best part? With a retail support system in place, you will have more time to get on with things that make your business unique, while we take care of the rest! To find out more about the benefits of becoming a Nearby retailer contact: Arron Potts Head of Retail Development ROI apotts@sandwni.com Tel : 083 193 9229

always-nearby.com

26 STORE PROFILE

The Nearby strapline is “Never too far from home” and this is a message Jason Leonard and his team want to showcase to the people of Drumkeeran

Retail is detail J

ason Leonard has a real eye for detail. Ever since he was 16, delivering groceries in the West of Ireland, he’s paid keen attention to the way shops operate. “I’ve always had a knack for it,” says Leonard. “Delivering groceries was my ﬁrst taste of retail. It was then that I became attuned to retail. I started paying attention to the prices, how the aisles were laid out, how shelf space was allocated. I wouldn’t have been shy in sharing my thoughts with the retailers either. When I'd be doing the delivery, I'd be watching the shopkeeper’s work. I'd give my input, and a lot of the time they'd listen to me!” While Leonard wasn’t set on working in retail at the time, he soon found himself being drawn in: “One day a man from Mangan’s told me I could make a job out of merchandising stores, but my family worked in transport and I thought I’d end up in that line of work. But here I am all these years later, and I couldn’t be happier.”

Owner of Nearby Drumkeeran, Jason Leonard, tells Julia O’Reilly about the new symbol brand from S&W Wholesale

opportunity arose and he grabbed it. “I always knew what made a good shop,” he says. “To me, its doors should be open from 7am to 9pm, seven days a week. It needs a coffee machine, a deli, and an ice-cream machine in the summer to bring in an extra couple of hundred quid a day. These things get the people in.”

Intriguing proposition

Taking chances Today, Leonard puts that detailed eye to use in his own store, Nearby Drumkeeran, which is part of the new symbol brand from S&W Wholesale. Leonard has been the owner of the Co. Leitrim store since 2018, when an ShelfLife August 2021 | www.shelﬂife.ie

Sure of what he wanted to achieve, Leonard set out to make the dream a reality. “There was a lot I wanted to change, but I saw its potential,” he says. “The building wasn't too expensive as no one was buying at the time. A few people called me mad, they said I’d never get my money back, but I'm a brave man and I knew what I wanted.” The Drumkeeran shop was initially part of another convenience brand, and while things were running well, Leonard started looking to ﬁnd a brand that was a better ﬁt. “I spend a lot of time in Northern Ireland. Over the years, I noticed that you’d get apples in the north selling for 29p, and here they’re selling for 69p. I decided I needed a wholesaler who could give me those offers. I needed pricing that would allow me to make my margin, while providing value for the customer. S&W Wholesale, Newry, were able to do just that.”

Ever since the second week with S&W Wholesale, retailer Jason Leonard reports turnover has been up approximately 20% each day

After meeting with Arron Potts, head of retail development Ireland at S&W Wholesale, Leonard’s mind was made up: “Arron Potts and I got on from day one. He’s a straight talker and so am I. He came in to see the shop, and he liked what he saw. He told me that they were developing a new brand called Nearby and that he thought I'd like it. Arron

STORE PROFILE

and I would be on the same page about most things, so I was intrigued. “He came back with one of his colleagues and we started to make plans for the store. My main issue was the layout. We were tight on space and had been making the most out of every metre. When he showed me the markup, I really liked it.” “We’ve only been with them since December 2020. It’s not a long time but I always judge companies by how they handle issues,” he continues. “If there’s a problem, I don’t want to hear excuses, I just want to know how it’ll affect my customers. From what I’ve seen with S&W Wholesale, I’m impressed. There haven’t been many issues, but any time there was one, our rep was on the phone straightaway to help us out. Even if the problem couldn't be solved right away, I liked the care they gave us. It says a lot about the company.”

of telling us what to do, they bring suggestions that have been proven to have worked for other stores. For Leonard, the whole experience has been a positive one. “I couldn’t fault my journey with them. They signed me on, got me set up right. I’m happy, they’re happy. It’s been done right and I would recommend any retailer to talk to them. The whole team is stellar, from the merchandiser to the representatives, everyone is so professional. “My biggest mistake when I bought the shop is that I didn't go to them from the start,” he adds. “I'm a Sligo man, I’m across the border all the time and I know the prices are more competitive. I'm competing with them prices. S&W Wholesale supply both to the North and the South. They can buy products at the northern prices, which means you can make good money while passing value along to your customers.”

Welcome changes

Delicate balance

Along with the new store name, came several exciting new in-store features. “We did a renovation, where we changed the layout, put in an ATM, a new coffee machine, bigger ice-cream fridges, and a full bakery section. We now have tarts, scones, mufﬁns, pastries and breads made fresh every morning. We were also able to extend the range of products we offer, and now have a bigger mineral range, crisp range, and range of savoury & frozen foods.” Leonard has been enjoying a welcome boost in revenue since making the switch. “Ever since the second week with S&W Wholesale, turnover has been up maybe 20% a day. The prices are very competitive and it’s been brilliant. For the prices and the product range I had to go with Nearby, and it’s paid off for us. As an added bonus, our customers love the new layout and the new look.” Such a strong endorsement from Leonard speaks volumes: “I love the independence they give us. They're not in our face. Instead

When it comes to ﬁnding success in retail, it’s about striking a delicate balance. “Retail is detail,” says Leonard. “I always say that. There's no point in taking the time to stock the shelves so they're lovely, but your fridge is left dirty. It’s the same with staff. There’s no point having a great range of products if the staff aren’t polite to the customers.” Leonard’s team of six play an important role in shaping the atmosphere in his shop: “Creating a good atmosphere is so important. Our staff get on well with the customers, they're local people and everyone likes them. For me the big thing is manners. If you can smile at a customer and chat to them, that's a big plus. You want the customer to come in and feel the warmth, see the special offers, smell the fresh bread and see the friendly staff.”

Community focus For Leonard, that attitude extends not just to customers, but to the wider community. “I've told our staff that if anyone comes into the

‘More Savings Everyday’ is a key focus at Nearby Drumkeeran where the team prides themselves on offering value to shoppers

‘Always Local’ is another central message displayed within the store where retailer Jason Leonard says: “Our staff get on well with the customers, they’re local people and everyone likes them”

shop and they've got no wallet and they're hungry, you feed them, you give them some soup. There's lots of old folks in the village who are not eating right. So, we put up a pot of soup every day. They'll have nice mushroom or vegetable soup, with fresh bread from the deli and lots of butter and that'll keep them going. It’s all part of being a member of the community. The strapline for Nearby is “Never too far from home” and this something we want to focus on and showcase to the people of Drumkeeran. This community-led approach sets Leonard apart from the rest: “I do what I can, and I try to look out for people in our area. If we all looked out for each other, I’m sure the world would be a much better place.” ■

Open from 7am to 9pm, seven days a week, Nearby Drumkeeran provides an essential service for the local area

www.shelﬂife.ie | ShelfLife August 2021

28 FEATURE

The dining-in dilemma Indoor dining has resumed since late July which meant that retailers around the country were also free to open indoor seating areas for the first time in 18 months. However, many retailers have decided not to open these areas because of the minefield of issues that comes with it. Fionnuala Carolan looks at why indoor dining is still such a bone of contention for retailers

Vincent Jennings, chief executive of the CSNA, says there has been “zero accommodation or willingness to accommodate any distinctions whatsoever” for indoor dining within the convenience sector

eing permitted to do something and being able to do it are two completely different things. Retailers around the country have been dealing with the issue of whether to open their indoor dining facilities over the past few weeks and many it seems decided it just wasn’t worth it. From too much legislation and not enough staff to enforce it, some retailers have decided that the government’s public health regulations need to be adapted in order for them to take the leap of welcoming their customers back indoors. Since 26 July, indoor hospitality has been allowed to re-open with a list of government regulations and protocols in relation to evidence of customers’ Covid-19 vaccination. According to the regulations: “Business owners and management who are operating indoor hospitality should adhere to their sector-specific guidelines in addition to implementing the guidance for indoor hospitality.” This is all well and good but unfortunately for the retail sector the guidelines did not seem to be very “sector-specific”. The initial guidelines made no clear differentiation between casual indoor dining in a shop/coffee shop/takeaway and the entirely different beast

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of indoor dining in a restaurant or bar that serves alcohol. Dwell times are different and the risks associated with alcohol do not come into play in a retail environment but those putting together the guidelines completely failed to acknowledge this. The guidelines also state that all businesses need to ensure processes are in place and staff are trained so that the business is operating within the approved legislation. Hiring staff has reached crisis levels in the retail sector at present so there is little chance of a business finding extra staff members to police the new protocol or indeed finding the time to train staff on what is needed when the guidelines were published so close to the reopening date.

Zero accommodation Before the guidelines were released, the CSNA had discussions with Minister Damien English about how retail outlets should be treated differently to businesses selling alcohol. However, it seemed to fall on deaf ears as when the guidelines came out all food businesses were treated as equal. Vincent Jennings, chief executive of the CSNA says there has been “zero accommodation or willingness to accommodate any distinctions whatsoever between the various styles of outlet that provide hospitality from the government guidelines”. He believes that the regulations were designed by people who have never run a business. “While the regulations might work in a slow moving fine dining restaurant with a small number of covers, in our operations where we have hundreds of people coming through and only a small percentile wishing to use that facility, you certainly can’t ask every customer coming in for their cert as it’s not relevant and when they make their purchase, you don’t know whether they are sitting down or walking out the door. “There was no thought whatsoever and no consideration. I know that all of the main

players including the McDonalds plus the likes of Costa Coffee are all affected by this and if people can browse inside, why can’t they stay for 20 minutes to consume something?” he questions. He says that the real problems arise when you throw alcohol into the mix and it seems like the restrictions were devised for pubs and restaurants to prevent people becoming too free and easy and dropping their guard. “The vast majority of our retailers have said ‘no, we’re not going there’,” he says. “They can’t afford to have a separate staff member dealing with this. And coupled with the fact that we’ve had 18 months of being targeted by a small but incredibly vociferous group of people, this would be just something to further intimidate us with.”

Discrimination A notice in the window of Maxol Service Station in Sandyford, Co Dublin is a case

The above sign in Maxol Service Station in Sandyford, Co Dublin was posted on Twitter by a customer and has received a lot of support from the public, as well as some opposition

FEATURE 29

in point. It states that the seating area will remain closed until all customers have equal rights. “Our indoor dining will remain closed until all our customers can use the facilities,” the poster reads. “We feel strongly about the discriminatory nature of the new measures and will not be party to discrimination and the dilution of our constitutional rights.” The sign was posted on Twitter by a customer and has received a lot of support from the public (and some against it) saying they will be supporting this business from now on due to this stance. The vaccine passport was always going to divide society and retail groups believe that the indoor dining rules have given an extra cause to those against vaccination. “Many members will be reluctant to operate what is acknowledged to be a discriminatory system, primarily because they do not wish to be the subject of further invective and bile from that small but noisy section of society that have consistently caused a disproportionate level of disruption within our stores,” says Jennings.

Motorway service stations Gavin Moran, general manager of Junction 14, M7, Monasterevin Co. Kildare told ShelfLife at the end of July that they had not yet opened their indoor dining. It is understandable why retailers are cautious about reopening due to the vocal population opposed to the vaccine and to mask wearing. “I had two busloads of ‘anti-maskers’ come through here last Saturday on the way to Dublin for a march,” he says. “Staff and management are already stressed enough as it is without having hassle and abuse from these people. “It’s taking its toll on the team because we are so stretched with staff. I have 50 full-time positions to fill and I just can’t get people. I was lucky as I got some exceptional third level students and they’ve been great but I really need to fill all my full-time positions so I can still trade as normal in September.” Aside from the anti-mask brigade, there were other reasons for not reopening their seating area.

“The guidelines were very late coming through,” says Moran. “And then when they came through, they were subject to updating so we wanted to wait. That coupled with severe staff shortages at the moment, we made the decision that we weren’t going to open.” He says that he knows some retailers will take a more relaxed approach to the guidelines but they are sticking to the letter of the law rather than taking any chances. “We’ve always prided ourselves on doing things right and we don’t want to undo our good work now. So our plan now is to recruit staff and once we have enough staff to open the area we will do so and will follow government guidelines with checking the passports and the contact tracing and all the rest. Until such time we won’t do it as we don’t have the manpower.” In normal times, Junction 14 Mayfield would have 255 seats indoor and with social distancing this is reduced to 100. Now they are relying on their outdoor seating to accommodate customers. “We have invested in new benches outside so can currently sit about 80 people outside and at the moment people are happier to sit outside. With the Delta variant spreading like wildfire, people are still cautious about dining inside,” he explains.

Daybreak Cahir Another retailer, Alan O’Donnell from Daybreak in Cahir, Co. Tipperary also decided not to open his indoor seating area. “What we’re going to do is leave it a week or two to see how it plays out,” he says. “For us, it’s hard to manage the whole digital certificate; is someone coming in for fuel, are they going to consume on the premises/off the premises? It’s just too much hassle. “The other problem for us as well is that I’m not sure if we can staff it,” he continues. “We’re under pressure for staff. We’ve lucky in that we have a good takeaway business that works well for us and we have a good seating area outside and the weather is okay so not too many are giving out about it. “We’re hoping it will sort itself out in the next couple of weeks and that we won’t have to look for the digital certificate. We’ll do it slowly,” O‘Donnell explains.

Amendments for queuing system

Minister Damien English met with parties such as the CSNA before the indoor dining guidelines were released, yet distinctions for different types of food businesses were not implemented

A week after the first regulations were published, there was an amendment to the guidelines which provided for a queuing system for self-service facilities. This amendment states that “while table service is the safest mode of service, counter service can be permitted where safe queueing and compliance with other key requirements can be implemented. This will also apply to food service outlets in retail settings including food courts.” It goes on to say: “Once the customer has collected their tray, they must make their way to their assigned table. Any extra items the customer orders, other than the food collected at the food counter service area, will be ordered from their table.” It also states that the queuing system should be overseen by dedicated employees and if a customer leaves the premises for any reason they must inform a staff member before re-entry. There are few retail outlets that could afford

Retailer Gavin Moran has decided not to reopen indoor dining yet, noting: “We’ve always prided ourselves on doing things right and we don’t want to undo our good work now”

to have this level of staff engagement with the customers and really makes the regulations as unworkable as before. Reading through the guidelines makes it crystal clear as to why so many businesses have decided to not open indoor dining and why they are hoping further amendments will enable them to have a workable way of welcoming patrons back through the doors. Many might even wait until all restrictions are lifted. After a tough 18 months of trading with restrictions, it’s not where retailers should be. n

Clarification Notice: Statement from The Maxol Group ”The Maxol Group is operating in line with government Covid-19 guidelines and fully supports and applauds the achievements of the vaccination rollout programme. Because of the additional resources needed to manage indoor dining, many of our dine-in facilities have not yet reopened. It is The Maxol Group’s intention to resume indoor dining across the network when it is practical and feasible for individual service stations to do so. Some sites have already reopened their dining facilities, which is working well, and we will share best practice across the network for a full safe and manageable return to indoor dining, in line with government guidelines.”

www.shelflife.ie | ShelfLife August 2021

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30 CATEGORY FOCUS Breakfast

Dawn delights

The breakfast market has evolved with new products available to enliven the most important meal of the day. Fionnuala Carolan reports

reakfast tends to be associated with healthy food choices as most people enjoy a good start to the day. While the full Irish is still very much a popular choice it has evolved in recent times with more healthy alternatives due to the launch of various meat

free options ensuring that even if you are vegetarian or vegan you don’t have to miss out on this Irish staple. Not only are meat-free products on the rise but there is also a focus on biodegradable and plant-based packaging such as Lyons Tea teabags and Kellogg is

to mark back to school or college, or a new routine.

World-first technology for blind Kellogg has announced that following a successful trial, new world-first technology will be permanently added to all of its cereal boxes in Ireland to make them accessible to blind and partially sighted people. Important information on food packaging, such as allergen details can often be in print that’s difficult for blind or partially sighted people to read. The new boxes will allow a smartphone to easily detect a unique on-pack code and playback labelling information to the shopper with sight loss. The company will change all its cereal packaging, beginning in 2022 with the first accessible boxes of Special K appearing on shelf in January. Unlike other types of printed codes, the new technology, called NaviLens, includes high contrasting coloured squares on a black background. Users do not need to know exactly where the code is located to scan it. It allows smartphones (using the free NaviLens app) to pick up the on-pack code

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launching world-ﬁrst technology on its packaging to assist the visually impaired. All of these brands are responding to the demand for more ethical products so that consumers can have a healthy and a feel-good start to their day.

*(UK, ROI, & MT only. 18+ only. From 19.07.21 to 28.11.21. Personalised Box Cover recipients must be aged 6+ (18+ for Crunchy Nut). For T&Cs see back of pack)

Roll with it

from up to three metres distance when a blind or partially sighted shopper points their device in the direction of the cereal box. This then alerts the phone and the shopper can choose to have the ingredients, allergen and recycling information read aloud to them – as well as reading it on their device using accessibility tools. Kellogg is also getting personal with a new on-pack promotion, offering consumers the chance to create their own personalised cereal box sleeve*. To become the star of their own cereal box, shoppers can simply pick up two promotional packs of Coco Pops, Rice Krispies, Corn Flakes and W.K Kellogg by Kids and enter the unique code inside into www.kelloggs.com/personalisedsleeves and create their own personalised cereal box cover. Consumers can then choose from their favourite cereal, a selection of fun facts like favourite colour, hobbies and more that best describe them or their loved one to really bring the personalisation to life. Finally, they can upload a great picture that will be proudly displayed on the breakfast table. The promotion is open from 19 July until 28 November and will make the perfect memento

Cuisine de France is delighted to announce that it has developed and launched a new product to the hot food category. The Breakfast Sausage Roll is an innovative savoury snack that takes the classic sausage roll but provides those familiar flavours consumers want for breakfast. Consisting of a flavourful mix of black pudding, tomato relish and seasoned pork lightly blended together and wrapped up in a light flaky puff pastry, this is a must-try. Retailers can further tailor their hot food offering to accommodate the breakfast time rush. Each roll comes with its own packaging, allowing the product to be enjoyed anytime, anywhere. These products are also produced in Ireland which follows consumer patterns of wanting to support local.

The Cuisine de France Breakfast Sausage Roll is a mix of black pudding, tomato relish and seasoned pork wrapped in puff pastry

CATEGORY FOCUS Breakfast

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

The alternative full Irish As experts in meat for 200 years, Denny has always been at the forefront of recognising emerging trends in the industry and re-imagining products to cater for the needs of customers across the country. 2020 saw Denny embrace the opportunity to expand its range with one of the most signiﬁcant innovation launches for the brand in recent years, its Meat Free range. The range originally consisted of chilled sausages, burgers and mince, but this year Denny has expanded into frozen sausages and burgers, as well as launching Meat Free Pudding and Bacon to complete the Denny Meat Free breakfast offering. The Denny Meat Free range has been developed using soya protein, coconut oil and the famous Henry Denny signature seasoning, ensuring that the products deliver on the great taste of Denny. The products are also high in ﬁbre and a source of protein. Despite being new in the meat free space, Denny is a category leader and the fastest growing meat free brand in Ireland**. The Denny Meat Free range is available nationwide. Prices range from €2.50 - €3.50 (RRP). *(Source: Euromonitor ROI - 2019-2020). **(Source: Dunnhumby ROI data up to 29/10/2020)

Ireland’s favourite porridge With more than three million portions of Flahavan’s porridge oats consumed each week here in Ireland, the Waterford-based family food business continues to maintain its position as Ireland’s favourite porridge brand. Indeed its market leadership position in the hot oats category (56% value market share*) is a testament to the trust it has built up among its loyal consumer base.

Flahavan’s recently launched two new No Added Sugar Granolas to its range - Raisin, Cashew & Almond and Strawberry & Almond

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Traditional porridge remains at the heart of the company’s business in Ireland, with Progress Oatlets and Organic Porridge Oats continuing to perform extremely well through the ﬁrst half of the year as many consumers continued to work from home and spend more time around the breakfast table. There is an expectation that some of these positive habits around making time for healthy family meals will continue as restrictions ease. Flahavan’s recently launched two new No Added Sugar Granolas to its range - Raisin, Cashew & Almond and Strawberry & Almond. Launched nationwide in June 2021, the two new variants broaden the brand’s portfolio of cold cereals including indulgent granolas and no added sugar mueslis, offering more variety in a sector of the category that is experiencing signiﬁcant growth. *(Source: Kantar Market Data, 52 Weeks to 27 December 2020)

Towards sustainabili-tea Lyons Tea is introducing plant-based and biodegradable teabags to its foodservice range and will complete the transition to a fully plant-based range by summer 2021. Lyons Tea has announced that its full product range will be plant-based and biodegradable by the end of this summer. Not only was it the ﬁrst in Ireland to introduce plant-based and biodegradable teabags to its retail range last year, Lyons Tea is now the ﬁrst major black tea brand in Ireland to roll out plant-based teabags in all its foodservice boxes. As part of its commitment to ‘sustainabili-tea’, Lyons Tea is switching its tea bags to plant-based and biodegradable to help foodservice operators, suppliers and consumers make better choices for a greener planet.

Lyons Tea is now the ﬁrst major black tea brand in Ireland to roll out plant-based teabags in all its foodservice boxes

Lyons Tea distributes approximately 150 million teabags annually in its foodservice range in Ireland. By making the switch to plant-based and biodegradable teabags for its foodservice range, Lyons Tea will be saving six tonnes of non-biodegradable plastic every year*. That is the equivalent of the weight of an elephant. Foodservice operators and suppliers across Ireland can now purchase Lyons Tea plantbased and biodegradable teabags in 500s and 600s boxes. Since May, Lyons Tea introduced plant-based and biodegradable teabags to its envelopes and string and tag products, completing the transition to a fully plantbased range. Unlike alternative black teabags that contain small amounts of plastic which cannot be composted, Lyons Tea’s plantbased and biodegradable teabags can be disposed of into a brown (food waste) bin and composted to biodegrade back into nature. For more information visit www.lyonstea.ie, Lyons Tea on Facebook or @lyons_tea on Twitter and @lyons.tea on Instagram. *(Source: Unilever based on 2019 sales)

Unislim Gorge Us has launched two frozen fruit products, Gorge Us Tropical Fruit Mix and Gorge Us Breakfast Berry Mix

Slimmed down breakfast Unislim is Ireland’s family-run leading slimming and healthy lifestyle club offering 50k members a personalised and effective weight loss plan, which encourages them to make healthier food choices. Unislim has been championing this healthy approach since 1972! So it is no surprise that Unislim Gorge Us has launched two frozen fruit products, Gorge Us Tropical Fruit Mix (320g) and Gorge Us Breakfast Berry Mix (320g). The Unislim Gorge Us frozen fruit range retains important vitamins and nutrients and it’s the perfect addition to any breakfast. A sumptuous mix of the best tropical fruit, melon, mango, pineapple, papaya and kiwi or a simpler mix of strawberries and juicy blueberries in the Breakfast Berry Mix. Unislim Gorge Us frozen fruit packs can be found on the shelves of SuperValu, Centra and select Dunnes Stores.

Award-winning taste A chance encounter at the Blas na hÉireann awards in Dingle has led to Velo Coffee Roasters, a Cork-based coffee roastery, securing a listing with Tesco Ireland. The company, founded in 2017 by Rob Horgan, will supply nine coffee products to select Tesco stores across Ireland from 26 July onwards. It has been an exciting journey for the Irish roastery which has seen interest in its brand grow in leaps and bounds over the past several months. Velo’s award-winning coffee has Four Blas na hÉireann Food Awards, including a Gold and two Great Taste stars, proud accolades for everyone involved in the company.

A plant-based Wunda! Made from yellow split peas, Wunda has a neutral, refreshing taste that makes it a great alternative and versatile choice for people who want a plant-based drink that tastes closer to dairy. Wunda is ‘epic in everything’ that you would otherwise use milk for; it is delicious drank on its own, poured on cereal, used in hot beverages, frothed, cooked and much more. Not only does Wunda taste great, it is also nutritious* and sustainably produced and has been certiﬁed as carbon neutral by the Carbon Trust. Wunda was initially developed as part of Nestlé’s R&D Accelerator initiative. Working with a start-up mind-set, Nestlé’s crossfunctional innovation team was created and scaled-up this versatile drink in only six months. Following the global launch last month, the Wunda range will be rolling out into Irish stores, starting with Tesco from 22 July. It will be available in two variants: Original and Unsweetened. *(Protein contributes to a growth in muscle mass. Enjoy as part of a healthy diet and lifestyle) ■

Full of Taste. Free of Meat. New!

34 CATEGORY FOCUS RTD Beverages

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Ready to rock Achieving impressive growth during the past 52 weeks, spirit ready-to-drink (RTD) beverages have been driving category growth at +57% value MAT. With that in mind, it’s worth checking out the different brands and ranges available to ensure you don’t disappoint customers on the hunt for no-fuss premium refreshment, cold from the can. Gillian Hamill reports

t’s an exciting time for the ready-todrink alcoholic beverages sector, which is currently evolving to include a wider array of more experimental and sophisticated offerings. According to IWSR Drinks Market Analysis, “from ﬂavour to function, the RTD category, including hard seltzers, is growing as consumer demand for convenience is growing at an ever-increasing pace. “Driven by factors such as wellness, cocktail culture, quality ingredients, premiumisation, daytime and outdoor consumption, RTDs have evolved to capture key consumption trends,” the IWSR states. “While currently the top three markets make up over 70% of global RTD volumes, emerging markets are quickly scaling up to keep pace as younger generations demand on-the-go products that don’t compromise on taste,” the analyst adds.

Ideal for Gen Z Beth Bloom, associate director of food and drink at Mintel, is also positive about the development of RTDs. “The category, which includes FMBs (flavoured malt beverages), prepared spirits-based cocktails, and wine coolers has seen recent strong innovation, moving it further away from the cloying alcopop realm and toward a more acceptable option that offers versatile flavours and formats for a wider array of occasions,” she says. Other options included within the category include hard coffees, hard teas, and hard kombuchas – so there is certainly plenty of choice on offer, including products which are ideal for ‘Generation Z’ health-conscious consumers, who want something that fits in with their healthy lifestyles and focus on wellness. Writing in Food & Wine, Mike Pomranz took a closer look at the IWSR data and its

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prediction that in the US market, hard seltzer and other ready-to-drink beverages will actually surpass wine by the end of this year by volume terms.

Growth during pandemic According to the IWSR data: “Not only did RTDs post double-digit global growth in 2020 (+26.4%), it was the only beverage alcohol category to grow at all during the Covid crisis, resonating with consumers across all demographics, and driven by the trend for convenience, refreshment, and ﬂavour.” The report also states that near identical global growth is expected for 2021. Mike Pomranz adds the interesting observation that in the US market, while brewers across the country have been forced to shift gears to hard seltzers to keep up with consumers’ rapidly changing tastes, winemakers may now be forced to do the same. “Given the growth of this trend and the need to stay relevant, innovation within the wine industry is starting to quicken pace in regard to non-traditional wine options,” according to Brandy Rand, COO of the Americas at IWSR. “Several winemakers have already invested in the ready-to-drink space,” he adds, with the introduction of options such as wine spritzers. “While there are some positive growth trends within the traditional wine segment, for many owners, having brand extensions that meet these changing consumer needs is a smart marketing strategy.”

Premium at-home experience In Ireland, at a time when some consumers are still cautious about entering bars and

others are not yet fully vaccinated, there is a clear demand for convenient cocktail at-home options that involve no fuss but still deliver a premium, luxury experience. In fact, recent data shows the growth of the RTD category in Ireland has exploded over the last 52 weeks with spirit RTDs driving the growth at +57% value MAT. Over the next few pages, we highlight some of the innovative new choices that are making a splash in this growing sector.

Scaling the heights! Seven Summits is Ireland’s ﬁrst premium, naturally produced hard seltzer. Initially available in three ﬂavours, the range is naturally brewed providing a unique difference to other hard seltzers available today. Produced in association with the Whitewater Brewing Company, one of Ireland’s leading craft breweries, Seven Summits draws >>

The Seven Summits hard seltzers are naturally brewed and available now in three ﬂavours; Wild Berry, Lemon and Mango

WHEN WE SAY NEW, WE MEAN, NEW.

GET CURIOUS WITH US. YOU’LL LOVE IT! @sevensummits.hardseltzer PLEASE DRINK RESPONSIBLY Visit candcgroupplc.com

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36 CATEGORY FOCUS RTD Beverages

>> inspiration, and its pure water, from the breath-taking seven summits of the Mourne Mountains. Known widely as an adventure destination and for its natural beauty, Seven Summits draws on this inspiration and is created with natural ingredients offering a unique and refreshing flavour. The range is naturally brewed, not blended like many hard seltzers. Seven Summits is produced in small batches using hand crafted alcohol with natural flavourings and sparkle added through a natural brewing process. The result is a premium hard seltzer that is unique on the island of Ireland. Seven Summits is being introduced in three flavours: Wild Berry, Lemon and Mango and is now available nationwide.

A journey of celebration

Enjoying ﬁrst-class cocktails has never been easier with the Coppa Cocktails range – just add ice

Coppa Cocktails introduces you to a journey of celebration, with “the world’s best premium ready-to-drink cocktails”. With a delicious portfolio of 15 cocktail offerings, Coppa Cocktails offers a one-stop-shop for great tasting high-quality cocktails. Coppa Cocktails was ﬁrst developed as an innovative, affordable solution delivering high quality cocktails without the fuss or expense of buying all the individual ingredients. The range offers a great cost-effective ready-to-drink option (5-6 servings per 70cl bottle, averaging less than €3 per serving). Due to the growing interest in the RTD category in retail, Coppa Cocktails recently redesigned its shaker-shaped bottle and introduced a new stylish look for the more demanding ‘cocktail curious’ consumers. The majority of the Coppa Cocktails are recommended to be served over ice as a long drink alternative to the classic versions. This makes the drinking occasion more playful and with a more refreshing proﬁle. All Coppa Cocktails are made with the best natural ingredients, with real spirit base, with every cocktail being developed in close collaboration with world-class bartenders to ensure that ‘bar quality’ experience. The Coppa Cocktails range is currently stocked on shelves in Dunnes Stores, SuperValu, Carry Out, Fine Wines, Circle K and many more stores nationwide. Coppa Cocktails is exclusively imported and distributed by MCM Brands, Ireland. For more information on stocking Coppa Cocktails, telephone 0872132211.

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encompassing TV, digital, PR, sampling, media partnerships and in-store activations. Rockshore Hard Seltzer is available in offlicences and supermarkets for a RRP of €3.45 per 330ml single can and RRP of €10 per 330ml can four-pack throughout the Republic of Ireland.

Poitín resurgence Rockshore Hard Seltzer contains just 83 calories per 330ml can of Raspberry and Lime, and 86 calories per 330ml can of Watermelon

Bracing refreshment The brewers at St. James’s Gate are excited to unveil new Rockshore Hard Seltzer, the latest addition to the Rockshore portfolio joining Rockshore Lager, Rockshore Light and Rockshore Apple Cider, inspired by the bracing refreshment of the Irish coast. Rockshore Hard Seltzer; sparkling water with alcohol and natural fruit ﬂavours is available in Watermelon, Raspberry and Lime - packing all the refreshing taste you would expect from Rockshore with 83 calories per 330ml can of Raspberry and Lime, and 86 calories per 330ml can of Watermelon. Speaking about the latest innovation, Rockshore senior brand manager, Hannah Todd said: “We are excited to be adding to the Rockshore portfolio with the launch of Rockshore Hard Seltzer following a successful three years of trade since we launched Rockshore Lager in 2018. “People are actively seeking choices that deliver refreshing taste, so it felt like a perfect ﬁt for Rockshore to introduce more options with the launch of new Rockshore Hard Seltzer,” she added. The launch will be supported by an integrated communications campaign

Straight from the heart of Dublin, Little & Green is the world’s ﬁrst poitín canned cocktail. Ireland’s native spirit has a rollercoaster reputation – the drink of the people has a few stories to tell! Banned and driven underground for over 300 years, today poitín is experiencing a modern resurgence, driven by passionate producers across the island. Little & Green dares to bring poitín back to the party with a trio of ready-to-drink cocktails made for bold moments, on the go, cold from the can. The range has been created by the award-winning team at Bar 1661 in Dublin, home to the world’s largest selection of poitín and the palates behind the bestselling Irish brand Craft Cocktails. Created with Mad March Hare Poitín and Bán Poitín, the range contains three lower in sugar, big on ﬂavour sparkling cocktails,

Little & Green has an ABV of 5% and comes in three variants; Shifty Ginger, Shady Bramble and Sneaky Orchard

Same Jack, different outfit Jack Daniel’s & Cola ready-to-drink cans are the perfect solution for consumers to enjoy their favourite Jack Daniel’s long drink in a no fuss, no mess can. Making every moment count this summer, consumers can grab the perfect size 330ml to enjoy on the go with friends this BBQ season. The Jack Daniel’s & Cola can is a whiskey-based RTD that was “created to expand social occasions where Jack could be enjoyed” by consumers, as stated by Brown-Forman CEO Lawson Whiting last year. Jack Daniel’s Old No. 7 is mixed perfectly with Cola to ensure it has a really approachable flavour profile and its 5% ABV makes it accessible for anyone looking for a lower ABV offering*. The range is now available in 330ml cans in stores nationwide. Jack Daniel’s, Old No.7, is distributed exclusively by Edward Dillon & Co Ltd; contact your account manager or sales representative for further details. *(Please drink responsibly. Get the facts: Be Drink Aware. Visit drinkaware.ie)

Jack Daniel’s & Cola 330ml cans offer an ideal no fuss, no mess option

RTD Beverages CATEGORY FOCUS

“Four Loko has taken the market by storm and is winning share and adding incremental value to a fast-growing category.”

Ready-to-drink USA sensation, Four Loko, has hit the shelves in Ireland. The growth of the RTD category in Ireland has exploded over the last 52 weeks with spirit RTDs driving the growth at +57% value MAT. Four Loko, launched with Richmond Marketing IOI, has taken the market by storm and is winning share and adding incremental value to a fast-growing category. Since launch within the single spirit RTD format - Four Loko Fruit Punch, Apple & Gold are all in the top 12 in absolute value terms. The brand has the highest return per store among the top 10 spirit RTD brands. Four Loko is now the

Four Loko is available in four unconventional ﬂ avours which pack ﬂavours a punch: Sour Apple, Fruit Punch, Gold and Blue

number five RTD brand in Retailer A*. Four Loko launches with four 8.5% ABV vodka-based flavours in a convenient 440ml can, offering unconventional flavours which really pack a punch: Gold, Blue, Sour Apple and Fruit Punch. Created over a decade ago by two college graduates, Four Loko has established itself as the leading RTD brand in the US, with its

Symbol Groups

Epic stories

Breakfast RTD Beverages

available in packs of four 300ml cans, with an ABV of 5%. Shifty Ginger is a spicy mule with ginger, orange blossom, and citrus. Sneaky Orchard is a refreshing collins with apple, elderﬂower, and pear. Shady Bramble is a tasty hedgerow mixed with blackberry, raspberry, and violet. Made in Ireland using only natural ingredients, Little & Green is an Irish-tothe-core RTD that won’t blend into the background. Distributed by Intrepid Spirits, Little & Green is launching this month at independent retailers nationwide and online at littleandgreen.ie.

broad ﬂavour range and successful marketing drive to create ‘Epic Stories’ for millennials and Gen Z consumers across the United States. The brand advises contacting your local Richmond business developer if you would like to work with the team on developing a solution that is right for your store. *(Source: Collated EPOS Data Retailer A c.50% of Total Offtrade read to week 24 2021)

www.shelﬂife.ie | ShelfLife August 2021

38 CATEGORY FOCUS RTD Beverages

Symbol Groups

RTD Beverages Breakfast

As the leading spiced gin brand, Opihr is responding to increased consumer demand for adventurous flavours by making its RTD range more widely available to shoppers through the introduction of this new, convenient format, perfect for on-the-go occasions. As Covid-19 lockdown restrictions have eased in recent weeks allowing for some socialising, consumers are increasingly seeking out premium G&T options to enjoy as they venture outdoors. Opihr is confident its new RTD duo will prove a hit with consumers thanks to their striking design and great taste. The Opihr Gin RTD range comes in two flavours of G&T; with a Dash of Ginger and a Twist of Orange

Spicing up RTDs Opihr Gin, the original spiced gin brand, has released a new format of its ready-to-drink range, unveiling a duo of G&T cans now available in the Irish market. The new RTD cans combine Opihr’s popular spiced London Dry Gin with a quality tonic pairing and two enticing ﬂavour twists: Gin & Tonic with a Dash of Ginger and Gin & Tonic with a Twist of Orange (both 250ml/ABV 6.5%).

ShelfLife August 2021 | www.shelﬂife.ie

“Opihr’s RTD cans feature a beautifully ornate and striking design inspired by its connection to the Ancient Spice Route – where its hand-picked botanicals are sourced, including cubeb berries from Malaysia, coriander from Morocco and cardamom from India.”

Presenting a new and equally convenient way to enjoy its distinctive gin variants, Opihr’s RTD cans feature a beautifully ornate and striking design inspired by its connection to the Ancient Spice Route – where its handpicked botanicals are sourced, including cubeb berries from Malaysia, coriander from Morocco and cardamom from India. If you are interested in stocking Opihr RTDs, contact; brian.thornton@quintessentialbrands.com ■

Glanbia Ireland farmers commit to 30% reduction in carbon by 2030

Glanbia Ireland, the producer of the Avonmore brand, has pledged to achieve a 30% absolute reduction in carbon emissions Glanbia Ireland from its processing sites by has committed to 2030 and will work with its dairy a comprehensive farmers towards a similar cut sustainability strategy in carbon intensity from milk called ‘Living Proof’ production. The ambitious targets are laid out in a comprehensive sustainability strategy, called ‘Living Proof’. The company’s overall ambition is to reach net zero carbon by no later than 2050, in line with the Irish government’s commitment in the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Bill.

Rubicon back on TV with ‘No Added Boring’

Rubicon is bringing back its ‘No Added Boring’ campaign this month. The video on demand campaign is set to generate 2.2 million impressions in Ireland over a six-week period, and build on Rubicon’s growth during the past year. “The campaign invites shoppers to step away from the mundane and try something more interesting,” says Adrian Troy, marketing director at A.G. Barr. “We’ve looked at all the major touchpoints for our target consumer of 16–35-yearolds, and created a campaign to reach them in as many places as possible on their path to purchase. “The ad runs for six weeks on video on demand, Spotify and social with spots in the breaks of the top performing programmes. The No Added Boring ad worked really well for Rubicon last year with 70% of non-drinkers feeling more positive about Rubicon after seeing it*, so we’re conﬁdent that this year will perform even better.” *(Source: Join The Dots - Post Campaign Research September 2020).

Clonakilty Gluten Free Kitchen bakery range launches

Clonakilty Gluten Free Kitchen, a range of artisan bakery products suitable for coeliacs and those with a gluten intolerance, is now available throughout Cork, with plans underway to expand throughout Munster. Clonakilty Gluten Free Kitchen originated in 2015 as a specialised in-store gluten free bakery (the ﬁrst of its kind in Ireland) in Scally’s SuperValu in Clonakilty. The scratch bakery range now features 17 lines including yeast breads like the rustic white loaf, multigrain and white rolls, specialty loaves, oat and yogurt loaf, corn bread and brioche, and confectionery lines including apple tart, tea brack and more. Gill Brennan, CEO of the Coeliac Society of Ireland, Niamh Scally of Clonakilty Gluten Free Kitchen and Tara McCarthy, CEO, Bord Bia

FOOD & DRINK 39

Irish food oil firm invests £2m in new Lisburn depot Irish food oil firm Frylite has launched a new depot in Lisburn to accommodate increased demand for its products in the area. The launch represents an investment of £2m for the firm and has made way for 25 new jobs including a new depot manager. It is the sixth depot in the company and adds to the firm’s existing bases in Coleraine, Cork, Dublin, Galway, and its headquarters in Strabane, with Frylite presently employing 230 staff across the latter sites. Martin Gormley, operations director, says the newest depot will meet the demands of its growing customer base in and around the Belfast region, while supporting its drive to achieve zero carbon emissions. The opening comes as Frylite assigns 2021 as the year for its “green revolution” during which it has plans to use its oil products to produce fuel via anaerobic digestion. That process will allow Frylite to power its fleet of vehicles and is just one of many green initiatives which will

Eamon McCay, managing director at Frylite, says the Lisburn site has a lot of scope to grow even more in the coming years

make it a carbon neutral business by 2030. The company is currently seeking new HGV drivers as the haulage industry struggles with a shortage of more than 100,000 drivers in the UK out of a pre-pandemic total of around 600,000 according to the Road Haulage Association.

Minister visits expanded bakery in Longford Following a major expansion in 2019, Panelto Foods’ purpose-built state-ofthe-art bakery facility in Longford was recently visited by Minister of State with responsibility for Trade Promotion, Digital and Company Regulation at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Robert Troy. In 2019, Panelto, supported by Enterprise Ireland, completed a doubling of the size of its Longford facility adding 110 jobs to bring employment in the facility up to 240 people. Established in Longford in 2004, Panelto Foods is a high technology bakery producing premium quality breads for in-store bakeries in the major supermarket chains in Ireland and the UK. Working in conjunction with technology partners, including the Irish Manufacturing Research Centre in

Mullingar, and with Enterprise Ireland through its lean manufacturing supports, Panelto has recently invested in emerging robotic technologies to deliver enhanced product characteristics and to improve factory efﬁciencies. During the Minister’s visit, Panelto management had constructive discussions with Minister Troy on growing the export potential of the Irish bakery sector and addressing the challenges and opportunities that lay ahead. “It is a strong endorsement of both Longford and the midlands when companies such as Panelto not only establish operations but continue to innovate and thrive there,” Minister Troy said. ■ CEO of Enterprise Ireland, Leo Clancy, Minister Robert Troy and CEO of Panelto Foods, Brian O’Grady

www.shelﬂife.ie | ShelfLife August 2021

RTD Beverages

Symbol pleasures in life!

Admired internationally for their high standards and innovative food concepts, Ireland’s symbol groups are vital partners in helping independent retailers compete in a highly competitive sector and achieve the best possible results per square metre of their store

Symbol Groups

Breakfast

40 CATEGORY FOCUS Symbol Groups

Eurospar

FACT FILE:

Q&A with Malachy Hanberry, Eurospar managing director

Malachy Hanberry, Eurospar managing director

Q: How have you continued to innovate within your food offerings? A: In conjunction with our retailers, Eurospar is constantly adapting its offer. Our ‘Famous for Fresh’ promise provides strong focus for us as we continue to introduce new range options for in-store manufacture across butchery, delicatessen and bakery departments. These ranges are developed exclusively for our Eurospar retailers and are at the core of the differentiated ‘Famous for Fresh’ offering to shoppers. As a result of this innovation, sales of these easy meal solutions and freshly baked goods across Eurospar stores have rocketed, which has also led to expansion of our fresh and chill selling space in stores. Q: Eighteen months on from the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, how have you continued to support retailers? A: Eurospar keeps its retailers continuously up to date in relation to all public health advice, and provides all relevant, bespoke, shopper and staff-facing point of sale materials, via our innovative Local Marketing Tool Kit (LMTK). We also provide all Eurospar retailers with a suite of bespoke supports and training assets in relation to recruitment, induction and fresh food departmental skills. Recognising

ShelfLife August 2021 | www.shelﬂife.ie

that staff turnover represents a big challenge in relation to the loss of fresh foods manufacturing skills we have developed bespoke ‘How To’ instruction video guides to support new staff in the manufacture of all fresh foods core range SKUs, thus vastly accelerating the staff learning curve in key fresh foods departments. Q: How have you remained competitive in terms of pricing while still delivering margin for retailers? A: Eurospar supermarkets have always been competitive on price. Our promotional offers remain best-in-class and our SuperEasy Rewards exclusive member offers add a further dimension to value in Eurospar. Eurospar offers a three-week promotional cycle of offers, overlaid with regular week-long tactical activity that is featured heavily across traditional and social media formats. Shoppers are exposed to our offers via handbills, in-store POS, in-store radio, national press and radio as well as national and targeted social media. Marketing activities across all channels have been upweighted over the past year and are supplemented by excellent local store marketing activities on social media. Local activity is supported by BWG Foods, via the ongoing delivery of bespoke social media marketing

training sessions for store management and staff. Our Price Match or Better and Price Check programmes also provide reassurance to shoppers that our pricing across the store is competitive in the supermarket sector. We are also very proud of our ‘Famous for Great Value Wines’ commitment, which delivers a vast range of exclusive BWG Foods agency wines to suit all pockets, and our unique pricepoint merchandising structure ensures simplicity in the wine shopping experience. Q: What are the main strengths of your store design and development? A: While we have a common ‘look and feel’ ambition and approach, we recognise that one size deﬁnitely does not ﬁt all. Therefore, the design and development programme is very sympathetic to the shopper demographic at each location. We also work closely with each individual Eurospar retailer in this regard. In advance of any work being undertaken, a detailed macro category space requirement plan is drafted by the retail advisory team, and this becomes the benchmark against which the actual store development plan is drafted and approved. We are currently rolling out an innovative QR code-

Name of group: Eurospar Number of stores nationwide: 51 Typical store size: 800-1,300 sq m Head ofﬁce: BWG House, Greenhills Road, Tallaght, Dublin 24, D24 Y722 Wholesale partner: BWG Foods Type of distribution network: BWG National Distribution Centre (NDC) servicing fresh, ambient and alcohol to all Eurospars nationwide Website: www.eurospar.ie Social media: Facebook: @eurosparireland, Instagram: @eurospar_ireland Tagline: The Supereasy Supermarket based initiative across Eurospar supermarkets, that will facilitate easy staff access to range and planogram advice speciﬁc to the category space available at each individual store. Eurospar management is also extremely conscious of cost/ROI when providing development advice to our retailers. Q: How would you sum up your main point of difference from the competition? A: The BWG Foods commitment is to develop true partnerships between Eurospar brand owners and retailers, working in partnership together to develop a network of local family-owned supermarkets with a unifying shopper proposition. Eurospar retailers are integrated into the local communities they operate in, and this has never been more evident than since the Covid19 related restrictions were introduced. Being part of the local community means that Eurospar retailers know best how to service their communities’ needs. With the support of BWG Foods, Eurospar retailers can compete on price with Ireland’s largest supermarket competitors, while also providing a level of personal service that cannot be replicated by them.

Everyday Freshness Guaranteed We will REPLACE and REFUND*

Famous for Fresh

Ser vice

Value

We will never disappoint our shoppers, providing the best of fresh foods.

Providing exceptional customer service, what shoppers need when they need it.

Giving shoppers the best value for money on everyday products and special offers.

Availabilit y

Experience

Re wards

Stocking product ranges our shoppers want, with our extensive supermarket range.

Providing the best possible shopping experience for our customers.

Our SuperEasy Rewards programme provides exclusive benefits to members.

For further information please contact: Malachy Hanberry 086-6055621 mhanberry@bwg.ie www.eurospar.ie

@eurosparireland

Des Smyth 086-3805488 dsmyth@bwg.ie @eurospar_ireland

FACT FILE: Name of group: XL Sales director: Paul Bealin Number of stores nationwide: 230+ Typical store size: 110 sq m Head ofﬁce: BWG Foods UC, BWG House, Greenhills Road, Tallaght, Dublin 24 Wholesale partner: Value Centre Type of distribution network: 22 Value Centre and cash & carry branches nationwide and chill distribution Website: www.xlstores.ie Social media: www.facebook.com/ XLIreland/ Tagline: A great deal more at your local store

Q&A with Paul Bealin, sales director, XL

Symbol Groups

RTD Beverages

Breakfast

42 CATEGORY FOCUS Symbol Groups

Paul Bealin, sales director, XL

Q: How have you continued to innovate within your food offerings to stay fully on trend with consumer tastes and differentiate your offering? A: Being part of the BWG Foods family means that we are constantly innovating and availing of the supports that come with a larger wholesale partner. BWG Foods has a dedicated food innovation team and under the direction of head of innovation, Orla Jordan, she and her team are constantly seeking ways to grow and evolve the XL offering. For example, we recently introduced our bespoke ice cream concept, I-Scream, to our nationwide network of XL stores and it has been very well received by our retailers and customers. Similarly, customers are passionate about good quality coffee and we work closely with our three exclusive partners, Insomnia, Seattle’s Best and Bewleys, to ensure the XL offering is the best around. There has been tremendous growth in the demand for readymeals and the addition of our Grab-n-Go range as well as the exclusive BWG Fresh Choice range have been real game changers for us most recently. Q: Eighteen months on from the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, how have you continued to support retailers through the various challenges involved such as stafﬁng shortages and changing consumer patterns? A: From the very beginning of this crisis, the health and safety of our retailers and their customers has been our top priority, and this continues to be the case as we navigate the evolving landscape together. During the

ShelfLife August 2021 | www.shelﬂife.ie

Q: How would you sum up your main point of difference from the competition? “XL retailers are passionate about ensuring they continue to provide great value to their customers,” says Paul Bealin

first lockdown, we initially held daily online forum updates for our retailers, outlining all the health and safety advice and measures required in providing an essential service to their communities. As time has progressed, we continue to hold regular briefings for our retailers, and we recently held our 100th forum. We also moved all our training and upskilling programmes, such as our ‘Lead Worker Representative’ programme, online and our fresh food support team continue to hold regular webinars for our retailers to avail of. These measures will continue to evolve in supporting our retailers adjust to whatever environment they find themselves operating in.

Q: What are the main strengths of your store design and development in terms of appearance, functionality and category management? A: The in-house BWG Foods design team are constantly seeking ways to improve and enhance the design and ﬂow of the XL store. As well as looking stunning with a focus on the traditional XL colour palette and bright, contemporary lighting, XL stores are performing in almost every category with our retailers reporting a huge uptake in fresh in particular. For example, our deli sales have improved considerably with our Grab-n-Go range proving enormously popular.

A: XL retailers are local to the communities they serve and are passionate about ensuring they continue to provide great value to their customers. The strength of the XL symbol brand is that it offers you the opportunity to own your own business, pursue your entrepreneurial spirit as an independent retailer and, at the same time, beneﬁt from being part of a nationwide brand with access to major buying power and the many invaluable support mechanisms that membership of a symbol group brings. Our tagline, ‘A great deal more at your local store’, underpins the brand promise of serving local communities, delivering great value, choice, service and exciting consumer promotions.

Q: How have you remained competitive in terms of pricing while still delivering margin for retailers? A: Value, while not compromising on quality, is at the forefront of the XL offering. We are passionate about delivering for our retailers, who are just as passionate about delivering the best value they can for their customers. We (BWG Foods) recently held two virtual Trade Shows for all our retailers to avail of exclusive offers and deals from our network of 650+ suppliers and these events were tremendously successful, as our retailers will attest. We also work extremely hard to look after our retailers as best we can and offer very competitive Afﬁnity Deals in areas such as electricity pricing and consumption.

XL offers retailers the opportunity to pursue their entrepreneurial spirit while also beneﬁtting from being part of a nationwide brand

Mace

FACT FILE:

Q&A with Daniel O’Connell, sales director, Mace

RTD Beverages

Breakfast

44 CATEGORY FOCUS Symbol Groups

Symbol Groups

Q: Eighteen months on from the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, how have you continued to support retailers through the various challenges involved such as stafﬁng shortages and changing consumer patterns?

Daniel O’Connell, sales director, Mace

Q: How have you continued to innovate within your food offerings to stay fully on trend with consumer tastes and differentiate your offering? A: We have witnessed a number of key trends developing as a result of the pandemic: many people were working from home which created shifts in regional demand along with growth in pack formats; staycations produced new food and drink opportunities such as afternoon tea boxes whilst new occasions such as garden entertainment and outdoor socialisation all provided opportunities for Mace to work with our retailers to ensure our food offerings were right for their shoppers’ needs. And with travel abroad limited, we created in conjunction with the BWG fresh food team, a series of menus that brought memories of holidays closer to home such as Taste of Spain and Taste of Greece food menus. And of course, the fabulous weather that we were experiencing at the time of writing meant that our ‘I-Scream’ offering was proving incredibly popular!

A: From the start of the pandemic continuing to this day, our sales and marketing teams have worked closely with our HR and retail development teams to ensure that the right practices and policies are implemented in each store and that timely and appropriate communication is in place to ensure that our shoppers know they can shop safely at their local Mace. Working in tandem with our trading and promotions teams has been important to ensure the right ranges are available at each local Mace store and this has included ensuring a strong value proposition has been on offer throughout whilst taking into account changing consumer needs. Q: How have you remained competitive in terms of pricing while still delivering margin for retailers? A: We have been very conscious of the needs of shoppers during the past 18 months. As a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, the ﬁnancial reality of shoppers has become more polarised. Overall as a population, there are less people ‘ﬁnancially living comfortably’, and more people just ‘getting by’. Ensuring that our value proposition meets their needs has been critical to retaining that customer base. Regularly changing our promotional offers and targeting key seasonal events with deep discount offers has formed a

Mace introduced a stunning new store design last year, dialling up the traditional Mace colour palette

part of our promotional plan whilst retaining healthy margins for retailers has been a focus for the Mace team. Add Mace own brand to the mix and we ensured we offered fair value to our shopper base. At the same time, we saw shoppers were also treating themselves more and trading up to purchasing treats for themselves on a more regular basis; that better bottle of wine at the weekends or “nicer” chocolate. Q: What are the main strengths of your store design and development in terms of appearance, functionality and category management? A: In 2020 Mace launched a stunning new store design. There has been a dialling up of the traditional Mace colour palette, whilst new internally lit department signs have been introduced, and all high, eye and buy level POS materials have been refreshed and rejuvenated. The enhanced design includes a focus on fresh departments, particularly ‘grab-and-go’ areas

Shoppers’ reaction to the new Mace store design has been “overwhelmingly positive”, which is reﬂected in sales increases, says Daniel O’Connell

ShelfLife August 2021 | www.shelﬂife.ie

Name of group: Mace Number of stores nationwide: 160 Typical store size: 135 sq m Head office: BWG Foods, Greenhills Road, Tallaght, Dublin 24, D24 Y722 Wholesale partner: BWG Foods Type of distribution network: BWG National Distribution Centre (NDC) servicing fresh, ambient and alcohol to all Mace stores nationwide Website: www.mace.ie Social media: ttps://www.facebook.com/ MACEIreland www.youtube.com/MACEIreland www.instagram.com/mace_ireland www.twitter.com/MACEIreland Tagline: Going the extra smile whilst retaining (and enhancing) firm Mace favourites such as the ‘For Food’s Sake’ deli and Mace’s ice cream offering, ‘I-scream’. The off-licence has been truly transformed with new feature lighting and orange trough lighting denoting sections. In an innovative design feature, spirits are in open flow presentation and while retaining crucial functionality, the separated offlicence space reflects the new legislation governing the physical separation requirement. The new-look store décor is indicative of the shift convenience stores have been experiencing in recent years. The reaction from customers has been overwhelmingly positive, which is reflected in the increases in sales that have been experienced. Q: How would you sum up your main point of difference from the competition? A: As projected in the latest Mace TV advertising campaign, Mace retailers and their staff pride themselves on the friendly and welcoming shopping environment they create for their customers. They truly create a point of difference by ‘Going the extra smile’. From the perspective of our retailers, the Mace team focus on building successful long-term partnerships with progressive retailers. Our aim is to add value to the business of each independent Mace retailer that we partner with, by understanding their challenges and opportunities the Mace team work with them and their teams to drive the profitable performance of each store.

You’ll be in good company at MACE Line up with MACE brand ambassador Johnny Sexton and the rest of our winning team.

MACE, we’re looking for retailers who bring a smile to work every day to join our amazing team.

Take the first step and get in touch with Andrew or Liam who can give you a full introduction to what the MACE brand and MACE team can do for your business.

Our new stores are designed to be both bright and welcoming, to place you at the heart of the community in which you serve.

To find out more, contact:

Speaking of service, our quality fresh foods and innovations meet the ever-changing needs of people and have been proven to drive profitable sales increases for MACE Retailers. You will have the support of our experienced team around Ireland, along with award winning marketing to grow your business.

Andrew McCann (Regional Manager North) amccann@bwg.ie / 086 041 4334 Liam Attridge (Regional Manager South) lattridge@bwg.ie / 086 852 1362

www.mace.ie facebook.com/MACEIreland

instagram.com/MACE_ireland

youtube.com/MACE_ireland

twitter.com/@MACEIreland

Daybreak

FACT FILE:

Q&A with Thomas Morrison, head of retail sales, Daybreak

Symbol Groups

RTD Beverages

Breakfast

46 CATEGORY FOCUS Symbol Groups

Thomas Morrison, head of retail sales, Daybreak

Q: How have you continued to innovate within your food offerings to stay fully on trend with consumer tastes and differentiate your offering? A: At the heart of our approach in Daybreak is a passion for delivering exceptional consumer experiences. When it comes to food to go, people have huge choice nowadays. For convenience stores to win, they need to deliver an excellent fresh food offer, a fast and local service that offers real convenience, but also an in-store experience that is genuinely differentiating. That is why we have introduced a number of exciting brands that are exclusive to Daybreak. Munch & Co, our deli brand, features a delicious signature menu and impactful signage that creates real standout in-store. 9 Grams is a seriously good coffee brand, and a fully supported retail solution, that is now in over 100 stores. We also have an exclusive ice-cream brand called Lickety Split, which brings together fun flavours and a distinctive design that is proving a hit with kids and adults alike. These brands have been embraced by Daybreak shoppers and, more importantly, they are also driving retailer profitability. Not only is our offer tailored to the latest consumer tastes, but we equally consider retailers’ needs and ensure that new food-to-go solutions are easy to implement and minimise staffing challenges. To stay relevant, we are constantly evolving your offer. This is based on ongoing

ShelfLife August 2021 | www.shelﬂife.ie

consumer research, feedback from Daybreak retailers, leveraging the experience of the wider Musgrave group, and by benchmarking food to go trends in other markets. This includes developing new concepts. For example, last year we introduced Dizzy Chicken Rotisserie, which offers succulent rotisserie spun chicken, served in delicious signature sandwiches and healthy salad bowls. We also have a regular schedule of seasonal NPD that keep our food to go menu fresh and consumers coming back. Q: Eighteen months on from the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, how have you continued to support retailers through the various challenges involved such as staffing shortages and changing consumer patterns? A: Reflecting on the last 18 months, I am especially proud of how we have worked as a group in Musgrave to support retailers during the Covid crisis. The Daybreak sales and development team were on the road throughout this period. We were agile in our response, reacting quickly and helping our stores implement best practice to keep staff and customers as safe as possible. The Musgrave brands, including Daybreak, have very much led the way. For instance, we were the first to

introduce safety screens at tills in stores, and many of our stores added home delivery services for at risk and elderly customers. We have also embraced digital to support retailers. For instance, we have an extensive online training programme which has enabled stores to continue to develop their staff despite Covid. Staffing shortages are clearly a challenge across the sector but investing in staff training is an important step that can help retain your key personnel. Similarly, we have run a series of national webinars that have kept retailers up to date on the latest brand developments and shown how stores can maximise their sales and profitability during this challenging trading period. Q: How have you remained competitive in terms of pricing while still delivering margin for retailers? A: As Ireland’s largest buying group, we can offer retailers an unbeatable overall value proposition. That includes excellent everyday pricing across all the product categories important to our customers. Added to that are regular deep cut offers, including monthly promotions, Daybreak exclusives and WOW sales days. We value engineers’ store fitouts to guarantee highly competitive

“As Ireland’s largest buying group, we can offer retailers an unbeatable overall value proposition,” says Thomas Morrison

Name of group: Daybreak Number of stores nationwide: 271 Typical store size: 1,500 – 2,00 sq ft Head office: Musgrave, St. Margaret’s Road, Ballymun, Dublin 11 Type of distribution network: Central distribution and access to seven Musgrave MarketPlace branches Website: www.daybreakireland.ie Social media: @DaybreakIreland (Facebook and Instagram) Tagline: ‘Real Fresh, Real Fast’ development costs, in addition to offering affinity deals that deliver real savings on operational costs like insurance. We also work closely with retailers to drive efficiencies in your business and reduce waste. All of this supports Daybreak retailers achieving above industry average profit levels. Q: How would you sum up your main point of difference from the competition? A: We have an exceptional allround package for retailers. This includes a distinctive brand identity; a compelling consumer offer that excites shoppers; an unbeatable value proposition; plus unparalleled levels of choice and service, with over 14,000 lines being delivered through a tri-temp delivery service that operates out of our state-of-the-art central distribution centre. However, what really sets us apart is our people. We have a large, dedicated team to support retailers and drive their business. Our business development managers all come from retail backgrounds and provide meaningful commercial support, including working with retailers to develop tailored annual business plans that deliver profitable sales. We have a development team who ensure that retailers joining Daybreak make a seamless transition to the brand, and who also work with existing retailers to capitalise on new opportunities. We have a team of fresh food advisors to support with staff training, legal compliance, achieving the highest food standards and driving food to go profits. And that is just the start. Retailers also have access to the wider Musgrave team, including HR, marketing, trading and IT expertise.

REAL FAST

A differentiating offer under the Munch & Co deli brand, with delicious signature menu items for breakfast, lunch & dinner.

Seriously good coffee under our new exclusive gourmet coffee brand 9 Grams.

To find out more contact:

Terry Donnan - 086 7714696

We listened to what our customers want and designed a completely new shopping experience. This is about surprising and delighting shoppers with a fresher, healthier, more innovative offer. It’s also about bringing independent retailers a dynamic, cost effective retail offer, that delivers above average returns.

Distinctive new ice cream brand called Lickety Split.

Succulent rotisseriespun chicken, served in delicious signature sandwiches and healthy salad bowls.

Centra

FACT FILE:

Q&A with Cormac Dawson, sales director, Centra

Symbol Groups

RTD Beverages

Breakfast

48 CATEGORY FOCUS Symbol Groups

Cormac Dawson, sales director, Centra

Q: How have you continued to innovate within your food offerings to stay fully on trend with consumer tastes and differentiate your offering? A: Centra continues to adopt a fresher, more innovative offering which encourages shoppers to opt for healthier choices while providing them with new experiences and the right balance, this is key to our ongoing transformation. Our team work closely in consultation with leading chefs and nutritional experts to develop the freshest and healthiest ranges, meeting the needs of today’s shoppers. An example of this evolution is the recent “refresh” of our hugely popular deli and grab and go range via our new Inspired by Centra Salad Bowls and Gourmet Sandwiches. Our Moo’d ice cream brand is a brilliant success story. This Musgrave built brand has seen exponential growth in the three years since launch, through expressions to suit any store size and the hugely popular take home ranges. In addition, Frank

and Honest, our gourmet coffee brand, has seen signiﬁcant new product development in recent months in response to customer demand for plant-based and iced products. In the past 12 months, our exclusive top-tier ‘Inspired By Centra’ and our mid-tier Centra own brand ranges have won 79 product development awards. In delivering these market-leading brands and innovative awardwinning own label products, we stand out from others making Centra the destination of choice for shoppers. Q: Eighteen months from the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, how have you continued to support retailers through the various challenges involved, such as stafﬁng shortages and changing consumer patterns? A: The strength of the Centra partnership model has never been more evident than through the pandemic. I would like to acknowledge the efforts of all our retailers and in-store teams over the last 18 months who kept their local communities fed and safe while being the friendly face and much needed support for many. Our sales and support teams remained on the road and available to our retailers throughout the pandemic, ensuring support was always protected. Q: How have you remained competitive in terms of pricing while still delivering margin for retailers? A: As the leading Irish convenience retailer, we pride ourselves in offering the best value for the shopper. Our scale

and expertise in Musgrave, offers us competitive advantage in supply chain, buying and sourcing the best ranges. To deliver value for money, we are constantly seeking and creating opportunities to increase efficiencies across our supply chain and retail model. Centra’s dedicated retailer profitability team focuses on growing sales, driving margin in-store and reducing costs. This team works closely with our regional managers and retailer partners to ensure the store is availing of all the opportunities available to them, including the Musgrave affinity schemes. Through this team, we also deliver

Name of group: Centra Number of stores nationwide: 480+ Typical store size: Format specific; High C 2000 sq ft/Convenience 4000 sq ft/ Neighbourhood 7000 sq ft Head office: Musgrave, Tramore Rd, Cork Wholesale partner: Musgrave Type of distribution network: Central Distribution Centre Website: www.centra.ie Social media: @centraIRL (Twitter) @centra_irl (Instagram) Tagline: ‘Live Every Day’ development of their store – from the initial discussion on plans right through to the opening launch. In Centra we operate three formats which shoppers may not be aware of but ensures the right offer for shoppers regardless of location. This format development is supported by meticulous planning, range management, profitability analysis and governance. Q: How would you sum up your main point of difference from the competition?

Gourmet coffee brand Frank and Honest has seen signiﬁcant new product development in recent months

technological innovation resulting in improved customer experience and retailer proﬁtability. Recent examples include the rollout of ESELs, growing presence of SCOs and a full upgrade and roll out of our tills across the network.

A: Our customer-led approach in Centra ensures we deliver the best offer at the right time while continually pushing the boundaries of innovation. The ﬂair and brilliance our retailers bring in executing the offer is pivotal to the success of the brand. Centra doesn’t stand still and neither does our team. Focusing on what matters and delivering excellent customer experiences ensures we continue to deliver a more proﬁtable partnership model.

Q: What are the main strengths of your store design and development in terms of appearance, functionality, and category management?

The Centra team works “closely in consultation with leading chefs and nutritional experts to develop the freshest and healthiest ranges,” says Cormac Dawson

ShelfLife August 2021 | www.shelﬂife.ie

A: Our store development team are highly experienced retail experts who work with leading design agencies, partners, and internal colleagues in developing modern, fit for purpose specifications that have won multiple industry awards. The team are focused on three main areas – design, energy and operations with retail partners fully supported through any revamp process or greenfield

The Moo’d ice cream concept has achieved exponential growth in the three years since launch

JOIN IRELAND’S NUMBER 1

CONVENIENCE RETAILER

GROW YOUR FUTURE PROFIT • • • •

Best scan margin & rebates Market leading afﬁnity schemes Improved EBITDAR Most competitive prices

OUR PASSIONATE PEOPLE

INNOVATIVE WORLD CLASS RANGES • Continuous fresh food innovation • Exclusive brands - Frank & Honest coffee, Moo’d ice cream, Happy Pear & Caramico Pizza. • Exciting own brand ranges - quality, depth of range and consumer value in both tiers - mid-tier “The Centra Range” and top-tier “Inspired By Centra” • “Wines We Love” - an exclusive range of 10 quality on-trend wines sourced especially for Centra and priced between €8 and €12

• Strategic business and ﬁnancial expertise • Award winning fresh food training • Tailored business plans to drive real growth

#CommunityMatters

CONSUMER AT THE CORE AWARD WINNING STORE DESIGN • National and international award winning design • Best value square foot reﬁt • Reduced energy costs • Sustainability at the core

• Market leading promotions • Consumer insight led plans • Passionate, on trend marketing team with specialist support for digital / social and local marketing • Largest advertising share of voice • Powerful sponsorships including the GAA All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship & Irish Cancer Society

T S E B THE R E N T PAR U O Y FOR FAMILY OWNED FOR 140 YEARS 98.5% OUTBOUND AVAILABILITY WORLD CLASS SUPPLY CHAIN IRELAND’S LARGEST BUYING GROUP YOUR VOICE SHAPES OUR FUTURE

DO YOU WANT A MORE SUSTAINABLE AND A MORE PROFITABLE FUTURE FOR YOUR BUSINESS? Call Mark Duffy, Oliver Savage or John Tully : 021 480 3315 / Email: info@centra.ie

Gala

FACT FILE:

Q&A with Gary Desmond, CEO of Gala Retail

Symbol Groups

RTD Beverages

Breakfast

50 CATEGORY FOCUS Symbol Groups

Gary Desmond, CEO of Gala Retail

Q: How have you continued to innovate within your food offerings to stay fully on trend with consumer tastes and differentiate your offering? A: As a group, Gala recognises the role of innovation in our fresh food offerings. The changing requirements of consumers in the communities in which our retailers operate requires innovative, modern concepts that will deliver quality, convenient, food to go options for Gala retailers and draw consumers into their local Gala store. Gala’s dedication to innovation in this area is reﬂected in the group’s investment in its team of fresh food executives; we currently have more fresh food executives per retailer than any other convenience symbol group and will be adding an additional executive to the fresh food innovations team next month. In addition to this, we have invested in providing a high level of training and support that ensures that Gala concepts are being executed to the highest standards in our stores. In recent

years, the demand for fresh foodto-go offerings has grown rapidly and our dedicated fresh food innovations team has played a key role in the development of our fresh food concepts which includes Baker’s Corner, Coffee Junction, New Street Deli and the Galato chilled ice-cream and desserts concept along with Blissimo, our latest fresh pizza offering.

addition to this, we encourage Gala retailers to recognise the great work of their employees through employee of the month schemes and offering additional rewards to let employees know that they are a valued member of the Gala team.

A: Identifying changing consumer shopping habits has a key role to play in informing retailer offerings. Gala has recently undertaken market research analysis which will help us to further understand Gala customers, using this information to provide retailers with products that meet consumer demand, driving footfall in-store while delivering margin for retailers. We are fully aware that high margins and lower overheads are always at the forefront of retailers’ expectations and so with that in mind, we have rolled out a number of concepts speciﬁcally designed to offer great margins, fantastic quality and above all else, cost effective in terms of equipment and wages.

A: The team at Gala has supported its retailers through clear communications, advice and support during the pandemic, ensuring all retailers have the latest information and resources to allow them to safely cater for customers and ensure staff safety during this time. As restrictions have changed, so have consumer shopping patterns which required retailers to adapt their services and Gala stores have been and continue to be supported by the management team in their delivery of services, via a variety of mediums, both on and ofﬂine. The pandemic also resulted in staff shortage issues for many retailers across the country and Gala continues to work with its retailers to identify ways that they can support and retain current staff members and attract new candidates for positions within the store through offering incentives such as staff discounts and ﬂexible working patterns that offer a work-life balance. In

Gala’s dedicated fresh food innovations team has played a key role in the development of fresh food concepts such as the Galato chilled icecream and desserts concept

ShelfLife August 2021 | www.shelﬂife.ie

Q. How have you remained competitive in terms of pricing while still delivering margin for retailers?

Q: What are the main strengths of your store design and development in terms of appearance, functionality and category management? A: Gala stores are contemporary convenience stores that operate in the heart of their communities. The main strengths of Gala store designs are that we offer our retailers a full suite of category plans along with relevant consumer insight and trends that help to shape the store’s design. This gives us the ability to create bespoke plans based on individual retailer needs and range requirements and in accordance with the size of the store, its location and the local supplier network. Outside of the standard offerings of convenience stores – baked goods, coffee and deli – consumer trends have highlighted a demand for an off-licence offering in convenience stores, creating a one-stop shop to pick up grocery essentials and a bottle of wine. With this in mind we created the Gala Distill offlicence offering, which is currently rolled out across 40% off the Gala estate and will be present in 60%

Name of group: Gala Retail Number of stores nationwide: 170 Gala and 35 Your Stop stores Typical store size: 1,750 sq ft Head ofﬁce: Gala Retail, Summit House, Embassy Ofﬁce Park, Kill, Co. Kildare Wholesale partner: Gala wholesaler members Type of distribution network: Ambient depots, central billing, chilled distribution Website: www.gala.ie Social media: Facebook.com/Gala Retail, @Gala_Retail on Twitter, @Gala_Retail on Instagram Tagline: Your Local Market

“The vibrant, fresh look and feel of the Gala brand and its concepts is recognisable to customers and creates a modern feel in-store,” says Gary Desmond

of Gala stores by year-end. Similarly, the Galato offering is much more than just ice-cream, offering a wide range of chilled dessert and milkshake options for consumers tapping into the demand and popularity for chilled desserts. Q: How would you sum up your main point of difference from the competition? A: Gala is all about shopping local and the communities in which our stores operate. This is reﬂected through our local wholesaler network, which pairs stores with a wholesaler in the area allowing them to work together to quickly react to changing consumer demands. Gala’s commitment to catering for local communities is further reﬂected through our marketing activities, with the annual Gala Retail Inspiration Awards which recognise and reward local heroes in our communities and our partnerships with Starcamp Ireland and sponsorship of Special Olympics Ireland through which Gala supports activities, and clubs in every county across the country.

LOOKING FOR

FRESH

IN-STORE CONCEPTS?

The Gala Group has plenty on the menu. • Baker’s Corner, Coffee Junction, New Street Deli,

Galato and Distill are all in-store concepts available exclusively to Gala Retail stores.

• Gala Retail’s innovative concepts can help your

store to drive footfall, delivering more for your customers and increasing in-store spend.

To find out more about becoming a Gala Retailer, contact the Gala Group on: 045–910066 or visit www.gala.ie

w w w. g a l a . i e

CATEGORY FOCUS Symbol Groups

Costcutter

FACT FILE: Name of group: Costcutter Head ofﬁce: Barry Group, Upper Quartertown, Mallow, Cork Type of distribution network: Central distribution (chilled, ambient and alcohol) from a 150,000 sq ft central warehouse in Mallow, Cork. Website: www.costcutter.ie Social media: Facebook: @CostcutterIreland Instagram: @Costcutterire Tagline: ‘Proud to be Local’

Q&A with Edwina Lucey, sales director, Barry Group

Symbol Groups

RTD Beverages

Breakfast

needs of our consumers and acts as a proﬁtable margin mix for our retailers. Q: How would you sum up your main point of difference from the competition?

Edwina Lucey, sales director, Barry Group

Q: How have you continued to innovate within your food offerings to stay fully on trend with consumer tastes and differentiate your offering? A: The last year has been landmarked with change and innovation in fresh food. While some of this change was dictated by Covid-19 and in-store restrictions, a lot developed from consumers being a little more adventurous as at-home meal occasions soared and they tried new recipes and created new meal occasions during stints of lockdown. Deriving from this insight, we assembled a project team to identify the required adjustments and upcoming trends that Costcutter stores are embracing. Our team of fresh food advisors have been working at store level on the implementation of the ﬁndings of this project, educating our deli teams nationwide and we have also released webinars to ensure that Costcutter delis are a beacon of innovation and exemplary standards in the convenience trade. Q: Eighteen months on from the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, how have you continued to support retailers through the various challenges involved such as stafﬁng shortages and changing consumer patterns? A: Education is at the core of our retail offering. Outside of our quarterly cluster meetings with our retailers, we also have a webinar series throughout the year where the sole purpose is to ensure that our retailers have the required knowledge to be successful in the current climate. These webinars focus on our response to consumer trends,

ShelfLife August 2021 | www.shelﬂife.ie

Costcutter works with retailers to deliver a tailored solution that meets their needs

how to successfully capitalise on that knowledge at store level and offering insight into key growth categories. This has equipped them to successfully adapt their offering to ensure that it not only meets the needs of the modern consumer but surpasses them. Our account managers also play a key role in supporting retailers through the present challenges. Through their regular store visits and interactions with retailers, they advise our retailers on best practice while also aiding them in issues that may arise. Lastly, from a Covid-19 perspective, 18 months ago we established our Covid-19 response team who today still meet weekly. The role of this team is to equip both our business and retailers to best deal with and react to the current climate of change. This team ensures that our retailers are equipped with the correct information to respond to changes in their business effectively.

and volume drivers, but we also offer a range of own label and extensive range of exclusive lines which offer the retailer a healthy margin figure. Q: What are the main strengths of your store design and development in terms of appearance, functionality and category management? A: Over the past three years, we have significantly invested in store design as we have revisited our branding and in-store fitout. At store level, we have created a shopping environment that is immersive, dynamic and engaging in line with the requirements of the modern consumer. This brand evolvement has also included the introduction of a growing list of concepts including Urban Sips, Freezi Licks and Market St. Deli. Additionally, we have refined our offering for each store format, to ensure that it both meets the

A: We are Ireland’s leading familyrun wholesale distribution group. Therefore, we understand the needs of family businesses and consider our relationship with our customers to be a ‘partnership’. We understand that retailing is not a one size ﬁts all approach and work with retailers, delivering a tailored solution that meets their needs. We identify with the challenges that our retailers face and aim to offer competitive solutions with undisputed support from our accomplished team across all elements of our business including sales, inside sales, marketing, and logistics just to name a few. We are aware that this is not standard industry practice, but it is something that we pride ourselves on. Additionally, we strive to provide value both to the consumer in price and range, but also in the support we give our retail partners. Essentially, we strive to provide customers with the best possible service, exceeding industry standards in the wholesale sector. ■

Q: How have you remained competitive in terms of pricing while still delivering margin for retailers? A: We have always nurtured and valued our relationships with partners in the supply community. This has afforded us the opportunity to have an extremely competitive price ﬁle, continuous promotional cycles and exclusive promotions across all key categories. This not only ensures that our retailers remain competitive in the trade, but also allows them to successfully run a proﬁtable business. We have a huge focus on value lines

Costcutter offers an “extremely competitive price ﬁle, continuous promotional cycles and exclusive promotions across all key categories,” says Edwina Lucey

WHY JOIN IRELAND’S LEADING

FAMILY RUN RETAIL GROUP? • • • • • • • •

Genuine business partnership Flexible trading agreement Competitive business solutions Control of store margin Competitive pricing and promotions National and local marketing support Expert retail & fresh food advice Supporting local suppliers and food producers

Proud to be local

• Proud supporters of Irish communities • Exclusive coffee offering: Urban Sips • Centralised distribution centre with chill, ambient & alcohol • Multiple deliveries per week • Dedicated Account Manager • Modern store design and layout • Unrivalled levels of customer service and satisfaction

For more information contact Paul Roche, Head of Costcutter on 086-3868107 or by email paul.roche@barrys.ie

54 ADVISOR: Recruitment

The staff crisis: A mismatch of jobs and candidates BARRY WHELAN managing director of Excel Recruitment

www.excelrecruitment.com

While job postings are higher than ever, those on the hunt for a new role report they are frustrated with what’s on offer. Excel Recruitment’s Barry Whelan investigates the factors driving this mismatch and what can be done to resolve the dilemma

lot has been written recently in the press regarding the staff crisis in the retail and in particular the hospitality industry. The main narrative seems to be: • Thousands unemployed. • 195,000 employees on the Pandemic Unemployment Payment But… • Employers struggle to ﬁnd workers It would seem there are plenty of jobs available, however, perhaps they are the wrong jobs for the workers available to ﬁll the positions.

just too many jobs that do not meet these three requirements: pay, worklife balance and skill requirement. At the beginning of the pandemic as workers across the retail and hospitality sectors were put on the PUP scheme en masse and effectively laid off from their jobs, new employment opportunities continued to grow. This has recently reached a crescendo, with more job postings than ever. In our own business, we have over 200 managerial roles in our grocery division alone. This is the highest volume of jobs we have had in our near 20-year history. On the other hand, our candidates are telling us they are frustrated with the jobs on offer. There is a workforce/job mismatch like never before!

Jobs not good enough

“Too many jobs do not meet job seekers’ three requirements of pay, work-life balance and skill requirement,” writes Barry Whelan

Mismatch We are in the grip of a staffing crisis like none we have experienced before. We have a unique situation; plenty of jobs, with plenty of people to fill them, yet the workers available for the jobs on hand aren’t interested. The jobs mismatch their skills, quality of life expectations and crucially how they value themselves as employees, both from a skills and experience perspective and their expectation around compensation. As a business whose only business is staffing, we wanted to get to the bottom of the crisis to find a solution. Unemployed job seekers just don’t like the jobs available and there are

ShelfLife August 2021 | www.shelﬂife.ie

Thousands of Irish workers are unemployed, and employers are struggling to find workers, as the labour market poses a mismatch between open positions and what workers want. Our data suggests it’s worse than a mismatch: the jobs on offer just aren’t good enough. This isn’t just an Irish phenomenon. A US survey of 2,000 workers found that workers are still dissatisfied with the jobs on offer, even amidst what should be a hot job market as openings skyrocket, alongside workers leaving roles. But of those workers surveyed, 48% said they’re “frustrated with their job search”, because they’re not finding the right positions. And 41% said there “aren’t enough openings in their preferred professions”. It could be due to a proliferation of low-wage jobs, since 46% said they were only finding openings for low-wage roles.

Driving labour shortage Mismatches are a major driver of the

labour shortage. The US Chamber of Commerce has said that labour shortages are being fuelled, in part, by a mismatch between open roles and workers’ skills. At the same time, job openings have been high in traditionally low-paying industries like leisure and hospitality, where workers have been quitting en masse and demanding higher wages. We carried out a small survey of our hospitality clients, asking them as indoor dining returned, if their staff had also. The findings were frightening as clients reported that two-thirds of staff had not returned to work. What is happening in the US is happening here in Ireland. The disjointedness between what unemployed workers are looking for and what’s available could also potentially put some pressure on wages. While 85% of the workers in the US survey said they’d take a pay cut if it meant getting a job, only 12% of those workers would take a “serious pay cut” - which is defined as over 20%. The question is, will workers on the PUP, which is supposed to be shelved in October, return to work in these sectors at all? Will the wages of the open positions be enough to entice them back to the long and unsocial hours, particularly in hospitality? In fact, will the imminent end of the PUP benefit in October, only exacerbate the mismatch issues? It is quite possible that this may create an even more difficult situation for unemployed workers and companies alike, as the vast majority of unemployed people are actively and consistently searching for a new job. However, while they are trying to navigate an unprecedented labour market with a lot of uncertainty, they are also trying to navigate their way to opportunities outside of those available. ■

56 ADVISOR: Marketing

Wanted…

A shepherding conductor who can also manage nature’s ecosystem. Apply if interested, writes Colin Gordon

COLIN GORDON

marketing expert

A good marketer is akin to a shepherd who will mind the ﬂock (the brands, the making selling always easier) on good pastures but will guide it to better, safer pastures if the need arises, writes Colin Gordon

was thinking recently of the old adage; when you’re trying to explain something, always start with a definition! This came to mind when I saw a hat full of ads for “marketing” jobs appearing in various newspapers and journals, and on the likes of LinkedIn and so on. The jobs being advertised all seemed to possess a fundamental assumption: that the reader, and (by deduction, in most cases) the applicant, all knew what it was that the job involved. I dare say that the organisations seeking to fill the roles also probably thought they knew what it was that “marketing” is or was designed to do. Let’s pretend and give them all the benefit of the doubt, i.e., that this assumption was valid and that all the

stakeholders knew what it was they were on about. But from my own experience and, more importantly my own research, and from reading so many bits and pieces on how people have so many different deﬁnitions of marketing, it’s no harm to be at best sceptic and call it as it is!

Making selling easier Looking for a ‘CMO’ or some such position is not the same as an engineer or an accountant. Most organisations and most practitioners do not know what marketing is or what it is meant to be, where it sits in the organisation and how to make it really relevant. Marketers are not required to be professionally qualiﬁed, unlike many other roles in today’s complex

The jobs being advertised all seemed to possess a fundamental assumption: that the reader, and (by deduction, in most cases) the applicant, all knew what it was that the job involved ShelfLife August 2021 | www.shelﬂife.ie

organisations. Apart from experience, there may be little to differentiate one applicant from another. If the reason for business is to conduct business (!) and that, in turn, means being able to ﬁnd customers and service them, then business is all about selling (even for charities where you are selling something different than say FMCG but selling nonetheless). Too often marketing gets itself lost in the external side of its role - mostly in some form of communications and social media ‘activation’. But it’s so much more than that. It’s about making selling easier. I’ve used this reductionist deﬁnition as it focuses the role in the same direction as the whole of the business - make it easy and easier for customers to buy your product or service.

Three parallels Sometimes it’s helpful to illustrate how this role works. I see three parallels. The successful or good marketer is akin to a shepherd, an orchestra conductor, or a nature reserve manager. As a shepherd, s/he

ADVISOR: Marketing

will mind the ﬂock (the brands, the making selling always easier) on good pastures but will guide the ﬂock to better, safer pastures if the need arises. As a conductor, the marketer will lead and guide the musicians to perform at their best and to produce an overall, harmonious musical performance. As a reserve manager your role is not (just) to look after the plants and animals for today but to ensure you manage the whole of the ecosystem of the park and how the plants and animals rely on each other. You will thereby leave the reserve in the best possible state for the generations coming behind you, long after you have departed.

Closer to the CEO The combination of all these three characters, drawn as they are from the ﬁelds (forgive the pun) of farming, the arts and the ecosystem, gives a sense of the long term, the ability to cope with change and the marrying of all the elements of the business together to give the best possible result all the time. That is what marketing is. It’s closer to the CEO than to the head of sales. It’s more like a business owner

than a salaried employee. The marketer may not, necessarily, have all the skills of high ﬁnance or legal expertise. They are aids to the business; they are not the business. Nor is HR or production. All these functions depend on how successful the business is at selling, and the business has to ensure that the selling is as frictionless as possible. They are costs to the business of the business. Business has to be about the transaction and the customer. Most if not all functions can be done by others, but you, as a business, have to be focused on how to build and maintain the transaction. No one else can or should do it. Marketing therefore encompasses pricing, innovation, branding, distribution (in its widest sense), service levels, customer complaints, customer analysis, regulatory assessment, agency and partnership management, and so on. The problem is that it’s very hard to put all that down in a simple ad. The problem also is that many of the people who should know this don’t and therefore the misconstruction of marketing continues. ■

‘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.

INTERVIEW

QUICK QUESTIONS WITH Gursharan Singh

1. Best place for coffee? Hudson Rooms, Liffey Valley 2. Favourite movie? Real story-based movies. 3. Top book recommendation? Hardly get time with such a busy lifestyle, however, I do like to keep up to date with current affairs via the Irish Journal, Sunday Business Post, ShelfLife and Food and Wine Magazine. 4. Which social media platform do you use most? Instagram as it is very trendy with youngsters and currently people use it to obtain information on all types of business. For Jacked-Up, it has been greatly beneﬁcial to spread awareness for

GURSHARAN SINGH

co-founder, Jacked-Up vegan products and reach our maximum audience. 5. Best ad on telly? Too busy to watch much TV, sorry! 6. Worst ad on telly? Go Compare – find that ad too boring to watch. 7. Favourite grocery shop? Being part of SuperValu’s Food Academy, its stores have become a firm favourite and Eurasia for ethnic grocery. 8. What would you cook if you were to compete in ‘Come Dine With Me’ and would you win? Samosa and onion bhaji for starters and whilst researching and trying a number of Jackfruit dishes from our Jacked-Up range, I would definitely get everyone’s taste buds going with a jackfruit Indian curry, gobi masala with homemade naan bread and rice for main course. 9. First thing you would do if you were Taoiseach? Get a better cyber security system.

10. If you had to live in another country, where would you choose? Living in Ireland, we have been lucky to travel a lot on holidays. We love Greece a lot, but I guess we always love to come back home to Ireland. 11. Greatest achievement to date? Raising my two beautiful kids and of course launching Jacked-Up too. 12. Best website? Strong Roots is one of my favourite websites. 13. Most annoying public ﬁgure? Donald Trump. 14. Best piece of advice you ever received? James Burke from the SuperValu Food Academy had so much useful advice, but one that stuck with me was, “Deliver an experience your customers won't forget.” And with Jacked-Up, we are committed to achieving that. 15. Biggest fear? Snakes, I am glad that I am living in a

country that is blessed to have no snakes. 16. City or beach break? I personally love water, so beach anytime. Our all-time favourite beach holiday was to the Amalfi Coast in Italy. 17. Top restaurant recommendation? Being an Asian, I have had the opportunity of being introduced to many flavours. Spices have become a part of life. One of our favourite restaurants is Opium. 18. Pop or rock? Rock – Coldplay. 19. Favourite time of the day? We taste and quality-check the batch prepared for Jacked-Up in the afternoon. I always enjoy that time of day, to ensure our products are of the highest standards. 20. What is the last compliment you received? We always get amazing compliments on our Jacked-Up products. To mention one we got very recently on Instagram: “Wow, your Jacked-Up products are super delicious and so easy to use.” ■ www.shelflife.ie | ShelfLife August 2021

58 NOFFLA NEWS

www.nofﬂa.ie

Back to Black!

Joel Durand of Blackrock Cellar, which was named Dublin Off-Licence of the Year 2021, explains how the pandemic has transformed the team’s online offering, and shares some interesting insights on the store’s best-sellers STORE PROFILE Blackrock Cellar, 23 Rock Hill, Blackrock, Co. Dublin Store size: 350sq m Number of staff: 9-11 Opening hours: Monday - Saturday 10.30am-8pm; Sunday and bank holidays 12.30pm-8pm Q: What are the factors that led to you winning a NOffLA Award and how do you stand out from competitors? A: I think it’s mainly because from our opening nine years ago, we have been thriving at being different. ‘Not the usual’ has been and will always be our motto. That’s in the products we sell, the passionate staff as well as the look of the shop. It takes more work, time and cost. All the staff are on some level of WSET training and participate in shop-guided tastings as well as importers’ portfolio tastings, so their knowledge of our range is at a good level. It is important because we have an extensive range of fine wines, craft beers, spirits, cocktails and fine foods that is constantly renewing. You will rarely find all these in big multiples and vice versa. With time, we have gained the trust of our customers that are now ready to listen to our friendly staff’s advice, trying different and newly discovered gems. Q: How has Covid-19 affected your business and how have you navigated the challenges involved? A: Like everybody, we had a challenging 18 months. It got really busy up to when we closed in early April at the first peak of the pandemic. It was getting very dangerous and we all needed a break to regroup and plan. After consulting with managers, we reopened two weeks later, working behind closed doors only doing deliveries or collection on a short four-day week from 12-6pm. We hired a shop driver

ShelfLife August 2021 | www.shelﬂife.ie

for that period. Working (with a mask) behind closed doors is claustrophobic, needless to say the level of stress and temper was quite high and we had lots of discussions between us regarding what to do. We were happy to ﬁnally reopen slowly to a limited number of masked customers by mid-May. That was on a longer six days, 12-8pm Monday-Saturday schedule. We reopened on Sundays by the end of July 2020. Before Covid we used to close at 10 every evening but we have no plan to reopen that late. Our customer habits have changed, and we don’t see the need to be open that late anymore. Due to the closure of pubs and restaurants during the ongoing lockdowns, we have been busier than normal and the three new staff members we hired last summer had lost their restaurant jobs. They replaced two staff that left us early in the pandemic and one that stayed on the payroll working from home on social media and our website. At the start of 2020 we were looking at transforming our website from a webpage to an online shop so when Covid arrived we were caught a bit unprepared. Taking lots of orders and advising over the phone or by email is quite a different job to serving in-shop customers and we all had to learn new skills quickly. Meanwhile, with the help of our web designer, myself taking product pictures and a member of staff working from home, we installed most

The NOffLA Dublin Off-Licence of the Year 2021 Award is sponsored by Bombay Sapphire (Edward Dillon)

Blackrock Cellar is renowned as a craft beer specialist with Kinnegar being the number one seller within that category

of the wines and beers on the future online shop. The website was ﬁnally turned on in October 2020. I have to give credit to my staff who are amazing; it is not easy what they are doing and I’m very grateful they stuck with us during the whole period. In July last year we introduced a weekly Covid bonus risk on the wages that is still running today, it is the best decision we took during the pandemic for staff morale and retention. Q: What are your current bestselling brands/ranges in-store and why do you believe these products are proving popular? A: As hinted earlier, big brands aren’t really our bread and butter. We are only keeping a necessary minimum to complete our selection; it is becoming a more and more marginal part of the business. When minimum pricing comes into play, we will only have

According to Joel Durand, customers are becoming more adventurous and at the higher end of the market, are not afraid to spend more on trying out a staff recommendation

one product to delist. Regarding what sells, we have been a craft beer specialist from the start and in the beer section, that is what we overwhelmingly sell. Half the craft beers now sold are from independent Irish breweries with Kinnegar number one for a few years now. For the rest of the beer, classic German and Belgium are deservedly coming back to the fore in these past few years while the US and UK are down. Even if pale ale and IPAs are still strong, our customers are now moving away from them and getting more adventurous in their beer styles. For wines, you can more or less take the national wine sale pyramid of top selling producer countries and turn it upside down to know what we sell the most. Chile is at the bottom and France on top, Spain second, Italy third. The tendency to buy better wine (and beer) has accelerated with the lockdown. There was a sense of: “Whatever happens at least I had a nice bottle’’. At the lower end, the customer is now spending the €2-3 extra to get a good wine compared to a budget one. At the higher end, people are getting more adventurous, and are not afraid to spend more trying something different that we have recommended. For example, South African or German Pinot Noir versus Burgundies. Rosé sales have increased ﬁve-fold in the past three years and customers don’t see a problem in spending as >>

NOFFLA NEWS 59

www.nofﬂa.ie >> much as for a good bottle of red or white. For spirits, the two main growth areas are Irish whiskey, especially premium, and cocktails. In particular, the premade excellent premium cocktails from Craft Cocktails Ltd are a runaway success. Q: What are the advantages of belonging to the National OffLicence Association?

Joel Durand of Blackrock Cellar says that ‘not the usual’ has been and will always be the store’s motto

A: The best thing about NOffLA is knowing your other independent colleagues; we exchange tips and trends that we have noticed, and they are nice people too. The National Off-Licence of the Year Awards is a friendly competition between us, it helps better ourselves and also gives a boost to the business if the shop wins something. It is

nice being recognised by your peers too. NOffLA will keep you up to date with the latest legislation and drink industry trends. Finally, NOffLA is our voice at national level with the press and the political arena. Q: How useful do you ﬁnd social media in marketing your business? A: We have been using social media from the start as it is mostly free. The biggest one has always been Twitter for us. All the craft beer scene is on it and information circulates quickly, such as when you have just received a new beer that you want to promote. Instagram is complementing Twitter very well. Google is a good tool too and it’s all free: make sure you include as much shop

information as possible. The reviews we get there are very important to get the pulse of our customers and I always answer reviews. Usually, it’s a big thank you and a see you again soon. The odd time you will have to answer negative reviews. It’s time to think: what did we do wrong? We have been on Facebook too but that is now a bit of a dead page and there isn’t much activity around it. As a complement to social media, we do a regular newsletter to our customer list with Mailchimp that is also free and a great tool. We have been on Pointy (now part of Google) since they ﬁrst started having the ﬁrst off-licence on it. It was a good gap measure to show our products before having the online shop.

My favourite...

This month, Simon Andrews of Carry Out Tramore, Main Street, Tramore, Co. Waterford, which won the Best First Time Entrant 2021 at the annual NOffLA Awards, explains why Daithi O’Connell’s experimental whiskey and sherry offerings are ones to watch

Daithi O’Connell of W.D. O’Connell Whiskey Merchants with Simon Andrews of Carry Out Tramore

W.D. O’Connell Whiskey Merchants is a young and exciting independent whiskey company, based in Co. Waterford. The brand, spearheaded by founder Daithi O’Connell, launched at ‘Whiskey Live 2019’ and has attracted huge praise for its releases to date, which up until summer 2021 have been focused on the Irish and UK markets. Being a merchant allows Daithi the freedom to buy premium new

make spirits and aged whiskies from multiple distilleries and apply his team’s own maturation and finish preferences. Furthermore, they source their own casks and mature and bottle the finished whiskies when they are ready. WD O’Connell is a premium whiskey product; all releases so far being limited batch runs of anywhere between 350 to 600 bottles per release. Part of the portfolio’s core range is the ‘Bill Phil’ series, a triple distilled peated single malt, sourced from GND. Daithi’s eagerness to embrace and experiment with the largely ignored peated Irish whiskey sector only reflects his ambition and pioneering spirit for the company and its whiskeys. Bill Phil releases have seen the original Single Cask, Batch 1, Batch 2 and the first of the Bill Phil Cask Strength bottlings. We at Carry Out Tramore eagerly await the highly anticipated second expression of Bill Phil

Carry Out Tramore was the winner of the Best First Time Entrant 2021 in the annual NOffLA Awards sponsored by Champagne Ayala (Findlater & Co.)

Cask Strength, due to retail summer 2021. To my mind, the journey of how these whiskeys develop and change over time under Daithi’s care is so exciting and to date, never disappoints. I was recently discussing the next release in the brand’s PX sherry series (the last expression being an 18yr old bottled at cask strength) with Daithi, which had been pencilled in for summer 2021 release. He playfully told me “No, I’m holding off on that one

W.D. O’Connell Whiskey Merchants has attracted huge praise for its releases to date

for a while longer… I’m just not 100% on that one yet…” My personal favourite right now is the Single Malt 12yr old Sherry Series. Created in 2008 at Bushmills, it was fully matured in an Oloroso sherry butt for 12 years. An aroma of white pepper dusted dates, ﬂaked almonds and crushed red grapes welcomes you before crystalised ginger, caramelised banana, clove spices and sherry-soaked raisins hit your palate. A long, balanced ﬁnish, with toasted oak, dark chocolate and roasted hazelnuts. Simply a stunning dram! Daithi has huge ambition for the brand, with an upcoming release to the US, an online exclusive release partnering with Bruichladdich of Scotland, and a long-term target of being Ireland’s largest indie bottler by 2035! We at Carry Out Tramore are very proud to be associated with such a fabulous success story within the whiskey world!

NOffLA contacts If you have any queries regarding NOffLA membership or services, please contact our administrator, Reggie Walsh, at Block D, Unit 6, Nutgrove Office Park, Rathfarnham, Dublin 14, by telephone on 01 - 296 2326, by fax on 01 - 296 2451 or by email at info@noffla.ie. The NOffLA website can be found at www.noffla.ie. ■

www.shelﬂife.ie | ShelfLife August 2021

60 MARKET MOVERS

Club

Nivea

Club kickstarts a summer of love with Pat Frog

Stay safe in the sun with Nivea

With the summer well and truly underway, Club confirms that the supply of its limited edition Club Pat Frog has been replenished in stores nationwide after it completely sold out due to huge demand following its launch earlier this year. Iconic Irish brand Club unveiled the limited edition drink back in May and it quickly became the flavour to savour thanks to its familiar flavour profile that is modelled on the ice lolly. Combining apple, raspberry and lime flavours, Pat Frog is smooth on the palate with zingier, punchier, and tangier mouth feels for that signature impactful flavour. To celebrate the new limited edition drink, Club has unveiled a brand new campaign featuring Pat Frog himself, a sprightly, GAA loving, paddy cap wearing, 19-year-old Kerry native. Like many of Gen Z in Ireland, Pat Frog has struggled to find love over lockdown. His favourite drink of all time is Club Orange and earlier he was inspired by Club’s #TheBitsMadeMeDoIt campaign and decided to put a plan together to help him experience a summer of love. Club Pat Frog is available now in stores nationwide for a limited time, with the 500ml bottle costing €1.50 and the 2 litre priced at €2.75. To follow Pat Frog’s quest for finding love, keep an eye out on Club’s social media channels: Instagram: @cluborangebits// TikTok: @cluborangebits// Facebook: @cluborangebits

Sun safety is just as essential in Ireland as when you are abroad. The sun emits damaging UV rays year-round, even on cloudy days. As up to 80% of the sun’s harmful UV rays can penetrate the skin, it’s important that your skin is always protected from the sun’s UVA/UVB rays. Dermatologists recommend using sunscreen every day, even in cloudy Irish weather Nivea Sun, Ireland’s number one sun care brand*, can look after consumers at home with these top picks for essential sun protection for the whole family: • Nivea Sun Kids Protect & Care Coloured Roll-on SPF 50+, RRP: €9.99 This roll-on provides children with highly effective UVA/UVB protection wherever they go. With its child-friendly colourful handy roll-on format for easy and playful application, it is simple and quick to apply on the skin and extra water resistant. • Nivea Sun Protect & Moisture Sun Lotion SPF 30 / SPF 50+, RRP: €16.99 This summer essential contains highly effective UVA/UVB ﬁlters for immediate protection and is suitable for all skin types. • Nivea Sun Kids Trigger Spray SPF 30 / SPF 50+, RRP: €21.59 The fun spray application is a simple and quick way to apply lotion to children’s skin. They will be well-protected from the sun’s harmful rays as the gentle, yet effective formula provides immediate high UVA/UVB protection and is extra water resistant. • Nivea Sun Protect & Moisture Pocket Size Sun Lotion SPF 30, RRP: €6.99 This Sun Lotion provides highly effective UVA/UVB protection and protects immediately against sun exposure and long-term UV-induced skin damage. For more information, visit www.nivea.ie. *(Source: Nielson 52 w/e 27 Dec 2020)

Vuse

Vype is now Vuse As Vype, the popular vaping brand had one purpose – inspire consumers with high quality vaping products. As Vuse, the company has raised the bar – becoming one global brand that is connected and aligned with the ever-evolving needs of those consumers. Through a revamped brand look and feel, and more ﬂavours for your customers, Vuse believes it perfectly demonstrates what the power of creativity and innovation can bring to your store and customers alike. Find out more at b2b.pjcarroll.ie. *(For adult smokers and vapers only. Vype\Vuse e-cigarettes contain nicotine which is addictive. 18+ Only. Read leaﬂet in pack)

Silk Cut

More than a fabric Silk... it’s so much more than a fabric. As with Silk Cut, silk is premium, reﬁned and deﬁned by its quality. And it’s this quality that makes Silk Cut Ireland’s number one cigarette brand* with over 20%** share of the cigarette segment. Silk Cut has an extensive range of cigarettes for your existing Irish adult smokers, available in Purple, Blue and Silver and in both king size and 100s formats. ‘Silk, it’s more than a fabric, it is the essence of premium quality’. *(Source: Nielsen extended scantrack, RMC SOM 21.3% latest four weeks data to 18 July 2021) **(Source: Nielsen ROI Extended Scantrack, RMC SOM, YTD 18 July 2021)

ShelfLife August 2021 | www.shelﬂife.ie

62 MARKET MOVERS

Boann Distillery

Kerrygold

Boann Distillery scoops gold twice at Irish Whiskey Masters

Kerrygold Spreadable food truck spreads the love

Boann Distillery has added to its haul of awards this year by scooping two golds at the 2021 Irish Whiskey Masters. The family-owned distillery in Co. Meath was awarded a gold medal in the Single Grain Super Premium round for The Whistler Mosaic, while The Whistler Irish Honey won gold in the Flavoured Irish Whiskey category. The Spirits Business Irish Whiskey Masters 2021 were held in London with each entrant bagged and labelled anonymously. Entries were up by over 60% on last year, with 98 whiskies from 27 different companies. “We are so proud to see our Whistler range recognised and rewarded once again by industry, with these golds bringing the Whistler brand’s award tally to over 40,” said founder and managing director, Patrick Cooney. The latest awards for the distillery came just days after Boann announced it is giving whiskey lovers the chance to buy rare samples of its Single Pot Still new make spirit - distilled using recipes dating back up to two centuries. Recently, 500 limited edition packs of ten 50ml bottles were released for sale for €135 and are likely to become a collectors’ item among serious whiskey enthusiasts.

Kerrygold is hitting the road to spread the love and great taste of Kerrygold to consumers across Ireland. Kerrygold Spreadable is a new product from Ornua, made from Irish creamery butter blended with natural rapeseed oil to ensure a rich, buttery taste with the added convenience of being spreadable straight from the fridge. The Kerrygold Spreadable food truck will be offering free samples to over 230,000 butter lovers in 14 different locations across Dublin, Cork, Galway, and Limerick. Consumers will be able to try out the great taste of Kerrygold Spreadable sampled on fresh breads and will have the opportunity to win a range of prizes including over €2,000 worth of kitchenware. The sample activation will be supported by a fully integrated marketing campaign including TVC, digital, radio, and out-of-home advertising. Last year alone, Kerrygold added an incremental €5.1 million to the value of the category in Ireland and has ambitious future growth plans. Kerrygold Spreadable is an extension of the current core range; Kerrygold Irish Creamery Butter and Kerrygold Softer Butter and is sold in a 454g tub. ■

The franciscan well 4 pack range

Available in stores nationwide ForAugust more information ShelfLife 2021 | www.shelﬂife.ie contact your local Molson Coors sales representative.

SpaceTo

SpaceTo bring your brand to life

SpeceTo is a brand new broadcast standard, high-resolution digital LED video studio with full streaming capabilities. Our high-resolution digital wall allows unlimited creative options that can bring your brand or product to life. Located conveniently on Haddington Road in the heart of Dublin 4. Why not drop in to have a look around and discuss your video production needs? Simply email info@spaceto.ie now to arrange an appointment.

Address: Top Floor, Two Haddington Buildings, 20-38 Haddington Road, Dublin 4, D04 HE94. www.spaceto.ie | info@spaceto.ie | 00353 1 2560800

ShelfLife Magazine August 2021

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