Retail News December 2016.. by Retail News

DECEMBER 2016

NEW EUROPEAN TOBACCO REGULATIONS The journey ahead

20 May 2016 Introduction of new packaging regulations

Tobacco products that were produced before 20 May 2016 remain compliant with the law and can continue to be sold at retail until 19 May 2017

20 May 2017

Only tobacco products that comply with the new packaging rules can be sold from this date*

*For full details, please visit jti.com/Ireland. Alternatively, speak to your JTI contact, call 01 404 0240 or email customerservices.ireland@jti.com.

Retail News|December 2016|www.retailnews.ie|3

Contents Sweet 17? 2016 has been a pretty good year for the Irish FMCG market, as the economic recovery continued. Grocery is generally the last category to feel any upswing and the consumer remains very price and value conscious (not necessarily the same thing), but it is heartening to see the amount of independent retailers and groups investing in new and existing stores. That said, Brexit is the big stormcloud on the horizon and it’s fair to say we have yet to see which way it will blow. We talk to three of the most important retail organisations in the country, the Convenience Stores and Newsagents Association, RGDATA and Retail Ireland about the big issues facing the sector in 2017, from potential wage increases to the likely impacts of the UK leaving the EU (Page 4). With awards season in full swing, we reveal the winner of the seventh annual ECR Ireland Shopper Engagement Awards, as five extremely worthy finalists competed fiercely for the overall prize (Page 16), we report from the 2016 Londis Retailing Awards, which recognised the top stores in the country, and we profile the inaugural BIM National Seafood Awards, which took place recently in a glittering awards ceremony in Dublin (Page 26). Also inside, we present our annual Retail Groups Report, where the biggest retailers in Ireland reveal their secrets (Page 43-63). Finally, I would like to take this opportunity to thank all our readers and advertisers for their continued support and to wish you all a peaceful and profitable Christmas and a very happy and prosperous New Year. Kathleen Belton, Editorial & Marketing Director.

News

The year ahead: the big issues facing FMCG in 2017. Dunnes hits supermarket top spot; Christmas spending to rise. RGDATA hosts Independent Retail Europe conference; Websites phone home.

CCPC releases reporting requirements; INM celebrates power of print.

Aldi announces €100m expansion programme; Retailers concerned about cash flow.

Fyffes acquired by Japanese company; RGDATA advice column.

ECR Ireland Shopper Engagement Awards 16 The 7th ECR

Ireland Shopper Engagement Awards saw five powerful campaigns go headto-head to be named overall winner.

Londis Retailing Awards

Recruitment

36 Caroline McEnery,

18 Timothy’s Londis

Plus, Roscommon was named Overall Store of the Year at the Londis Retailing Awards 2016.

Vaping/E-Cigarettes 22 Uncertainty

regarding regulation is hurting the vaping/e-cigarettes sector in Ireland.

Retail Ireland: Monthly Update 25 Concern over

MD, The HR Suite, provides vital strategies to ensure that when you’re recruiting staff, you hire the right candidate.

On The Vine

38 Wine value and

volumes rose again in 2016 but Brexit will take its toll, warns Jean Smullen, as she examines the Irish wine market.

SuperValu/Centra Off Licence of the Year Awards

softening consumer demand; Town centre regeneration fund welcomed.

40 The Edward Dillon

& Santa Rita Estates SuperValu and Centra Off Licence of the Year Awards were held recently.

RETAIL GROUP REVIEW

BIM National Seafood Awards 26 BIM recently

announced the winners of the inaugural BIM National Seafood Awards.

Ireland’s Grocery Superstars on the Secrets of their Success

IGBF Christmas Lunch 28 The Irish Grocers Benevolent Fund Christmas Lunch was the social highlight of the season.

Retail Group Review 43 The main players

in the Irish grocery market assess 2016 and reveal their plans for the coming year.

REGULARS & REPORTS

facebook.com/RetailNews1 Managing Director: Patrick Aylward Editorial & Sales Director: Kathleen Belton kathleenbelton@retailnews.ie Editor: John Walshe johnwalshe@tarapublications.ie Advertising: Brian Clark brian@tarapublications.ie Chief News Reporter: Pavel Barter Wine Correspondent: Jean Smullen Production: Ciara Conway Graphics: Catherine Doyle Printed by: W&G Baird

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Industry News Breakfast Time Drinks News Forecourt Focus: News Shelf Life

4|Retail News|December 2016|www.retailnews.ie

News

2017: The Year Ahead WHICHEVER way we turn in 2017, retailers, consumers, and suppliers alike, we cannot avoid the looming shadow of Brexit. Consumer sentiment and spending, business costs and retail recovery are ongoing issues for the retail sector, but the manner in which the UK conducts its departure from the European Union is likely to affect everything. “Brexit and its outcomes Vincent Jennings, CEO, are going to be foremost for all CSNA of us,” Vincent Jennings, CEO of Convenience Stores and Newsagents Association (CSNA), told Retail News. While Brexit is likely to control the conversation next year, retailers are facing issues that began unfolding prior to the referendum. A new consumer has emerged: value conscious and price savvy. Shoppers now hunt for deals and are less loyal to brands. The sector has become a crowded, noisy space where discounts make it difficult for grocers to stand out. “The competitive marketplace is probably the most pressing issue of all,” said Tara Buckley, Director General of RGDATA. “Promotional activity from big multiples is making it challenging for the independent sector to compete. It's the culture of discounting. It's difficult for a shop to offer range, value, and promotional offers, yet still make money.” Discounting is the new norm amongst consumers. Jennings argues that we cannot turn back the clock: “The consumer is perfectly entitled to look for value for money and different ways of being more efficient. But I do have a difficulty with the consumer travelling outside the state, then expecting that the state will continue to provide a level of services.” As we turn a corner into 2017, the spectre of cross-border shopping has reared its head once again, although a fall in the euro helped stem the tide. The CSNA chief points out that retailers in the south struggle to compete with northern retailers due to the high cost of business. Retailers are increasingly hammered on rent, utilities, and wages. Earlier this month, the Irish Congress of Trade Unions advised private sector unions to seek pay rises of at least €1,000 annually, or 4%, next year. Retail representatives described these figures as a pipe Tara Buckley, RGDATA dream. Director General. “When you look across the sector retail - at softening consumer demand, intense levels of competition - some of the wage increases being touted are a little unrealistic,” said Thomas Burke, Director of Retail Ireland. Jennings added: “There will be wage increases, but not in the order of 4%. That's an opening gambit [from the unions] more than anything else.” According to Buckley, small retailers are struggling to turn a profit. “Maintaining the jobs and hours of current staff is an issue for a lot of stores,” she said. “These stores are not performing well enough to increase wages. For most retailers, your wage bill is a set percentage of your turnover.

If your turnover isn't increasing, you cannot increase wages.” Retailers potentially face added costs in 2017 from the Public Health (Alcohol) Bill, which threatens retailers with the prospect of having to make physical changes to stores to comply with structural separation. “That could be very costly to retailers if implemented in its current form,” said Burke. Thomas Burke, Retail RGDATA has called for Ireland Director the Government to amend the proposed bill to ensure alcohol is treated as a distinct product that will not require retailers to install doors or partitions. It's not the only legislation due for 2017. Sugar taxes are slated to come into effect next year, and plain cigarette packaging could be introduced by year end. The CSNA is concerned about the potential introduction of a new registration and licensing system for the sale of tobacco and electronic cigarettes. “I would love to see changes to the Public Service obligation levy, as it affects electricity bills for small and medium enterprises. The way that is calculated is grossly unfair,” said Jennings. Next year is not all doom and gloom, however. The CSNA have agreed new profits from the National Lottery, after it secured a 6% margin for a 20-year license. RGDATA, meanwhile, is holding the second phase of its town centre rejuvenation scheme in March. As part of the Town Centre Health Check pilot, 10 towns will learn how to develop a regeneration plan. The association plans to roll out the scheme nationally in 2017. “We have been working closely with the departments involved in urban regeneration, rural regeneration, cultural regeneration,” explained Buckley. “There is a lot of opportunity in 2017 for towns to work on a plan and get funding for projects.” There is also a consumer renaissance for healthy products. “We talk about the expectation of Government on retailers to deliver a healthier society as a problem, but it's an opportunity in terms of changing consumer focus,” said Burke. “There is good opportunity for retailers to use that as a footfall driver.” In 2016, an increasing amount of Irish retailers engaged with technology, particularly social media, in order to attract customers. This is likely to pick up pace next year. “As well as being a functional pursuit, shopping is increasingly an experiential one,” added Burke. While the challenges for 2017 are rife, retailers are approaching the year ahead with optimism. Nevertheless, it will be difficult to avoid the elephant in the room: Brexit and the uncertainty it brings. “Brexit will have a transformative effect,” said Burke. “The Irish retail industry has so many high street brands that are common in the UK, or headquartered in the UK. Outside the food and drink exporting industry, we're liable to be the most impacted from a logistical and practical perspective. We've seen the short term effect in terms of the currency shift. What will Brexit mean for Ireland as an economy and for us as an industry? It is the cloud that hangs over us as we enter 2017.”

Retail News|December 2016|www.retailnews.ie|5

News

Dunnes Hits Supermarket Top Spot DUNNES Stores is now Ireland’s largest grocery retailer, Total Take Home Grocery - Ireland Consumer Spend according 12 Weeks to 08 Nov 2015 12 Weeks to 06 Nov 2016 change** to the latest %* %* % supermarket share figures Total Grocers 100.0% 100.0% 4.2 from Kantar Total Multiples 89.6% 89.1% 3.6 Worldpanel in SuperValu 22.8% 22.4% 2.3 Ireland, for the Tesco 22.4% 21.4% -0.6 12 weeks ending November Dunnes 22.0% 22.6% 6.7 6, 2016. Lidl 11.3% 11.4% 5.3 The retailer Aldi 11.1% 11.3% 6.6 increased its Other Outlets** 10.4% 10.9% 9.4 market share to 22.6% during the past 12 weeks *= Percentage Share of Total Grocers to clinch the top **= Includes stores such as M&S, Boots, Spar, Centra, Greengrocers, Butchers And Cross Border shops spot, up from 22.0% this time parting with an additional 80c per trip on average. last year. Tesco remains on an upward trajectory, with value sales “Dunnes’ strong performance is largely down to its falling by just 0.6% in the past 12 weeks and volume sales continued success in encouraging larger shopping trips via increasing compared with last year: the grocer’s market its 'Shop & Save' promotional campaign,” explains David share now stands at 21.4%. Berry, Director at Kantar Worldpanel. “Persuading shoppers Lidl’s share of the market has increased slightly to to add one extra item to every basket, worth €3.20 on 11.4%, with sales growth of 5.3%. Aldi’s strong performance average, may not sound like much, but across the country continues, with sales growing by 6.6% year on year, leading this adds up to an additional €2.8m each week. Growth to a healthy increase in market share from 11.1% last year across a wide range of categories has contributed to the to 11.3% in the past 12 weeks. “Aldi has seen the biggest retailer’s overall sales increase of 6.7% year on year, with boost to its shopper numbers during the latest quarter, with toiletries, alcohol, frozen food and confectionery performing an extra 40,000 households visiting the retailer and also particularly well.” returning more often,” reveals Berry. Now capturing 22.4% of grocery spending, SuperValu Grocery market inflation stands at 0.7% for the 12-week continues to enjoy a positive performance, with an increase period ending November 6, 2016, down from the 1.3% seen in sales of 2.3% year-on-year. More shoppers have chosen last month. to visit the retailer this year but they have also spent more, For more information, see www.kantarworldpanel.com.

Christmas Spending to Rise IRISH households will spend an average of €2,587 this December, approximately €720 more than any other month of the year and roughly €26 more than Christmas 2015, according to the Christmas Retail Monitor 2016 from Retail Ireland. Despite challenges in the market, retailers remain positive. The report predicts an increase of 3.7% in consumer spending this December compared to last year, with total sales of €4.21 billion up from €4.05 billion in 2015 - an increase of €160m. The challenge for Irish retailers this Christmas will be to ensure that this buoyancy is felt locally and that Irish based retailers benefit from this additional spending. “The next few weeks are by far the most important trading period of the year,” noted Retail Ireland Director, Thomas Burke. “While retail sales growth has softened in recent weeks, retailers remain optimistic. More people at work, a rise in disposable incomes and falling prices should lift the consumer mood and translate into increased sales. Currency pressures and a drop in consumer sentiment have made

recent months difficult for many retailers. But the retail sector's challenge is the consumer's opportunity. The coming weeks will see heavy pre-Christmas discounting, and a New Year sales bonanza.”

6|Retail News|December 2016|www.retailnews.ie

News

RGDATA Hosts Independent Retail Europe Conference ACCESS to EU funding represent to take advantage of the EU funding for the independent opportunities highlighted at the conference.” retail sector was the Meanwhile, the RGDATA Director General theme of Independent was appointed to National Planning Framework Retail Europe’s annual Advisory Group by Minister for Housing, conference, co-hosted Planning and Local Government, Simon this year with Irish Coveney TD. Entitled ‘Ireland 2040’, the NPF member association, will be a 20-year strategy for the spatial and RGDATA, and held place-making development of Ireland that will recently at Dublin’s assist in shaping future growth and change. The Clontarf Castle first meeting took place on December 1. Minister Hotel. The European Coveney thanked the group for agreeing to association for groups participate and said the NPF was the most Tara Buckley, Director General RGDATA with of independent important project his Department was working Else Groen, Director General, and Ralf Gerking, President, both from Independent Retail Europe. on. He said this was an opportunity to plan for retailers, Independent Retail Europe includes Ireland for the next 20 years and to set down a 23 groups and associations, with a combined retail and framework to “build communities”. wholesale turnover of €1 trillion and more than 555,000 In November, Buckley led a delegation of shop owners sales outlets. to meet with Minister for Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural Representatives from all over Europe came to Dublin and Gaeltacht to hear how to boost access to EU finance for groups Affairs, and individual retailers. The conference showcased the Heather financing possible for larger scale headquarters-related Humphreys. projects, such as building distribution centres, to smaller RGDATA scale shop-based projects like waste disposal and energy highlighted installations. The event provided practical information independent on what funding is available, how to access it and the retailers' identification of a number of programmes that could be of concerns interest. about the “Access to adequate levels of finance can be difficult impact of for groups of independent retailers and their member Brexit on retailers,” noted Independent Retail Europe Director independent General, Else Groen. “We wanted to demonstrate that retailers there are ways for our members to meet their financing in border Pictured are (l-r): John Foy, SuperValu, needs for a variety of different projects from EU sources. areas and Cootehill, Co. Cavan; Colin Fee, Mace, This event also showed the great potential that groups of throughout Dundalk, Co. Louth; Tara Buckley, Director independent retailers have to multiply the effects of EU the country, General, RGDATA; Gordon Fleming, SuperValu, financing for the benefit of all the independent retailers in the urgent Monaghan Town; and Dermot Evans, their networks.” need for SuperValu, Clones, Co. Monaghan. RGDATA Director General, Tara Buckley said: investment “RGDATA is delighted to host this year’s Independent in town centre regeneration and a national programme of Retail Europe Annual Conference and bring specialists on Town Centre Health Checks to assist regional and rural EU funding together with RGDATA members and other development. “Shop owners who attended as part of the independent retailers from across Europe to Dublin. The delegation had the opportunity to outline to the Minister retail sector rarely gets access to funding programmes so their concerns about rural and regional regeneration, the focus of the conference is very welcome. RGDATA will the impact of Brexit, the need for better rural Broadband be encouraging the 3,500 independent retailers that we services,” Buckley explained.

Websites Phone Home?

98% OF customers want companies to put their contact phone numbers on their home pages or within one click, according to a study of 3,000 customers across Europe by customer insight firm Qualtrics. 97% of customers said it is important to be able to trust organisations with their personal data and almost 70% said they would consider leaving an unresponsive company. 35% of all customers say they are unsure if companies are even listening to their views. Younger customers (18-22 years old) are most impatient and demanding of immediate response. 35% expect comeback within six hours of contacting a company. They are the least likely to be loyal or nostalgic towards companies and take innovation for granted.

Retail News|December 2016|www.retailnews.ie|7

News

CCPC Releases Reporting Requirements for Compliance with Grocery Goods Regulations THE Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) has published the compliance reporting requirements for retailers and wholesalers subject to the Grocery Goods Regulations (Regulations). The Regulations apply to all retailers and wholesalers of food and drink operating in Ireland who have, or are part of a wider group with, a worldwide turnover in excess of €50m. In order to comply with the Regulations, all relevant businesses must complete an annual compliance report. The first report covers the period from April 30, 2016, to December 31, 2016. The report must be submitted to the

CCPC by March 31, 2017. The annual compliance report template and a guidance document, along with general information about the Regulations is available in the “Compliance for Business” section of www.ccpc.ie. Suppliers of grocery goods are also encouraged to familiarise themselves with the Regulations and engage with wholesalers/retailers that they supply on the changes arising from the new Regulations. Queries in relation to the Regulations can be emailed to grocery@ccpc.ie.

INM Celebrates Power of Print INDEPENDENT News & Media celebrated the ‘power of print’ recently as it explained the reasons for an anonymous advertising teaser campaign at a mindbending industry event in the Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin, attended by over 200 marketers and media industry professionals. The innovative marketing campaign, which ran throughout November, successfully brought print into the world of digital natives by running a highly successful unbranded campaign across INM titles. The eye-catching print ads invited named Pictured are (l-r): Geoff Lyons, Commercial Director, Independent News & Media; prizewinners Aisling Baker, industry professionals Starcom, and Brian Carolan, PHD, who will attend Cannes Lions 2017; and Karen Preston, Group Advertising to join in ‘an exciting Director, Independent News & Media. journey’ by visiting a from the research was the high level of web traffic that is dedicated URL, www.anexcitingjourneyawaits.com, where driven by print advertising; 10%. By leading readers from they would be in with a chance of winning one of two tickets print titles to an online platform, INM clearly actualised and to Cannes Lions 2017. The campaign, which ran across demonstrated its research finding, proving the influence of the Irish Independent, Sunday Independent, The Herald print advertisements. and The Sunday World, led the marketing community and “We wanted to drive the message and prove that Book readers alike to question who was personalising the print. of Evidence finding that print is an integral part of the In the second phase, INM revealed itself as being behind marketing mix, driving 10% of all landing page visits,” noted the campaign, demonstrating that it was a print newspaper Geoff Lyons, Commercial Director, Independent News & ad that had brought media planners, buyers and industry Media. “As the leading media organisation in Ireland, it is professionals to the website, thus proving the influence of important that we provide insightful information on the print media, and supporting the recent Book of Evidence print industry and the benefits it continues to offer in a market research conducted by INM. challenging environment.” The Book of Evidence, an econometrics study published The full Book of Evidence Econometrics Study findings by INM in May, was the largest piece of research are available at independently conducted by a publisher in Ireland, spanning http://www.inm.ie/thebookofevidence/. over three years and 20m data points. One specific finding

8|Retail News|December 2016|www.retailnews.ie

News

Aldi Announces €100m Expansion Programme ALDI Ireland is to create 400 new jobs in Ireland over the next three years as part of a €100m million expansion programme of its Irish store network. The investment will see Aldi open 20 new Irish stores, along with extending a number of its current stores over the same three-year period. The new stores will be located throughout the country, with stores in Trim, Co. Meath, Leixlip, Co. Kildare, and Ennistymon, Co. Clare opening in early 2017. Aldi is currently in the planning process for an additional five new stores in 2017, plus nine extensions to its existing portfolio. “We have a very aggressive store opening plan for the next three years, planning to open 20 new stores, plus additional extensions to our current store portfolio,” noted Giles Hurley, Group Managing Director, Ireland. “We are building on the sustained growth we have achieved in the last few years and will be creating an additional 400 jobs. “The fantastic products supplied by our many Irish suppliers have been key to our growth and success in Ireland,” he added. “We are committed to increasing the

number of Irish products on our shelves and as we grow and open more stores, there will be more and more opportunities for Irish suppliers to work with us.”

Retailers Concerned About Cash Flow ALMOST four out of five small and medium sized retailers worry about their cash flow, according to new research carried out by Elavon, one of Ireland’s leading card payment providers. The research identifies the key challenges facing small and medium retailers (SMRs) and highlights the important role of technology in helping them to grow their business and cut back on time spent on administration. The majority of small business owners are driven by passion, with this research undertaken by Elavon showing that 88% love running their own business. However, heading up a business is hard work, and despite forward leaps in technology, payments and processes can still present a challenge for business owners. In Elavon’s research, almost four in five respondents worry about their cash flow and 58% spend more than 14 hours a week on administration. Business owners have to juggle many roles, from sales to HR to admin to logistics, and they feel the time pressures associated with having to be a ‘jack of all trades’. “Understanding the issues facing business owners is key to providing solutions that make it easier to do business,” explains Eric Horgan, Elavon’s Ireland Country Manager. “This research highlights how technology can help SMR owners to save time; cut down the administrative burden and let them get on with the job of serving their customers. The move from cash to cards has created a massive opportunity for SMRs, increasing the speed of processing transactions, reducing cash handling fees and improving security.” Research shows that the way customers are choosing to

pay for goods and services is rapidly evolving in Ireland. Card payment transactions have grown by 24% over the last five years, with debit card transactions doubling in the same period and contactless payments reaching more than 2m transactions each week. The research from Elavon shows that most retailers believe that accepting cards is critical. Technological advancements have left customers expecting a hassle free and quick payment experience and retailers are continuously seeking new ways to improve their customer experience and satisfaction. talech, delivered in association with Elavon, is a tablet-based integrated ePOS system that will allow SMRs to manage all aspects of their business, from inventory and employee tracking to payments and reporting.

Retail News|December 2016|www.retailnews.ie|9

News Fyffes Acquired by Japanese Company IRISH fruit distributor, Fyffes is set to be acquired by the largest banana distributors in Asia, Sumitomo Corporation, based in Tokyo, for €751m. The two companies have reached agreement following a cash offer by Sumitomo, which will see each Fyffes shareholder receiving €2.23 per ordinary share. The deal will have to be formally approved by shareholders at an extraordinary general meeting but at the time of going to press, it looks like progressing smoothly.

Top Oil Lay Down the Mascot Gauntlet… TOP Oil is calling on companies across Ireland to get involved in a Top Oil Charity Mascot Race to raise much-needed funds for charities on December 29 at the Leopardstown Christmas Festival. Each company involved in the mascot race will represent a chosen charity and the winner of the race will award the total prize fund to their allocated charity. The charity fun race will see Top Oil mascot, Mr Ted, racing against other company mascots on the famous Leopardstown track to help raise awareness and donations for Irish charities. Each company that enters the race must donate €500 to the prize fund and compete for the prize money by entering its company mascot or designated character in the race. Any registered charity can also approach a company to ask them to represent their charity in the race for a chance to win the prize money. Collection buckets will be on display in the enclosure during the day to raise additional funds for the participating charities.

RGDATA

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sunday 211 13 10 Butchers • Web Portal • Butchers • ButchersThursday • •Supermarkets wednesday Wednesday 2 Public Holiday 3 1 wednesd wednes 3 Loyalty Software •wednesday Butchers Friday 4 ! wednesday Tuesday • Department Wednesday 12 Monday215 14 11 Web PortalStores • Web Portal • Web Portal !"#$%&'()&*#%)+,-'.+%#,'/01/2-'345'6*,%+",,'7$89-':*$;-'<)='>$&?$@'A'???=8"#$%&,)& • •Department • Loyalty Software Stores Thursday Thursda 352 Friday Thursday 3 4 4 1 ! saturday 2 •Thursday Web Portal Lo - Call 1890 924 !"#$%&'()&*#%)+,-'.+%#,'/01/2-'345'6*,%+",,'7$89-':*$;-'<)='>$&?$@'A'???=8"#$%&,)&*#%)+,=%"'A'4B 914 Thursday wednesday Thursday Tuesday316 • Loyalty Software 13 asH wedNesd 1 NEW YEAR’S 15 DAY 12 !• Loyalty Unit 25-26, N17 Business Park, Tuam, Co. Galway Loyalty Software Software 1 4 Software !"#$%&'()&*#%)+,-'.+%#,'/01/2-'345'6*,%+",,'7$89-':*$;-'<)='>$&?$@'A'?? • •Loyalty Friday saturday 3 Software 5 13 Friday 5 2 ! ! • Loyalty ! Friday Lo4- Call 1890 !924 914 1 Friday sunday 6 •! Loyalty Software !"#$%&'()&*#%)+,-'.+%#,'/01/2-'345'6*,%+",,'7$89-':*$;-'<)='>$&?$@'A'???=8"#$%&,)&*# Friday 417 114 sT. ValeNTiNe ! Friday wednesday Thursday 16 13 as Tel:Lo 093 23900 Fax: 093 70108 2 Unit 25-26, N17 Business Park, Tuam, Co. Galway - Call 1890 924 914

In respect of each public holiday, an employee is saturda Saturday saturday 6 3 54924924 5924 2! saturday 21890 6 241 saturday info@retailsolutions.ie Lo - Call 914 Lo - Call 1890 914 Lo -sunday Call 1890 914 Unit following: 25-26,Email: N17 Business Park, Tuam, Co. Galway entitled to one of the Tel: 093 23900 Fax: 093 70108 Monday 5718 Thursday Saturday Friday 17 14 Unit 25-26, N17 Business Tuam, Co. Galway 2 3Park, 15 sunday ! Galway Unitsaturday Unit 25-26, Lo N17 Business Park, Tuam, - Call 1890 924 914Co. 25-26, N17Monday Business Tuam, Co. Email: info@retailsolutions.ie ! Tel: 093 23900 70108 7! Galway 4 Sunday sunday 685Fax: 6 093 3Park, 7 352 sunday Unit 25-26, N17 BusinessFax: Park, Tuam, Co.! Galway 3 sunday www.retailsolutions.ie Tuesday 093 23900 70108 Tel:Email: 093 23900 Fax: 093 70108! info@retailsolutions.ie Tel: Tel: 093Friday 23900 Fax: 093093 70108 sunday 6 3 18 15 Sunday saturday 4 1 19 16 Email: info@retailsolutions.ie • A paid day off on the of the public holiday, or www.retailsolutions.ie info@retailsolutions.ie Tel:Email: 093day 23900 Fax: 093 70108 Monday Tuesday Email: info@retailsolutions.ie 8 5 Monday Monday 7 4 6 3 7 4 4 8 Monday wednesday 95 62 Email: info@retailsolutions.ie www.retailsolutions.ie Monday saturday 7 4 19 16 Monday sunday 20 17 www.retailsolutions.ie Tuesday wednesday www.retailsolutions.ie 9 6 www.retailsolutions.ie Tuesday Tuesday 8 5 7 4 8 5 5 9 Tuesday Thursday • www.retailsolutions.ie An additional day’s pay, or 10 7 www.retailsolutions.ie sunday 821 Tuesday 20 17 518 Tuesday Monday 6 3 wednes Thursday 10 7 Wednesday wednesday 8 9 6 wednesday 6 911 10685 wednesd Friday Monday22 wednesday 21 18 619 Wednesday 7 or11 4 Thursda Tuesday • A paid day off within of the public holiday, Friday 7 910 8 Thursdaya month 9 10 7 Thursday 11796 Thursday saturday 12 Tuesday 22 19 Thursday 10 720 Thursday 8 5 Friday wednesday 23 saturday 12 9 Friday 10 7 Friday 11 8 Friday 8 11 12810 For all your Corporate and • An extra day’s annual leave sunday 13 wednesday 23 20 Friday 11 8 For more information call Friday 9 6 Thursday 24 21 For all your Corporate and

• Loyalty Software

Lo - Call 1890 924 914 Unit 25-26, N17 Business Park, Tuam, Co. Galway ! Tel: 093 23900 Fax: 093 70108 Email: info@retailsolutions.ie

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sunday9 12 Contract Publishing Saturday saturday 11 12 Needs 9 saturday Monday For more information call Thursday14 01 4046438 or 086 3894276 saturday Saturday 10 Contract Publishing Needs Friday 25 Monday12

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Sunday Friday 1013 sunday 12 9 sunday 13 10 sunday MoTHer’s day 1410 consumeradhesives.ireland@ie.henkel.com 01 4046438 or 086 3894276 Tuesday 15 12 25 22 sunday 10 SundayTuesday13 11 8 Monday !"#$%&'()&*#%)+,-'.+%#,'/01/2-'345'6*,%+",,'7$89-':*$;-'<)='>$&?$@'A'???=8"#$%&,)& saturday 26 23 15 12 Mondayconsumeradhesives.ireland@ie.henkel.com 13 10Monday 14 !"#$%&'()&*#%)+,-'.+%#,'/01/2-'345'6*,%+",,'7$89-':*$;-'<)='>$&?$@'A'???=8"#$%&,)&*#%)+,=%"'A'4B 11 Monday 1114 1511 !"#$%&'()&*#%)+,-'.+%#,'/01/2-'345'6*,%+",,'7$89-':*$;-'<)='>$&?$@'A'?? wednesday 16 13 wedNesd saturday 26 23 !"#$%&'()&*#%)+,-'.+%#,'/01/2-'345'6*,%+",,'7$89-':*$;-'<)='>$&?$@'A'???=8"#$%&,)&*#%)+, Monday Monday 14 11 12 9 asH !"#$%&'()&*#%)+,-'.+%#,'/01/2-'345'6*,%+",,'7$89-':*$;-'<)='>$&?$@'A'???=8"#$%&,)&*# sunday Tuesday 27 24 wednesday 16 13 as !"#$%&'()&*#%)+,-'.+%#,'/01/2-'345'6*,%+",,'7$89-':*$;-'<)='>$&?$@'A'???=8"#$%&,)&*#%)+,=%"'A'4BCD'C/E !"#$%&'()&*#%)+,-'.+%#, Tuesday 12 14 11Tuesday 15 12 Tuesday 1215 16

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sT. ValeNTiNe sT asH wedNesd asH wedNesd sT. ValeNTiNe sT. ValeNTiNe ST. VALENTINE

asH wedNesday

sT. ValeNTiNe’s day

Thursday Thursday 15 12 Friday 14 wednesday saturday17 30 27 19 16 Friday 17 14Friday27 18 15 Friday 1518 1915 wednesday 30 sunday 20 17 Friday sunday Friday 16 13 saturda 18 15 Thursday 20 17 31 28 Saturday saturday 19 16 18 15 19 16 saturday 16 20 saturday Thursday 31 28 Monday 21 18 sunday Saturday saturday 17on 21 14 ST. VALENTIN 19 16 Monday 18 Friday 2. Employees whosunday are not normally required to work Sunday Friday 1720 19 16sunday 20 17 sunday sT PaTrick’s day 2117 Tuesday 22 19 SundayTuesday20 sunday 18 15 Monday 17 22 19 saturday Monday Monday 20 17Monday 21 1821 Public Holiday 2218 saturday the day in which a public holiday falls18 Monday are entitled wednesday 23 20 Monday 19 to 23 16 Tuesday wednesday 21 18 20 sunday 21 18Tuesday 22 19 Tuesday 2319 sunday1922 For more information call Thursday 24 21 For more information call Tuesday Thursday22 20 17 wednes Tuesday 24 21 19 receive one fifthTuesday of their normal weekly rate. Monday Kathleenbelton@tarapublications.ie wednesday Wednesday wednesday Monday 01 4046438 or 086 3894276 22 19wednesd 23 20 Friday 2023 2420 01 4046438 or 086 3894276 For more information call 25 22 Thursda Kathleenbelton@tarapublications.ie Wednesday Friday 21 18 25 22 wednesday www.retailnews.ie 23 20 Tuesday consumeradhesives.ireland@ie.henkel.com consumeradhesives.ireland@ie.henkel.com For more information call For more information call Tuesday Thursday For more information call 23 20Thursday 24 21 Thursday 2124 2521 www.retailnews.ie 01 4046438 or 086 3894276 saturday 26 23 Friday saturday Thursday For more information call 26 23 22 19 Thursday 24 21 consumeradhesives.ireland@ie.henkel.com 01 4046438 or 086 3894276 01 4046438 or 086 3894276 01 4046438 or 086 3894276 Friday Friday 25 22 24 21 25 22 22 26 Friday sunday 27 24 01 4046438 or 086 3894276 sunday 25 Friday 27 24 In addition, if the employee works on the public 23 20 saturda Friday 22 consumeradhesives.ireland@ie.henkel.com consumeradhesives.ireland@ie.henkel.com consumeradhesives.ireland@ie.henkel.com consumeradhesives.ireland@ie.henkel.com Saturday saturday 26 23 25 22 26 23 saturday 23 27 saturday sunday Monday 28 25 Monday26 28 25 Saturday 24 21 saturday 23 holiday, they get paid for the hours worked as well as Sunday sunday 24 26 23 27 24 sunday 2427 28 sunday Monday IRELAND’ Tuesday 29 26 Tuesday 29 26 Sunday 25 22 IREL sunday 27 24 Monday Monday 27 24 28 2528 2925 LONDIS Monday Tuesday wednesday 30 27 wednesday either 1 or 2 above, depending on whether25they normally 30 27 lOnDis Monday 26 23 Monday 28 25 RETAILERS Tuesday Tuesday retailers 28 25 29 26 Thursday 2629 3026 wednes 31 28 31 28 Tuesday 27 24Tuesday Tuesday MORE Thursday 26 MOre2729 work on that day or wednesday not. Wednesday 30 27 29 26 Thursda 30 27 wednesday wednesd CHILLEDFriday Friday Wednesday 28 25 chilleD30 wednesday 27 www.rgdata.ie THAN EVER Friday Thursday 31 28 30 27 31 28 Thursday 28 than ever Thursday Christmas Eve and New www.rgdata.ie Year’s Eve are normal saturday saturday Thursday 29 26 Thursday 31 28 saturda Friday Friday 28 Good Friday sunday2931 sunday Friday HELPLINEHELPLINE 01 283 4188 30 27Friday 01 283 4188 working days, as aresaturday Tuesday, December 27Friday andMonday Monday, sunday saturday Saturday 30 31 easTer suNday Monday Saturday 28saturday saturday Monday sunday Sunday January 2. There is sunday no automatic entitlement to Tuesday time31 off on sunday Tuesday Sunday Confederation House sunday Tuesday Monday Monday Monday 84/86 Lower Baggot Street, Dublin 2 Monday these days: the day the public holiday falls Monday is the day you Tuesday TuesdayTel: 01-6051558 Tuesday Tuesday Tuesday September 2012

OctOber 2012

September 2012

OctOber 2012

Savings of 6% with new Centralised Chill facility! Because we are ‘owned by retailers for retailers’ our focus savings of 6% with new centralised chill facility! is on passing savings back to our retailers. The introduction of our Centralised Chill facility brings with it big savings, big brand availability, store efficiencies and extra margin to Londis retailers. No wonder it’s scored unanimous satisfaction with the most chilled out retailers in the country!

Because we are ‘owned by retailers for retailers’ our focus is on passing savings back to our retailers. The introduction of our Centralised Chill facility brings with it big savings, big brand availability, store efficiencies and extra margin to Londis retailers. No wonder it’s scored unanimous satisfaction with the most chilled out retailers in the country!

Retail Cover Oct12.indd 1

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must refer to.

www.retailireland.ie

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September 2012

OctOber 2012

IREL IRELAND’

LONDIS lOnDis lOnDis RETAILERSretailers IRELAND’ IRELAND’S LONGEST ESTABLISHED retaile IRELAND’ MORE MOre LONDIS chilleD LONDIS MOre LONDIS CHILLED www.rgdata.ie lOnDis To advertise in than ever www.rgdata.ie RETAILERS RETAILERS chilleD RETAILER THAN EVER retailers MOREwww.rgdata.ie MORE than MORE Contact our Sale MOre HELPLINE 01 283 4188 CHILLED CHILLED CHILLED HELPLINE 01 283 4188 www.rgdata.ie chilleD www.rgdata.ie HELPLINE THAN EVER 01 283 4188 THAN EVER THAN EV www.rgdata.ie than ever HELPLINE 01 283 4188 HELPLINE 01 283 4188 HELPLINE 01 283 4188 9548 Marvellous Creations A4 sell story.pdf

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SEPTEMBER 2014

September 2012

OctOber 2012

“Top Oil is delighted to help raise vital funds for worthy charities this Christmas with the Top Oil Mascot Charity Race at the Leopardstown Christmas Festival,” noted Gerard Boylan, Chief Executive of Top Oil. “It’s important that Irish companies do what they can to support charities, especially at Christmas time. We are calling on any company with a mascot or even those that don’t and just want to be involved, to sign up for the Top Oil Mascot Race and compete to win a significant prize fund for their chosen charity.”

savings of 6% with new centralised chill facility! Because we are ‘owned by retailers for retailers’ our focus is on passing savings back to our retailers. The introduction

big brand availability, store efficiencies and extra margin to Londis retailers. No wonder it’s scored unanimous satisfaction with the most chilled out retailers in the country!

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savings of 6% with new ce

Retail Cover Oct12.indd 1

Savings of 6% with new Centralised Chill facility! of our Centralised Chill facility brings with it big savings,

www.rgdata.ie

Because we are ‘owned by retailers for retailers’ our fo is on passing savings back to our retailers. The introduc of our Centralised Chill facility brings with it big saving big brand availability, store efficiencies and extra marg Londis retailers. No wonder it’s scored unanimous satisf with the most chilled out retailers in the country!

22/10/2012 14:23

Retail Cover Oct12.indd 1

Savings of 6% with new Centralised Chill facility!

HELPLINE 01 283 4188

Because we are ‘owned by retailers for retailers’ our focus is on passing savings back to our retailers. The introduction of our Centralised Chill facility brings with it big savings,

Retail Cover Oct12.indd 1

big brand availability, store efficiencies extra margin to savings of 6% with and new centralised chill facility! Londis retailers. No wonder it’s scored unanimous satisfaction

22/10/2012 14:23

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Because we are ‘owned retailers for country! retailers’ our focus with the most chilled out by retailers in the is on passing savings back to our retailers. The introduction of our Centralised Chill facility brings with it big savings, big brand availability, store efficiencies and extra margin to Londis retailers. No wonder it’s scored unanimous satisfaction with the most chilled out retailers in the country! Retail Cover Oct12.indd 1

22/10/2012 14:23

Retail Cover Oct12.indd 1

22/10/2012 14:23

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Savings of 6% with new Centralise Because we are ‘owned by retailers for retailers’ our focus is on passing savings back to our retailers. The introduction of our Centralised Chill facility brings with it big savings, big brand availability, store efficiencies and extra margin to Londis retailers. No wonder it’s scored unanimous satisfaction with the most chilled out retailers in the country!

MEET THE MARVELLOUS CREATIONS FAMILY

Retail Cover Oct12.indd 1

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Casey Kavanagh (gold silks) and Róisín Black (pink silks) from Drogheda, Co. Louth, are pictured with Top Oil mascot, Mr Ted.

Retail News June 2014.indd 1

For further information on this, go the Members’ Only section at www.rgdata.ie. If you need your members’ username and/or password, email us at rgdata@rgdata.ie or call the Helpline on 01-2834188. If you are interested in joining RGDATA, please contact us on 01-2834188.

24/06/2014 13:13

10|Retail News|December 2016|www.retailnews.ie

Industry News Daybreak Store of the Year Named DAYBREAK Clonliffe Road in Drumcondra, Dublin 9, was awarded Store of the Year for the second year running at the annual Daybreak Store of the Year Awards recently. The awards, which took place at Mount Wolseley Hotel in Carlow, recognise retail excellence across Daybreak stores nationwide. Daybreak Clonliffe Road is owned by Damien Osborne and employs 14 people. Nine retailers were shortlisted for the overall Store of the Year award, which focuses on four key areas: products and services, environment, communications and people and behaviours. Stores were assessed against rigorous criteria on multiple occasions, including a series of mystery shopper audits on store standards. Daybreak Clonliffe Road was awarded the top prize largely based on its impressive customer service and outstanding overall product offering. Daybreak also announced Daybreak Gandon Inn as the winner of the Charity Merit Award

for its outstanding achievement in raising funds for the Irish Heart Foundation, Daybreak’s charity partner in 2016. As well as the coveted overall Store of the Year accolade, the other awards of the night focused on key in-store categories and store layouts. The winners were: Best Forecourt of the Year: Daybreak Tractamotors Best Retail Convenience Store of the Year: Daybreak Raven Terrace Best Mystery Shop: Daybreak Tractamotors Best Impulse Award: Daybreak Dungarvan, Co. Waterfod Best Wine Award: Daybreak Raven Terrace, Galway. Best off Licence Award: Daybreak Clerihan, Co. Tipperary. Best Food to Go & Hot Beverage to Go Award: Daybreak Eyre Square, Galway. Best Availability Award: Daybreak Doon, Co. Limerick “We are passionate about the Store of the Year awards,” noted Thomas Morrison, Daybreak National Sales and Development Manager, “as they are ultimately about achieving excellence in convenience retailing and a great consumer experience across the Daybreak network. The level of competition this year was higher than ever and I would like to congratulate Damien and his team for the huge effort and commitment it takes to win the overall Store of the Year accolade.” Pictured are the team from Daybreak Clonliffe Road (l-r): William Osborne, Marion Kinsella, Anna Haremza, Csilla Kundra and Damien Osborne.

AVONMORE CELEBRATES 25 YEARS OF SOUP-ER SUCCESS AVONMORE’S Kilkenny-based soup production facility celebrated 25 years in operation recently, producing over three million packs of Avonmore fresh soup annually. Originally launched in 1991 with five flavours, Avonmore pioneered the introduction of fresh soup onto the Irish market and continues to grow the market with an expanding range of product and convenient formats to suit all tastes and occasions. Today, using only nature’s best ingredients, the Kilkenny site produces 14 different varieties of fresh soup to meet changing consumer tastes and requirements. New innovations in recent years include the Avonmore ‘Feel Good’ range for those looking for a healthy low calorie option and the creation of a premium smooth soup in a tub format, for convenient dining. “Irish consumers have a strong affinity with fresh soup and seek out products

that taste great and are convenient to eat,” explained Product Development Chef, Barry Foley (pictured). “We work very closely with our network of local suppliers to ensure only the best quality ingredients are used in making our soups here in Kilkenny. We constantly strive to deliver ‘a taste of homemade’, delicious soups full of nourishing goodness in every spoonful.”

Greens & Co Sponsors NCI Football Team GREENS & Co, the new salad bar franchise, which was launched in August with its first outlet at Spar Gandon House, IFSC, was the sponsor of the National College of Ireland football team, who took part in the World Inter Universities Championships in Rome in November. The sponsorship by Greens & Co at Spar IFSC is a perfect partnership for the brand as the outlet is situated just across the road from NCI’s campus in the IFSC and the students have really embraced the new healthy food concept. “It is great to see the students from The National College of Ireland really support our new franchise and I’m happy to be able to support them back,” said Joe Byrne, operator of Greens & Co at Spar IFSC. Pictured are Leon Fahy Byrne, NCI men’s soccer captain, Joe Byrne, owner of Greens & Co at Spar Gandon House, IFSC, and Deryck Tormey, NCI student experience coordinator.

Retail News|December 2016|www.retailnews.ie|11

Industry News Musgrave Unveils Cash & Carry of the Future MUSGRAVE MarketPlace has unveiled its €2.2m upgraded Ballymun store, located off St. Margaret’s Road. The store’s renovation forms part of an ongoing commitment from the wholesaler to deliver a first class customer service experience and unrivalled product offerings to its customers. At 75,000 square feet overall, the new Ballymum store has increased in size by 20% and positions itself as the ‘cash and carry of the future’, with a range of new speciality areas and state-ofthe-art technology to offer retail and foodservice customers a best-in-class shopping experience. Customers will now avail of free WiFi, self-scan store entry and touchscreens which have been installed throughout the cash and carry to provide access to the wider range available from the central distribution warehouse in Blanchardstown. The store boasts a range of new and innovative features to enable its foodservice and retail customers to access the information and products they need to drive their business forward, including specialist meat, fish, cheese and fruit and vegetable counters, with in-store experts happy to advise on the latest culinary trends. A new coffee concession by Capitol Coffee provides equipment, beans and cleaning materials in a one solution offering. There’s a state-of-the-art food theatre to showcase the Musgrave MarketPlace offerings for customers via tailored classes, while a new alcohol department features a wide variety of products, including over 80 new premium spirits, exclusive retail and restaurant wines, an array of craft and world beers and everything

needed for cocktail concoctions. Pictured at the official opening are (l-r): Noel Rock, TD for Dublin North West; Noel Keeley, MD of Musgrave MarketPlace; Brian Staunton, General Manager of Musgrave MarketPlace Ballymun; and Chris Martin, CEO of Musgrave Group.

Spar FAI Primary School 5s REPUBLIC of Ireland Manager, Martin O’Neill and former international midfielder Keith Andrews were on hand recenty to launch the Spar FAI Primary School 5s Programme in the Aviva Stadium. The five-a-side school blitzes are open to boys and girls from 4th, 5th and 6th class, and puts emphasis on fun and inclusivity. Spar and the FAI are looking to trump last year’s participation figures, which saw 1,267 schools and 23,736 children

lace up their boots to take to pitches around the country. “Spar are very proud to be involved with this programme, which gives almost 24,000 boys and girls nationwide the opportunity to represent their school in a national level competition,” explained Colin Donnelly, Spar Sales Director (centre), pictured with Martin, Keith and pupils from St. Bernadette's Senior National School, Clondalkin, 11-yearolds, Abbie Tucker and Akinola Adeyinka.

McCambridge Bread Wins €80k Ad Campaign LOVE Irish Food and Exterion Media have announced McCambridge Bread as the winner of The Love Irish Food 2016 Brand Development Award. This award will see McCambridge Bread receive €70,000 worth of out-of-home advertising space from Exterion Media. To mark the fifth year of the award, OwensDDB Advertising Agency will also provide McCambridge Bread with a €10,000 creative bursary towards the campaign. “It very important for our brand to be associated with Love Irish Food and the great work they do showcasing quality Irish food brands that are made in Ireland,” enthused Michael McCambridge. “We are confident that the out-of-home campaign from Exterion Media will allow us to reach premium audiences in the shopping environment, help influence brand choice and drive sales of our brand. This award will assist us in achieving our aim of encouraging consumers to eat healthier breads generally and Irish soda/wheaten breads particularly.” Pictured is Antoinette O’Callaghan, Marketing Manager, Exterion, and Kieran Rumley, Executive Director, Love Irish Food.

12|Retail News|December 2016|www.retailnews.ie

Industry News New €5m Value Centre Opens in Dundalk VALUE Centre recently celebrated the official opening of their new site, Value Centre Dundalk. To help celebrate, Irish international rugby star Dave Kearney was in attendance to meet with staff, customers and guests and help cut the ribbon. Value Centre has invested €5m into the development of this new stateof-the-art facility, merging the network’s existing sites in Dundalk and Carrickmacross. This was part of an overall €23m capital investment programme from BWG for 2016. All staff from the existing two sites transferred to this new location in recent weeks. The new Value Centre is situated in the former Littelfuse building on the Ecco Road in Dundalk, which has lain idle since 2006. The site spans 60,000 square feet, allowing Value Centre Dundalk to expand its offering to include an expansive chilled and frozen range. “We are delighted to be launching the new Value Centre Dundalk,” explained Leo Crawford, Group CEO of BWG. “The new state-of-the-art facility will enhance our operations locally and allow us to significantly upgrade our offering to customers. We remain fully focused on driving our business forward in this region through continued investment and by supporting our diverse customer base. While this development provides us with a platform for potential growth in the future, it also strongly reinforces our commitment to the local economy.” The new site incorporates a significantly expanded product range and an enhanced layout, which is focused around the customer and their shopping experience.

Upgrades to IT and supply chain systems will ensure that market leading service levels are maintained. The new Value Centre Dundalk employs 27. Pictured at the official opening of Value Centre Dundalk are John Moane, Managing Director Wholesale, BWG Foods; Vincent Brown, Regional Manager, Value Centre; Fintan Smyth, Manager, Value Centre Dundalk; and Dave Kearney, Irish international rugby player.

CSNA Appoints New Affinity Partner THE Convenience Stores & Newsagents Association of Ireland (CSNA) has announced that Get Solutions, Ireland’s energy saving specialist, has been formally appointed as an Affinity Partner. “We work very hard for our members to ensure we can offer them the best savings and professional service available,” noted Vincent Jennings, CSNA CEO. “CSNA does not take any margin from our partners so our members know they are getting the best solution possible. We have thoroughly evaluated Get Solutions and their energy savings claims and found them reliable, trustworthy and capable of positively impacting our members’ bottom line. They can and will achieve savings of up to 30% for every member – savings that cannot be ignored in today’s tough economic climate, where every cent counts.” Pictured are Charlie Grendon, MD of Get Solutions; Vincent Jennings CEO of CSNA; and Joe Mannion, Finance Officer with the CSNA.

Manor Farm Wins Top Award IRISH chicken producer Manor Farm was named Food Producer of the Year at the Agribusiness Awards in Dublin recently. The competition received more than 200 entries from participating companies throughout Ireland. The chicken producer’s commitment to innovation and sustainability were the two major themes which earned them the prestigious award. Vincent Carton, Managing Director of Manor Farm, praised “the dedication and commitment of the team at Manor Farm in helping to drive the company’s business values of innovation and sustainability.” Pictured at the awards ceremony in the Ballsbridge Hotel, Dublin, are (l-r): Justin Carton, Director, Manor Farm; Tom Kelly, Head of Manufacturing and Competitiveness Division, Enterprise Ireland; Joyce Johnston, Manor Farm; John McHale, Manor Farm.

To Another Great Year

13|Retail News|December 2016|www.retailnews.ie

Industry News One for Ireland Donates Over €170k to Charities CHARITIES working on the frontline to combat the issue of youth homelessness were recently presented with cheques totalling €172,633 by the One for Ireland campaign. The organisation’s ambassador, golfing hero Shane Lowry, presented the cheques to eight charities around the country at an event in the Clayton Hotel, Burlington Road, Dublin. The funds were raised via the One For Ireland campaign which asked people to add €1 to their bills in shops all over Ireland on April 29 last. Retailers such as Spar, Eurospar, Londis, Mace, XL, Applegreen, Fresh, Starbucks and many independent stores throughout the country took part in the campaign. Money was also donated online, via text and through ticket sales to the ‘Rock Against Homelessness’ concert in the Olympia Theatre to raise money for St Vincent De Paul (Midlands), Focus Ireland (Midwest) Galway Simon Community (Northwest), Dublin Simon Community (Dublin North), Barnardos (Dublin Central), Peter McVerry (Dublin South), Focus Ireland Waterford (Southeast) and Novas Initiatives (South). “BWG was delighted to be involved with the One for Ireland campaign and we were really pleased to hear how much was raised in just one day,” noted Willie O’Byrne, MD, BWG Foods. “Our stores are at the heart of communities around Ireland and it’s nice to see that the proceeds will be shared with different groups across the country to help these local communities.”

YOUR TRIP TO DÜSSELDORF TAKES YOU AROUND THE WORLD You would have to go a long way to find such an extensive sector overview and international contacts: with more than 6,000 exhibitors from over 60 countries, ProWein is the largest wine and spirits trade fair worldwide. Welcome to ProWein in Düsseldorf!

The World’s No. 1: International Trade Fair for Wines and Spirits Conor Clancy, Director, One for Ireland, with Willie O’Byrne, Managing Director, BWG Foods, at the One for Ireland campaign cheque presentation.

Newspread Signs €7m Deal NEWSPREAD has announced the renewal of two landmark

contracts with Harmonia and RTÉ to distribute their magazines in Ireland. The contracts, with a combined retail sales value of €7m per annum, will see the company distribute 10m magazines to over 6,500 retailers across the country. Titles include the RTÉ Guide, Ireland’s largest selling weekly magazine, and Harmonia titles including Irish Tatler, U Magazine, Woman’s Way, Food & Wine, Irish Tatler Man, Irish Tatler Business, Ireland of the Welcomes, and the Woman’s Way Cookbook.

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16|Retail News|December 2016|www.retailnews.ie

ECR Ireland Shopper Engagement Awards

Wowing the Shopper: Reaping the Rewards The 7th ECR Ireland Shopper Engagement Awards saw five powerful campaigns go head-to-head to be named overall winner. THE 7th ECR Ireland Shopper Engagement Awards took place in the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Blanchardstown recently. Competition for the 2016 ECR Ireland Shopper Engagement Award was fierce, with five extremely worthy finalists judged by attendees of the event. Judged by their peers, finalists were evaluated on five different criteria: innovation, implementation, difficulty, results and collaboration. In his introduction, Declan Carolan, General Manager of ECR Ireland, spoke of the progress within the broader ECR Europe community. Ireland plays a leading role in this community and the success of programmes at home such as Feeding Irelandâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Future delivers direct benefits back to people in Ireland. Although youth unemployment is beginning to fall, it is still too high and Unilever were the winners of the ECR Ireland Shopper Engagement Award 2016 for the expanded Adopt a YouthReach the Persil campaign, #freethekids. Pictured are (l-r) Declan Carolan, General Manager, programme is making it possible for ECR Ireland, with Nada Mousa and Ben Graham, Unilever Ireland, and Sarah Love, companies to work with unemployed Goosebump. young people for longer periods during the year. this year. ECR Ireland and its working groups are endeavouring There is big news in where we shop. The grocery sector to stimulate collaboration in the sector to help Irish here is incredibly competitive and the three big players all companies introduce efficiencies and to be prepared for the have an almost identical share of the market. SuperValu future in areas like supply chain management, food waste continues to lead the way with 22.4% market share, but programmes, digital awareness etc. With Brexit looming and Dunnes, which has been delivering very strong growth Donald Trump intent on getting large American companies figures in recent months, is now number two with 22% and to the US, preparedness for the future is very much to be Tesco is now third with a 21.6% share. Aldi (11.4%) and Lidl desired right now. (11.6%) continue to gain ground. What we buy and how we shop has also changed. Trends Analysed Healthy foods and fresh foods continue to enjoy strong David Berry, Commercial Director, of Kantar Worldpanel growth. The real possibility of some kind of sugar tax provided attendees with another very valuable presentation is a huge concern to those brands that will be affected, on the latest data and trends in the Irish market. In Q2 of which is actually a great many. Not only that, the change this year, the market here experienced 2.5% growth, one in the public perception of sugar has seen sales of high of only a few countries in Europe to do so. Inflation figures sugar products fall. In short, although the market here is fell significantly in October to just 1.3% and this may be the growing, there is absolutely no time to relax and listening effect of weak sterling prices. The fall in inflation may see a to consumers and identifying issues early is more important slow in the increase in market value for the last quarter of than ever.

Retail News|December 2016|www.retailnews.ie|17

ECR Ireland Shopper Engagement Awards Quality Finalists Quality was high across the board at the 2016 awards. The overall feel was one of cautious optimism, with significant opportunity for those brands looking to do more with their identity and to really engage with the consumer, as exemplified by the finalists in the ECR Ireland Shopper Engagement Award. Danielle Smith, Brand Activation Manager at Julieann Evans, Shopper Marketing Johnson & Johnson, Manager, Unilever. presented the Calpol Search for a Star strategy, where another simple truth was used to create a broader strategy. Anyone who goes online knows that people with children love taking and sharing photos of their kids. Johnson & Johnson worked closely with a number of Irish pharmacies at point of sale and used an online Facebook competition in Ireland and Northern Ireland to offer parents chance to share images of their children. The campaign dove-tailed into a back-to-school promotion that created tremendous brand awareness and loyalty. Julieann Evans, Shopper Marketing Manager, Unilever, revealed the details of the Magnum Doubles launch. While ice cream may be an indulgent treat, the aisle is rarely an attractive place. The Magnum Doubles launch Jack Harte, Category merged online activity, product Development Manager - On launch and innovative and Trade, Diageo. creative Point of Sale activity to have a dramatic 360-degree impact on its target market, mainly young females. The entire campaign worked in unison, creating the message and driving it home online, out of home and in-store. It delivered significant sales in both SuperValu and Tesco stores, making it extremely successful from awareness to conversion. Diageoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Category Development Manager - On Trade, Jack Harte explained how the company identified a trend and used innovative communication to bring the Hop House 13 brand to life for the consumer. Driven by the story of keg to bottle, Diageo looked to create an authentic characterful craft creation to compete with the huge variety of craft offerings now available. This campaign succeeded, not because it jumped on a trend, but because it was led by customer insight. By Jack Murray, CEO, All Good Tales, communicating the addresses attendees. story of a product that

was a strong new entry to the market, this launch has proven extremely successful for Diageo. Claire Cogan, Head of Insight, Category and Shopper Marketing at Britvic Ireland, showed how Britvicâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Project Fizz communicated directly and clearly with consumers at the Point of Sale. By clearly segmenting by low/no sugar and regular sugar content at the Point of Sale, rather than assigning space by brand, Project Fizz created a simpler environment for shoppers, which resulted in over 2% category growth. Through creating clear and simple choices for customers, they have given the shopper what he/she wants, which is always the aim of shopper engagement.

The Retailer / Supplier Panel featured Barry Carty, Category Manager, BWG Foods; Claire Cogan, Head of Insight, Category & Shopper Marketing, Britvic Ireland; and Paul Corcoran, Range & Space Planning Manager, Musgrave Retail Partners Ireland.

2016 Award Winner The four campaigns above were worthy finalists, but Unilever were named as the winners of the ECR Ireland Shopper Engagement Award for their Persil #freethekids campaign. Nada Mousa, Shopper Marketing Homecare Manager, and Ben Graham, Senior Cagegory Manager, illustrated how the campaign encourages parents and children to get outdoors, whilst creating their very own adventure David Berry, Commercial and ultimately getting Director, Kantar Worldpanel. dirty. The campaign utilised a 360-degree tailored approach, to drive awareness and target consumers with children. Unilever was brave and creative, using a video discussing the topic of technology today and revealing that children spend less time outdoors in todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s world than people incarcerated in the prison system. The video was picked up online by several media outlets and went viral across the UK and Ireland. The results for this campaign were amazing, with some key highlights being Persil market share grew by +4%, and possibly more impressively, the campaign delivered category growth in both SuperValu and Tesco stores. The metrics for the online campaign were similarly impressive, with the YouTube video reaching over 450k views, whilst the Persil Wild Explorers app reached 750k downloads. All in all, it was a very worthy winner.

18|Retail News|December 2016|www.retailnews.ie

Londis Retailing Awards

Rewards Local Excellence at National Awards

Timothy’s Londis Plus, Roscommon was named Overall Store of the Year at the Londis Retailing Awards 2016, which took place recently at a glittering ceremony at the Powerscourt Hotel, Co. Wicklow.

TIMOTHY’S Londis Plus, Abbeytown, Co. Roscommon was named as the Overall Londis Store of the Year at the 2016 Londis Retailing Awards. Londis retailers from every corner of the country descended on Powerscourt Hotel in Co. Wicklow recently for the prestigious Awards. Timothy’s Londis Plus also won the Supermarket Store of the Year, Butchery Store of the Year and a Retailing Excellence Award on the night. This year saw 82 Londis retailers receiving Londis Retailing Awards, which recognise stores that excel across all areas of store performance. Timothy’s Londis Plus Abbeytown is run by Annie and Vincent Timothy, along with their store manager Mike Crean. Local insight, local service and local community engagement are key ingredients to running this successful retailing business, which has been serving the local Pictured are Conor Hayes, Londis Sales Director, with Mike Crean, Annie Timothy and Vincent community of Abbeytown for over Timothy from Timothy's Londis Plus, Abbeytown, Londis Overall Store of the Year 2016, with 15 years. Willie O'Byrne, Managing Director, BWG Foods. No strangers to winning, Annie and Vincent won the Supermarket Store of the Year at last year’s Londis Retailing Their focus on continually exceeding customer expectations is a testament to the hard work of their staff, for which they Excellence Awards. They were delighted to once again should be very proud. I commend them all on this wonderful receive recognition for their supermarket store, which achievement.” employs 35 staff. Reflecting on their win, Annie Timothy of Timothy’s Londis Plus said, “We are thrilled to have won the Overall Exceeding Customer Expectations Store of the Year Award. We are passionate about providing Congratulating Timothy’s, Conor Hayes, Londis Sales the best offering possible, and this is done very much at Director said, “Annie, Vincent and their team have always a local level. The accolades are also a mark of pride for exhibited great passion and dedication for best practice everyone that works in the store and generates a great retailing, putting them amongst the best in the industry.

Retail News|December 2016|www.retailnews.ie|19

Londis Retailing Awards sense of achievement and motivation. We know all too well what a competitive retail market it is in Roscommon, and acknowledgement such as this really differentiates us and confirms our dedication to our customers”. Outstanding Expertise Congratulating all the award winners Willie O’Byrne, Managing Director, BWG Foods (owners and operators of the Londis brand), said: “Londis retailers are at the heart of their communities around the country. It’s fantastic to see the wealth of outstanding expertise demonstrated by Londis retailers and in particular the very worthy winners of the 2016 Awards.” In winning these awards, the stores were independently audited across a range of criteria, including customer service, the quality of their fresh food offering, product range and the store’s commitment to upholding the highest standards of hygiene and food safety. These exemplary Londis retailers received their awards in recognition of their

Pictured at the recent Londis Retailing Excellence Awards ceremony are (back row): Conor Hayes, Londis Sales Director; Johnny Browne, Browne's Londis Kilcock, Co. Kildare; Michael Crean and Vincent Timothy, Timothy's Londis Plus Abbeytown, Co. Roscommon; Willie O'Byrne, Managing Director, BWG Foods; Ger Greaney and Declan Boyle, Londis Retail Development Managers; (front row): Leona Browne, Browne's Londis Kilcock, Co. Kildare; Annie Timothy, Timothy's Londis Plus Abbeytown, Co. Roscommon; and Harry and Seamus Kelly, Kelly's Londis, Milltown, Co. Kerry.

commitment to implementing exceptionally high standards throughout their store, thereby providing an excellent customer experience to their local community.

Browne's Londis Kilcock, Co. Kildare were proud recipients of the Convenience Store of the Year Award 2016. Pictured are Conor Hayes, Londis Sales Director; Declan Boyle, Londis Retail Development Manager; with Leona Browne and Johnny Browne from Browne's Londis Kilcock; and Willie O'Byrne, Managing Director, BWG Foods.

Kelly's Londis Miltown, Kerry, were proud recipients of the Foodmarket Store of the Year Award 2016. Conor Hayes, Londis Sales Director, is pictured with Retail Development Manager, Ger Greaney, Harry and Seamus Kelly from Kelly's Londis Miltown, and Willie O'Byrne, Managing Director BWG Foods.

Londis Retail Development Manager, Ger Greaney, is pictured with Karen and David Curtin from Londis Adare, Co. Limerick, and Bridget and Gerard O'Connor, O'Connor’s Londis, Newcastle West, Co. Limerick. Both stores won a Londis Retailing Award, while Londis Adare were also named Londis Bakery Store of the Year.

Hanrahan's Londis Piercestown and O'Brien's Londis Larkins Cross, Wexford, were proud recipients of a Londis Retailing Standard Award 2016. Pictured is Londis Retail Development Manager, Dermot O'Neill with Michael Hanrahan Jr from Londis Piercestown and Hillary O'Brien and Daria Chabros from O'Brien's Londis Larkins Cross, Wexford.

20|Retail News|December 2016|www.retailnews.ie

Londis Retailing Awards STORE OF THE YEAR AWARDS • Overall Londis Store of the Year 2016 Timothy's Londis Plus, Abbeytown, Co. Roscommon • Supermarket Store of the Year 2016 Timothy’s Londis Plus, Abbeytown, Co. Roscommon • Foodmarket Store of the Year 2016 Kelly’s Londis, Milltown, Co. Kerry

McNamee's Londis, Miltown Malbay, Co. Clare Keating's Londis Plus, Cobh, Co. Cork Roche's Londis, Doneraile, Co. Cork Kelly's Londis, Milltown, Co. Kerry Londis Adare, Co. Limerick O'Connor's Londis, Newcastle West, Co. Tipperary Aherne's Londis, Thurles, Co. Tipperary McDermott's Londis, Irishtown, Clonmel, Co. Tipperary Burke's Londis Plus, Kinvara, Co. Galway Londis, Athenry, Co. Galway

• Convenience Store of the Year 2016 Browne's Londis, Kilcock, Co. Kildare

Cunningham's Londis Plus, Ballyhaunis, Co. Mayo Hiney's Londis, Crossmolina, Co. Mayo Timothy's Londis Plus, Abbeytown, Co. Roscommon Londis, Enniscorthy, Co Wexford

CATEGORY AWARD WINNERS Customer Service Store of the Year 2016

RETAIL STANDARD AWARD WINNERS

Gillan's Londis, Castleknock, Dublin 15 Community Retailer Store of the Year 2016

Rath's Londis Plus, Carlow

Roche's Londis, Doneraile, Co. Cork

Griffin's Londis, Fonthill Retail Park, Dublin 22

Bakery Store of the Year 2016

Griffin's Londis, Parkwest, Dublin 12

Londis Adare, Co. Limerick

Griffin's Londis, Carmanhall Road, Sandyford, Dublin 18

Off Licence Store of the Year 2016

Londis, Ballyfermot, Dublin 10

Brodigan's Londis, Quay Street, Dundalk, Co. Louth

McGivern's Londis, Inchicore, Dublin 8

Deli and Hot Food Store of the Year 2016

Prenderville's Londis, Cabra, Dublin 7

Mulroy's Londis, Moneen Roundabout, Castlebar, Co. Mayo

Mattimoe's Londis, Naas, Co. Kildare

Fruit and Veg Store of the Year 2016

Styne's Londis, Prosperous, Co. Kildare

Gillan's Londis Plus, Summerhill, Co. Meath

Stein's Londis, Castlecomer, Co. Kilkenny

Butchery Store of the Year 2016

Brodigan's Londis, Quay Street Dundalk, Co. Louth

Timothy's Londis Plus, Abbeytown, Co. Roscommon

Londis, Navan Road Trim, Co. Meath

Food Safety Store of the Year 2016

O'Neill's Londis, Johnstown Bridge, Co. Kildare

Londis, Enniscorthy, Co. Wexford

Reilly's Londis, Navan, Co. Meath Knight's Londis, Clara, Co. Offaly Donegan's Londis, Kilbeggan, Co. Offaly Marshall's Londis Plus, Mullingar, Co. Westmeath

RETAIL EXCELLENCE AWARD WINNERS Londis Adamstown, Lucan, Co. Dublin Patterson's Londis, Foxrock Avenue, Dublin 18 Sheehan's Londis, Parkgate Street, Dublin 8 Griffin's Londis, Grafton Street, Dublin 2 Griffin's Londis, KCR, Dublin 6W Griffin's Londis, Lower O'Connell Street, Dublin 1 Griffin's Londis, Beacon Court, Sandyford, Dublin 18 Griffin's Londis, St James's Hospital, Dublin 8 Griffin's Londis, Ballast House, Westmoreland Street, Dublin 2 Gillan's Londis, Castleknock, Dublin 15 Shiel's Londis Plus, Malahide, Co. Dublin Browne's Londis, Kilcock, Co. Kildare Doolan's Londis, Clane, Co. Kildare Watchorne's Londis, Mountmellick, Co. Laois Gillan's Londis Plus, Summerhill, Co. Meath Gillen's Londis, Dublin Road, Trim, Co. Meath Boggan's Londis, Rosslare, Co. Wexford O'Doherty's Londis, Our Lady's Island, Co. Wexford Hanrahan's Londis, The Faythe, Wexford Town Canavan's Londis, Inch, Co. Wexford Dillon's Londis, Fethard-on-Sea, Co. Wexford Doyle's Londis, Gorey, Co. Wexford Byrne's Londis Aughrim, Co. Wicklow

Hanrahan's Londis, Piercestown, Co. Wexford O'Brien's Londis, Larkins Cross, Co. Wexford O'Shea's Londis, Campile, Co. Wexford Byrne's Londis, Carnew, Co. Wicklow Hernon's Londis, Bandon, Co. Cork O'Neill's Londis, Killeagh, Co. Cork Walsh's Londis, Clonakilty, Co. Cork Dillane's Londis, Abbeydorney, Co. Kerry McCarthy's Londis, Rathmore, Co. Kerry Sheehy's Londis, Ballyduff, Co. Kerry O'Donovan's Londis, Oola, Co. Limerick Londis, Cleaboy, Waterford McCormac's Londis, St John's Park, Waterford Londis, Mervue, Co. Galway Londis, Newcastle Road, Co. Galway Holland's Londis, Oughterard, Co. Galway Meehan's Londis Plus, Glenamaddy, Co. Galway Hanley's Londis Plus, Station Road, Castlebar, Co. Mayo Mulroy's Londis, Moneen Roundabout, Castlebar, Co. Mayo Mulroy's Londis, Breaffy Road, Castlebar, Co. Mayo Watter's Londis, Castleblayney, Co. Monaghan Kelly's Londis, Boyle, Co. Roscommon Lowe's Londis, Grange, Co. Sligo O'Kelly's Londis, Sligo, Co. Sligo

Retail News|December 2016|www.retailnews.ie|21

Londis Retailing Awards

Griffin's Londis Fonthill, Griffin's Londis Carmanhall Road and Griffin's Londis Parkwest, Dublin were proud recipients of Londis Retailing Standard Awards. Londis Retail Development Manager, Terry O'Brien is pictured with David Bridgette, Operations Director, Griffin's Londis; Renata Rzeznikiewicz, Griffin’s Londis Carmanhall Road; Seamus Griffin, Managing Director, Griffin Group, Kamrul Islam and Waleed Virk, Griffin's Londis Fonthill.

Londis Retail Development Manager, Tommy Devlin, with Londis Retailing Standard Award winners Sean Norton and Sheila Finnegan from Londis Navan Road, Trim, and Ciaran and Thomas O'Reilly from Londis Navan.

Pictured is Londis Retail Development Manager, Dermot O'Neill with Londis Retail Excellence Award winners: Catherine and Martin Canavan and Caroline Doyle from Canavan’s Londis Inch, Cindy and David Dillon from Dillon's Londis Fethard-OnSea, Marie and Denis O'Doherty from O'Doherty's Londis Our Lady’s Island, Deirdre Stoneham and David Boland from Londis Tomnalossett, Enniscorthy, Paul and Valerie Boggan from Boggan's Londis Rosslare, Amanda Long and Anna Kurek from Londis Tomnalossett.

Londis Retail Development Manager, Declan Boyle, with Jonathan Gillan from Gillan's Londis, Castleknock, and John Shiel of Shiel's Londis Plus, Malahide, Co. Dublin, proud recipients of a Retailing Excellence Award.

Declan Boyle, Londis Retail Development Manager, and Jonathan Gillan from Gillan's Londis, Castleknock, Dublin 15, with his Customer Service Store of the year Award.

Teresa and Peter Byrne (right) from Byrne's Londis Aughrim, Co. Wicklow, receive a Londis Retailing Excellence Award 2016 from Londis Retail Development Manager, Declan Boyle.

Gillan’s Londis Plus, Summerhill, Co. Meath were proud recipients of the Londis Fruit and Veg Store of the Year Award 2016. Londis Retail Development Manager, Declan Boyle, is pictured with store owners Sheila and John Gillan.

Ger Greaney, Londis Retail Development Manager, with John and Majella Roche from Roche's Londis, Doneraile, and Eileen Griffin of Keating's Londis Plus Cobh, who were proud recipients of a Retail Excellence Award: Roche’s Londis Doneraile also took home the Community Retailer of the Year Award.

22|Retail News|December 2016|www.retailnews.ie

Vaping/E-Cigarettes

Vape of Good Hope?

Uncertainty regarding regulation is hurting the vaping/e-cigarettes sector in Ireland, according to a recent Vape Business Ireland briefing. THE biggest challenge facing the vaping/e-cigarettes market in Ireland is the uncertainly of regulation. Such was the message from Vape Business Ireland, at a recent briefing on the current conditions and challenges for the vaping industry in Ireland, held in Buswellâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s hotel, Dublin. Vaping is big business. The global market is likely to reach â&#x201A;Ź50 billion in the next few years, which is indicative of phenomenal growth in the sector. Here in Ireland, there are at least 100,000 to 150,000 vaping consumers, and perhaps many more, according to Vape Business Ireland spokesman and Managing Director of Gamucci Ireland, Michael Kenneally. Of those consumers, 99% are ex-smokers, so vaping is a much healthier alternative for a lot of people to smoking. One percent of vapers never smoke, which clearly shows vaping is not a gateway to smoking, Kenneally maintained. Of those who quit smoking, 32% use a vaping product. The market here is divided into three sectors: online sales, convenience store sales and vape shops. Convenience store sales roughly equate to 30% of the market. There are two main products currently on the Irish market; liquid and hardware. Liquids mainly come from Europe, while the US is increasingly becoming a large manufacturer, although there are some indigenous manufacturers in Ireland such as Rejuice in Carlow.

Pictured outside Leinster House are (l-r): Dr Garret McGovern, Lucy Cronin, Vape Business Ireland Secretariat, and Michael Kenneally, Vape Business Ireland spokesman.

One of the biggest concerns for suppliers is that vaping products are called e-cigarettes, Kenneally explained, so they're lumped in with tobacco products. The Tobacco Products Directive (TPD2), which came into force in

Retail News|December 2016|www.retailnews.ie|23

Vaping/E-Cigarettes

Michael Kenneally, General Manager of Gamucci, speaking about vaping and the SME sector.

Dr Garret McGovern, founder and Medical Director of the Priority Medical Clinic.

May 2016, was mainly designed to cover tobacco, but unfortunately, vaping got lumped in with it, he observed. All the regulation around tobacco applied to vaping products rather being treated as separate entities. As a consumer product, vaping equipment is also regulated and must adhere to the Advertising Standards Authority of Ireland (ASAI) directives on advertising. The biggest problem from the consumer’s point of view is there is absolutely no information coming from the government, who are not advising people that vaping is a healthy alternative to smoking, Kenneally argued. In the UK, Public Health England (an agency of Britain’s Department of Health) published a report in 2015 that claimed vaping is 95% safer than smoking, and yet this message is not getting through to the Irish consumer. Research by Amárach claims 78% of people believe more information should be available to help smokers quit using vaping products.

e-cigarettes being made available on prescription. In England, e-cigarettes and vaping are now the most popular aid to help people quit smoking. McGovern said he hasn't encountered any incidents of nicotine poisoning, or e-cigarettes exploding, or other incidents and hazards covered in some sensationalist media reports. Media vilification, he warned, ultimately undermines public confidence among the people who need these products the most.

What is an E-Cigarette: A Brief History Founder and Medical Director of the Priority Medical Clinic, Doctor Garrett McGovern gave a presentation about the current conditions for the vaping market and briefly outlined the origins and components of e-cigarettes. In 1930, the first attempt was made to produce e-cigarettes by Joseph Robinson. However, the first battery powered e-cigarette wasn't produced until 2003. One of the problems McGovern identified for the sector is that e-cigarette producers are not investing in research. The World Health Organisation (WHO) are often seen as the paradigm of virtue when it comes to health advice, but McGovern said they got it wrong when it comes to electronic cigarettes. Everyone in the industry agrees that e-cigarettes are 95% less harmful than tobacco, he maintained. There are only four main ingredients in an e-cigarette, so there is a huge disparity between the constituents of an e-cigarette and a cigarette. Dr McGovern went through some of the negative media reports about e-cigarettes and vaping. He said the claim that e-cigarettes are as harmful as smoking is a total lie. Electronic cigarettes have been around for about 12 years and there don’t appear to be any major problems. McGovern also said there is no hard evidence that vaping is a gateway to smoking. “I’ll be very honest about this: if young people end up vaping and never smoke, that is far healthier than tobacco consumption,” he said. “I'm not advocating that young people vape, but far too many young people are still using tobacco. E-cigarettes could provide a low cost method of helping people stop smoking for good.” Dr McGovern pointed out that the HSE website on quitting smoking makes no mention of e-cigarettes as a cessation tool. However, he said he is against the idea of

TPD2 and Vaping Lucy Cronin, Vape Business Ireland Secretariat, went through of the aspects of the Tobacco Products Directive (TPD2) that apply to vaping and the present legislative landscape. The sale of electronic cigarettes to under 18s is banned, which she said is obviously very sensible. The Directive puts safety and quality requirements in place for the products, which are on top of the good manufacturing and best practice rules already in place. However, there are also labelling requirements, which can get complicated as some packaging rules are not particularly fit to modern purpose as they're aimed at the tobacco sector, she argued. Another requirement is that in advance of manufacturing new vaping products, notably hardware and liquids, notification must be given six months before the product is placed on the market, which threatens to stifle innovation as it effectively means notifying competitors of new products. “The biggest challenge for this sector is the Department of Health’s refusal to discuss and engage in proper dialogue on how to regulate the sector, and serve consumers who want to move away from smoking," Cronin said. "Smokers should have viable alternatives and we should look at providing a healthier environment for the Irish consumer. The Department of Health needs to step up and take the sector and the requirements of the consumer seriously.”

Lucy Cronin, VBI Secretariat, speaking about the regulation of vaping products.

24|Retail News|December 2016|www.retailnews.ie

Vaping/E-Cigarettes

An E-merging Category Vaping is growing at a phenomenal rate, making it an important new channel for turnover growth. JTI’s Logic Pro leads the category. IN 2014, ‘Vape’ was the Oxford Dictionaries' Word Of The Year. Since then, vaping has grown, with e-cigarette sales in Ireland expected to reach €46m in 2016 (Source: JTI Internal Data), growing 18.8% this year (Source: JTI Internal Forecast, based on Nielsen Extended Scantrack Jan-Aug 16). The growth of the e-cigarette category is projected to continue, driven primarily by retail and vape shops. Importantly, retail will be the key channel for vapers over the next three years, with the obvious benefit of driving footfall in stores.

vaping system with no mess, no fuss technology. Logic Pro combines the power and performance of open tanks with the simplicity and convenience of rechargeable, and is most suitable for existing adult smokers and vapers with high expectations for performance. Unprecedented Success The focus on quality, breadth of range, and investments made by JTI has yielded unprecedented success for the brand, with Logic becoming Ireland’s number one electronic cigarette brand in less than 18 months since launch (Source: Nielsen Scantrack Value Share 4 w/e November 27, 2016). JTI’s sales force is on hand to provide expert support and advice to help you maximise sales. Orders can be made through your local JTI trade marketer, cash and carry or you can place an order by calling (01) 4040200.

In April 2016, JTI introduced Logic Pro, the new advanced vaping system with no mess, no fuss technology.

JTI’s Commitment to the Category JTI is committed to this category. Over the last 18 months, JTI has changed the shape of the e-cigarette market by launching E-Lites Curv, providing vapers with a superior and convenient vaping experience, with extra reassurance on e-liquid quality. Logic Pro has become Ireland’s number one electronic cigarette brand in less than 18 Following this, in April 2016, JTI months since launch, thanks to its focus on quality, breadth of range, and investments made by JTI. introduced Logic Pro, the new advanced

Retail News|December 2016|www.retailnews.ie|25

Retail Ireland: Monthly Update Concern Over Softening Consumer Demand RETAIL Ireland recently published the eighth edition of Retail Ireland Monitor, our quarterly trends analysis and industry report. Key indicators show that retail growth slowed during the third quarter of 2016. The Irish retail trade has begun to show signs of a post-Brexit slowdown, as the full effects of the UK decision to leave the EU begin to crystallise. Using the latest statistics from the CSO, Retail Ireland Monitor reveals that sales values grew by 1.1% in the third quarter of the year when compared with the same period last year and that growth rates have declined quarter on quarter in 2016.

prices have fallen by 2.9% on average over the last quarter and, in the first 10 months of the year, were down 8.5% on the same period three years ago. There is limited scope to reduce prices further. Retailers are squeezed on one side by a consumer who is demanding price reductions to reflect the sterling devaluation and on the other by UK-based suppliers seeking price increases to offset increasing input costs. This pressure has the potential to destroy margins in the sector. Retail Ireland continues to call on Government to prioritise support for the sector over the coming months. As sterling drops and competitive pressures rise, a renewed effort is needed to keep labour, energy, regulatory and insurance costs in line. The paper’s key findings include the following: Department Stores: Despite total sales values increasing by 1.5% compared to Q3 2015 and total sales volumes rising 2.3% over the same quarter last year, this quarter has been tough for department stores. The devalued sterling exchange rate has driven Irish shoppers cross-border and online to UK-based websites and there has been a decline in UK tourist spend.

The 23% slump in the value of sterling since the beginning of the year has prompted more consumers to travel north to shop, with new figures also showing a surge in online shopping in the months following the UK vote. Central Bank statistics show that e-commerce transactions recorded on Irish debit and credit cards jumped by 20% from €1 billion to €1.2 billion between July and September as sterling fell. This was way above trend and is likely to have mostly gone to UK-based online retailers. The Irish retail sector is working hard to adjust prices to reflect this new reality, but is still selling products that were purchased at a much different exchange rate a number of months ago. Goods

DIY and Hardware Stores: Quarter three has been broadly positive for the sector. Sales value growth was 2.4% higher compared to Q3 2015, and sales volume grew 4.4% over 2015’s third quarter. The sector continues to see steady if unspectacular growth in project-driven categories, such as timber, flooring and tiling. Supermarkets and Convenience Stores: Total Q3 sales values and volumes were up 2.5% and 3.1% versus last year. Tobacco products are the only substantial sector within supermarket and convenience to experience material inflation, which is strongly linked to excise increases.

Town Centre Regeneration Fund Welcomed RETAIL Ireland has been an active member of the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation Retail Consultation Forum since its establishment. Through its membership, Retail Ireland has advocated strongly for the establishment of a town centre fund, which would fund works to improve the streetscape and public realm of towns and villages nationwide, to help make them more attractive and more sustainable places in which to live and work. Retail Ireland welcomed the announcement in Budget 2017 of a €12m allocation for a town centre regeneration fund to be administered through the Department of Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs. Retail Ireland believes this is an important first step by government in recognising the unique role towns and villages play in Irish society and the need to regenerate them and invest in their futures. Retail Ireland expects the €12m allocation to be announced in early 2017. An additional €10m in funding was recently announced by the Department of Arts, Heritage, Regional Development and the Gaeltacht under the 2016 Town and Village Renewal Scheme. 172 towns and villages across the country are set to benefit from this funding, which is being used for a wide variety of projects, identified by Local Authorities in conjunction with local community groups and businesses. Retail Ireland will continue to push, through our membership of the Retail Consultation Forum, for the town centre regeneration fund to include towns with populations in excess of the current 5,000 cap, as significant challenges remain for many Irish towns scarred by years of recession and underinvestment.

Tel: 01-6051558 www.retailireland.ie Need more? For more information about Retail Ireland and details of how your retail business can benefit from our unique services and supports, please visit us at www.retailireland.ie

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BIM National Seafood Awards

BIM Rewards Seafood Excellence

The inaugural BIM National Seafood Awards took place recently in a glittering awards ceremony in Dublin.

BORD Iascaigh Mhara (BIM) recently announced the winners of the first ever BIM National Seafood Awards held at a Gala Awards event in the Clayton Hotel, Ballsbridge, Dublin. Out of 38 finalists shortlisted across the areas of Skills, Sustainability, Innovation and Competitiveness, 12 winners received awards for their outstanding contributions to the fishing, fish farming, seafood processing and retail sectors at a ceremony officially The BIM National Seafood Awards winners are pictured with Tara McCarthy, BIM CEO, and Kieran Calnan, opened by Minister for BIM Chairman. Agriculture, Food and Hall, Co. Cork, for the past 10 years and lives overlooking the Marine, Michael Creed TD. BIM’s CEO, Tara McCarthy outlined the rationale behind the pier. Stephen’s interest in the sea began as a young boy and, as a teenager, he became a crew man on a shrimp boat, the awards: “The Irish Seafood Sector contributes €1 billion hauling shrimp pots every morning with his neighbour. in GDP to our economy and employs over 11,000 people, Stephen prides himself on stocking locally caught fish and predominantly in our coastal regions. The BIM National shellfish in-store. On any given day, he has upwards of Seafood Awards provide us with the opportunity to celebrate the positive contribution of this valuable indigenous industry 25 different species of fish and shellfish. He is in a unique position as he is on first name terms with the skippers and and recognise excellence and leadership across this diverse crews and can tell a customer exactly where their fish was sector. It is an exciting time to work in seafood and the caught and by whom. For more information, see high standard demonstrated by our winners and all of our www.glenmarshellfish.com. finalists bodes well for the future, as we collectively aim to Eimantas Zvirblis, winner in the Supermarket Seafood achieve growth as set out in the Government’s Food Wise Counter category, works in Donnybrook Fair’s flagship store 2025 plan.” in Malahide, which opened last Christmas. His passion in The winners represent a wide geographical spread, life is fish and Eimantas realised he had a skill in this area including three from Donegal, two each are from Cork and when working for the Dublin Smoked Fish company in 2010. Dublin, while Kerry, Kilkenny, Louth, Mayo, Waterford and He also previously worked in Nicky’s Plaice in Howth, where Wexford each had one winner on the night. he developed his customer service skills. Donnybrook Fair has a large range of seafood on its BIM Young Fishmonger Awards counter, including whole fish, fillets, shellfish, smoked fish, Included in the list of winners are two talented young marinated fish, and ready-to-cook fish. Eimantas particularly fishmongers; Stephen Hurley from The Fish Shop, Union enjoys sharing fish recipes with his customers. He believes Hall, Co. Cork, and Eimantas Zvirblis from Donnybrook in his product and eats fish seven days a week. “Many of my Fair, Malahide, Co. Dublin, who have won the coveted title colleagues in Donnybrook Fair are now eating more fish and of BIM Young Fishmonger 2017 in the Independent Seafood many customers are telling me that they are eating more fish Specialist and Supermarket Seafood Counter categories, too,” he explains. “I believe that spreading this passion is a respectively. very important part of being a fishmonger.” See Independent Seafood Specialist winner, Stephen Hurley www.donnybrookfair.ie/Malahide for more information. has worked at Glenmar Shellfish/The Fish Shop in Union

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BIM National Seafood Awards •

Shellfish, Union Hall, West Cork; Young Fishmonger 2017 (Supermarket Seafood Counter): Eimantas Zvirblis, Donnybrook Fair, Malahide, Co. Dublin.

Category: Sustainability • Responsible Fisherman of the Year: Jim Connolly, Supreme II, Clogherhead. Co. Louth; • Aquaculture Environmental & Social Responsibility Award: Blackshell Farm, Newport, Co. Mayo; • Green Processor of the Year: Island Seafoods Ltd, Killybegs, Co. Donegal. Eimantas Zvirblis from Donnybrook Fair, Malahide, Co. Dublin, is pictured receiving the 2017 Young Fishmonger Award in the Supermarket Seafood Counter category from Michael Creed TD, Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, and Tara McCarthy, CEO, BIM.

Rewarding Innovation Winner of the Aquaculture, Environmental and Social Responsibility Award, Blackshell Farm (www.blackshell.ie), Westport, Co. Mayo, has been producing certified organic rope-grown mussels since 1983. They run a marine cargo service servicing the west coast of Ireland and also produce knitted mussel cotton. Blackshell uses only biodegradable and reusable materials to grow their mussels. Green Processor of the Year, Island Seafoods Ltd (www. islandseafoodsltd.ie) is a family-owned and run business based just outside Killybegs, Co. Donegal. A verified member of Bord Bia’s Origin Green programme, Island Seafoods was the first company in Ireland to be RSS (Responsibly Sourced Standard) certified by BIM, and has its own hydro-electric plant which saves over 350 tonnes of greenhouse gases a year. Dungarvan Shellfish (www.hartyoysters.com), winners of the Innovation in Aquaculture Award, is owned by the Harty Family in Dungarvan. An oyster farm producing up to 500 tonnes of Gigas oysters each year, the company established their own nursery to overcome high seed mortality levels, and after two years profits have increased significantly. The Innovation in Seafood Processing Award went to Oceanpath Dunn’s of Dublin and Goatsbridge Trout, who came together to develop the domestic market for Irish trout in a seafood market that was dominated by salmon. They subsequently developed a range, including fixed weight boneless trout fillets, cold smoked trout, BBQ trout and smoked trout paté (www.oceanpath.ie). The Seafood Enterprise/Entrepreneur of the Year Award went to Sofrimar Ltd’s Lorcan Barden and Leslie Bates, who acquired the company in 2000 via a management buyout. Both directors are very strongly committed to ongoing education, upskilling and training, as well as sustainability (www.sofrimar.ie). Kush Seafarms won the Aquaculture Enterprise of the Year Award. A family-run business based in Kenmare, Co. Kerry, it is Ireland's first organic rope mussels producer and specialises in the export of shellfish globally, with particular emphasis on Europe (www.kush.ie). Full List of Winners The full list of winners from the first ever BIM National Seafood Awards are: Category: Skills • Student of the Year: Barry Shaw, Killybegs, Co. Donegal; • Young Fishmonger 2017 (Independent Seafood Specialist): Stephen Hurley, The Fish Shop, Glenmar

Category: Innovation • Best New Fishing Practice: Foyle Warrior Ltd, Greencastle, Co. Donegal; • Innovation in Aquaculture: Dungarvan Shellfish Ltd, Dungarvan, Co. Waterford; • Innovation in Seafood Processing: Oceanpath/Dunn’s of Dublin, Howth, Co. Dublin, and Goatsbridge Trout Farm, Thomastown, Co. Kilkenny. Category: Competitiveness: • Fishing Enterprise of the Year: DC Fish Ltd, Union Hall, Cork; • Aquaculture Enterprise of the Year: Kush Seafarms Ltd, Kenmare, Co. Kerry; • Seafood Enterprise of the Year: Sofrimar, Kilmore Quay, Co. Wexford.

Michael Creed TD, Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, and Tara McCarthy, CEO, BIM, are pictured presenting Stephen Hurley from The Fish Shop, Glenmar Shellfish, Union Hall, West Cork, with the 2017 Young Fishmonger Award in the Independent Seafood Specialist category.

Establishing leaders in the sector is a key priority for BIM and the BIM Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to the family of a true leader in his field, the late Martin Howley. “Martin exemplified everything you need to be a great leader,” revealed BIM Chairman, Kieran Calnan. “He led by example, starting as a fisherman in Killybegs in the 1970s, rising to become a pioneering mackerel skipper, then a successful businessman and a great leader in the fishing industry. His passion, energy and innovative spirit were a unifying and driving force. Martin is a most worthy recipient of the BIM Lifetime Achievement Award.” BIM also introduced an exciting new brand identity to industry at the event. Grounded in BIM’s plans to enable progress in the seafood sector under its four key priorities, Skills, Sustainability, Innovation and Competitiveness, this fresh and vibrant new look for one of Ireland’s longest established state agencies is consistent with its vision for “Ireland to become the International leader in high value differentiated seafood products that satisfy growing domestic and international demand for nutritious, safe and responsibly and sustainably produced food”.

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IGBF Christmas Lunch

Festive Fun at IGBF Lunch The Irish Grocers Benevolent Fund Christmas Lunch was the social highlight of the season. THE Irish Grocers Benevolent Fund Christmas Lunch 2016 welcomed upwards of 1,200 retailers, wholesalers and suppliers to the Clayton Hotel in Dublin for one of the social highlights of the year for the FMCG trade. Event MC, Marty Whelan ensured that everything flowed extremely smoothly, while comedian, TV personality and impersonator extraordinaire, Mario Rosenstock provided hilarious entertainment. Special congratulations must go to former ADM Londis CEO, Paddy McGarry who won the raffle’s top prize of a Caribbean cruise. IGBF President of Appeals for 2016 was Neil Finlayson, Sales Director at Mars Ireland, who thanked and congratulated “the many people across the country who are involved in supporting and running the organisation that is the IGBF. Throughout the year, I can honestly say that I have been inspired by the incredible commitment shown by everyone concerned. This commitment extends from the National Chairman and Committee right through to the many regional committees and individuals who organise events and raise badly needed funds for the charity.” At his last official function as President of Appeals, Finlayson declared himself humbled by the commitment shown for less fortunate colleagues in the trade. The outgoing President of Appeals, thanked the events sponsors, who included National Lottery, PRM Group, Heineken, Logic, Britvic Ireland, Avonmore, Solus, Stafford Lynch, Comans Beverages and Febvre & Co. Ltd. The President of Appeals for 2017 was also revealed during the lunch. Conor Kilduff, Sales and Marketing Director of Keelings, will take over the role in January.

All photos by Aidan Crawley.

The IGBF National Committee: Jim O’Connor, Suzanne Bosscher, Redmond Gavin, Joe Keane, Joe Wogan, Leonard Hegarty, Neil Finlayson, Jim Bradley, Frances Higgins, Donal O’Shea and Tim Nolan.

The team from National Lottery: Niall Andrews, Head of Sales and Operations; Jenny Fisher, Head of Legal & Regulatory Affairs; Jim O’Connor, Dublin Sales Manager; Mary Daly, Project Manager; Linda Canavan; and George Canavan, Sales Support Managger.

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IGBF Christmas Lunch

From Dr. Oetker Ireland: Caroline Burton, Marketing Manager; Anna Murphy, Customer Operation Coordinator; Eimhin Dale, National Account Manager – Ambient Division; and Susan Richardson, National Account Manager.

Niamh Grogan, Bakery Technical Manager at Tesco Ireland; pictured with Orla McLarnon, Health and Beauty Buying Manager, Tesco Ireland.

Pictured are Mark Williamson, National Account Manager, Diageo Ireland; Eimear Carroll, Category Manager Personal Care, Unilever; Adrian O’Boyle, Customer Business Manager, Unilever; and Dave Hyland, National Account Manager, Diageo Ireland.

Laura Scott, Category Manager; Christine Stritch, ‎Assistant Business Manager, and Gemma Tracey, all from Jaymark Sales & Marketing. Pictured enjoying the IGBF Christmas Lunch are Jim Darley, Brian George, Conor Murphy, Canice Kelly and Fergus McKenna.

Debbie Gorman, Customer Service Manager, Unilever Ireland; Emma Gregory, Customer Account Manager, Unilever Ireland; and Nascienza Nardone, ‎National Account Manager at BirdsEye Ireland.

Enjoying the fare are Denis Casey, Gus O’Gorman, IGBF North Leinster Region; Leo McCanley, Joe Grennan, IGBF Honorary Secretary; Tom Shields, IGBF National Committee Member.

Keith Farrell, Country Manager, Dr. Oetker; Paul Kelly, Business Operations Manager at Unilever; and Paul Gilhooly, Customer Business Manager at Valeo Foods.

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IGBF Christmas Lunch

Fiona Whelan, Grocery Buying Manager at Tesco Ireland; Denise Foley, National Account Manager at Country Crest; and Ciara Shields, Tesco.

The Richmond Marketing team: James Woods, Commercial Controller; Jessica Byrne, National Account Manager; Trish Daly, Sales Coordinator; and Colin Salt, Business Manager.

Angela Crawley, Customer Manager Convenience and Forecourts at Mars Ireland; Michelle Finan, Customer Director, Valeo Foods; and Lorraine Keenan, Sales Operation Manager, Mars Ireland.

Juliann Evans, Shopper Marketing Manager; Emily Macdonald, Account Manager; Claire Howard, Shopper Marketing Manager; and Nada Mousa, Shopper Marketing Manager, all from Unilever Ireland.

Pictured are Aine Keating, Trading Manager, Musgrave Retail Partners Ireland; and Ciara McClafferty, Trading Director, Musgrave Northern Ireland.

John McCambridge, Retail Division Manager; Paula Conlon, Customer Marketing Controller; John Kelly, Off Trade Director; Christine Bourke, Category Manager; Alan Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Regan, Regional Sales Manager, Heineken Ireland; and Martin Byrne, Planning & Analysis Manager.

From Stafford Lynch: Eamon Flavin, Commercial Director; Garrett Lynch, Director; and Conor Church, Key Account Manager.

Ailish Walsh, Marketing Manager, SCA Ireland; and Maeve McMahon, Sales Support & Account Rep, SCA Ireland.

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Breakfast Time

Early Adopters

Almost nine in 10 Irish people regularly consume breakfast, with a definite move towards healthier options. THE most important meal of the day, as the old saying goes, breakfast is enjoyed by almost nine in 10 Irish people (87%) on weekdays, rising to 89% at the weekends, according to a recent Bord Bia study. “It seems the assertion that breakfast is the most important meal of the day still rings true in Ireland, despite our busier lifestyles,” explained Paula Donoghue, Bord Bia’s Consumer Insight Manager. “The research found that the most important consideration for people at breakfast time is health and most people (87%) eat breakfast at home as opposed to the office. Interestingly, almost one in four (23%) people have recently changed their breakfast choices for health reasons. For instance, some 44% claim to be cutting back on sugar, while 13% of people are trying to reduce their carbohydrate intake.” The Breakfast Club research by Bord Bia found that 53% of consumers never miss breakfast, with a further 22% eating it almost every day. The percentage of people who state that they rarely have time to make a proper breakfast stands at 35%, down from 49% in 2003. Half of us will never miss breakfast, while those who never or rarely eat breakfast are likely to be single and young settlers (aged 21 to 29). Bread and toast top the survey as Ireland’s favourite

midweek breakfast for one third (33%) of people. This is followed by porridge (25%), cereals (19%), eggs (18%), fruit (17%), yogurt (10%), muesli/granola (10%), a breakfast bar (8%), rashers (6%) and a sandwich (5%). There is a slight change at the weekends, when toast rises to 42%,followed by eggs (25%), porridge (23%), regular cereal (21%) , fruit (15%), rashers (13%), sausages (10%), yogurt (9%), sandwich (6%) and muesli/granola (5%). Tea is the preferred drink at home, with nearly half (44%) of people drinking it during the week, while another 28% drink coffee. The figure for tea rises to 48% and coffee to 31% at the weekend. Water and fruit juice follow behind at 12% and 9% respectively, with the weekend figures of 11% and 10%, while herbal tea accounts for 5% of midweek and 6% of weekend breakfast drinks and milk or milk substitute stands at 6%. When it comes to children, 85% of Irish kids have breakfast regularly, with regular cereal (39%), toast/bagel (24%) and porridge//hot cereal (19%) the most popular, followed by fruit (14%), eggs (12%), yogurt (11%), breakfast bar (7%), muesli/granola (7%), sausages (7%) and rashers (6%). When it comes to breakfast drinks, kids go for fruit juice (21%), plain water (20%), tea (19%) and milk/milk

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Breakfast Time substitute (17%), followed by cordial/squash (8%), herbal tea (6%), homemade juice (5%), coffee (5%) and hot chocolate (5%). Looking to the future for breakfasts, consumers want breakfast options that are healthy (68%), low cost (63%), easy to prepare (58%), offer specific health benefits (54%), high in protein (53%), suitable for the whole family (50%), tasty treats (50%) and provide good on-the-go options (36%) and free from (35%). Weetabix Weetabix is the nation’s favourite cereal brand, with sales growing €486k this year to date (Source: Kantar data, YTD to October 31, 2016). Head of Brand, Kevin Verbruggen, puts this down to Weetabix’s category strategy to have health Weetabix, the nation’s favourite cereal and nutrition brand. at the heart of everything it does. “Our mission is to use our passion and excellence to delight consumers with great tasting, nutritious breakfasts,” he says. “We know almost seven in 10 people are concerned about the health benefits of cereal and 65% are looking to reduce the sugar intake in their diet (Source: Shopper’s Voice, 2016). These concerns are being reflected in consumers’ purchasing choices, as higher sugar cereals face a decline in sales, while Weetabix sales are on the up.”

The Weetabuddies campaign engages children in eating cereal as part of a balanced diet by making Weetabix biscuits into faces using fruit.

Weetabuddies campaign, for example, engages children in eating cereal as part of a balanced diet by making Weetabix biscuits into faces using fruit. Verbruggen continues: “Consumers hold us in high regard. We had some very positive feedback in a recent brand survey, where among the top words we are associated with were ‘healthy’, ‘good’, ‘quality’, ‘taste’ and ‘longstanding’ (Source: Good Relations Group Triple G Survey, 2014). Our ambition is to keep delighting consumers with our great tasting, nutritious brands. This, we think, will be the key to unlocking further growth. “We have also been very proactive in promoting our health credentials, recently adding all-green traffic lights to our Weetabix Original and Weetabix Protein packaging. Shoppers tell us that they’re often confused by the wide range of cereals, and the easy-to-read traffic lights make it simpler for health-conscious shoppers to make a quick, informed choice. This can only benefit shoppers, their families, and the category.” Truly Irish Since their beginning in 2009, Truly Irish have gone from strength to strength and currently supply the Irish, UK and European markets. Uniquely, Truly Irish have full control of their pork supply chain, which allows them to maintain the highest standards of quality in their meat. This has always been the mentality of Truly Irish, who refuse to compromise quality for profit. Quality is of utmost importance when considering the nutritional value of food. Truly Irish work continuously on reducing the salt and sugar contents of their meats, along with the saturated fat content. Their new sausage recipe

Made with wheat protein, Weetabix Protein is a delicious and nutritious breakfast that helps keep the family going all morning.

Weetabix has a long history of innovation and its most recent NPD is very much driven by the nutrition agenda. Weetabix Protein and Weetabix On The Go drinks, just some of the organisation’s recent innovations, all serve a nutritional benefit to consumers. The organisation’s campaigns are also led by healthy eating, encouraging a balanced diet with a healthy living style and a bit of fun. The

The award winning Truly Irish Creamery Butter is made with nothing but quality Irish ingredients.

INCREDIBLE INSIDE

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** T H E N o . 1 C E R E A L B R A N D I N T H E N o . 1 C E R E I R E L A N D T H E N o .1 C E R E A L B R A N D I N I R E L A N D **TOP TOP 100 100 BRANDS BRANDS REPORT REPORT IN IN ASSOCIATION ASSOCIATION WITH WITH NIELSEN SEPTEMBER 2016 *TOP 100 BRANDS REPORT IN ASSOCIATION WITH NIELSEN SEPTEMBER 2016

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Breakfast Time encompasses all of these qualities and more, as the sausages are rich in protein, free from MSG and contain natural oats. They are an ideal centrepiece to any family meal, perfect for nutritionally conscious shoppers. Equally, the Truly Irish roasting back bacon joint is rich in high quality protein and cooks in one hour without losing its shape. It is great for dinner or chilled and sliced for school lunches. In 2015, Truly Irish Oat Granola from Truly Irish has Irish extended their one of the lowest sugar contents brand across dairy available at 6.5% and contains and launched Truly oat-beta glucan, which is proven to Irish Creamery Butter. reduce cholesterol. As with the branded meats range, Truly Irish have ensured nothing but quality Irish ingredients are used. The butter was awarded Gold at the 2015 Blas na hÉireann awards. Following the butter’s success, August 2016 then saw the launch of the Truly Irish Cheddar Cheese range. The cheeses are available in three varieties, which are minimum aged for superb taste. A grated variety will be launched in the new year to complement the current products on offer. Prominent in the breakfast category, Truly Irish extended into cereals in 2015 with Irish Oat Granola. The granola has one of the lowest sugar contents available at 6.5% and contains oat-beta glucan, which is proven to reduce cholesterol. Their newest product is a Gluten Free Protein Porridge, which hit shelves in August 2016. The porridge caters to wide range of consumers as it is suitable for coeliacs and is registered with the Coeliac Society of Ireland. Truly Irish Gluten Free Protein The porridge also has added Porridge has added milk milk protein containing protein containing whey and whey and caseins, caseins, which promote muscle which promote muscle development, satiety and fat development, satiety and loss. fat loss. Truly Irish have further shown their commitment to Irish producers and consumers by becoming verified Origin Green members in April 2016. As part of their plan, Truly Irish have committed to using 100% Irish pork, dairy and oats in their ingredients. They have also made commitments in education and health within the plan, which will come to fruition over the next three years. Truly Irish are working hard to support Irish farmers and promote Irish produce both in Ireland and abroad and, most importantly, they have

not veered from their mission to supply the consumer with quality Irish food: ‘Irish by name, Irish by nature’. White’s Oats White’s Oats have launched a new range of high protein and high fibre porridge to target healthy and active lifestyles. Based in Tandragee, Co. Armagh, White’s Oats is the largest oat mill in Ireland and part of the Fane Valley Group, a local farmers’ cooperative. It has enjoyed significant growth, following major investment in new product development and packaging redesign of its range of porridge oats and oat based cereals. White’s has won many great taste accolades from the Guild of Fine Food and was awarded the Chartered Institute of Marketing (Ireland) Food and Drink Award 2015 for its integrated marketing campaign in 2015. More recently, in response to consumer demand for pursuing healthy and active lifestyles White’s has launched a range of high protein and high fibre portion controlled porridge oat sachets to enable consumers to conveniently meet their nutritional requirements alongside busy schedules. ActivOat High Protein porridge is made from wholegrain oats with added soy protein. With 29% New from White’s Oats: ActivOat High Protein of protein porridge is made from wholegrain oats with added in every soy protein, while ActivOat High Fibre porridge 40g serving has 50% more fibre in every bowl than standard and high in porridge. fibre to keep consumers fuller for longer, it’s perfect fuel for busy days, a pre-workout boost or post-workout recovery. In addition, ActivOat Protein contains all nine essential amino acids, the vital building blocks of muscle growth and repair, and has a very low GI. High fibre is a key nutrient for maintaining a healthy digestive system and White’s ActivOat High Fibre porridge has 50% more fibre in every bowl than standard porridge, providing consumers with 30% of their RDA. Made from 100% wholegrain oats with added oat bran fibre, a 40g serving will actively help to lower cholesterol by providing 100% of a consumer’s soluble fibre beta glucan intake. “We understand the importance that a well-balanced and varied diet can have on a body’s performance,” noted Danielle McBride, Brand Manager at White’s Oats. “The link between good simple nutrition and what it can deliver in terms of health and wellness, sustaining energy levels and supporting a strong body is becoming more readily understood. White’s brand message is also focused on producing nutritionally balanced oat cereals which taste good and enable consumers to pursue healthy active lifestyles. We’re continually looking at new products to complement our range and to help consumers conveniently meet their nutritional requirements alongside work and family commitments.”

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Breakfast Time Flahavan’s Flahavan’s is Ireland’s favourite porridge brand and continues to drive growth in the hot oats and healthy cold cereal market. Staying close to the consumer and understanding evolving consumers’ needs is key to the brand’s success. As the convenience hot oats market grows, Flahavan’s is continuously innovating to lead the market, a strategy which is clearly working as Flahavan’s yet again show their strength with the company ranking as the number one chosen hot breakfast brand in Ireland in 2016 (Source: Kantar World Panel). Reflecting this, the Flahavan’s brand also continues to grow its convenience market share, increasing value share by 15% in the last year (Source: (Source: Kantar World Panel, March 27, 2016) and Flahavan’s continues to Flahavan’s Super Oats are sure drive growth in the overall to be a hit with Irish children this winter. hot oats category. In July this year, three of Flahavan’s Porridge products won Gold Stars at the Great Taste Awards. Flahavan’s Irish Organic Porridge Oats, Irish Porridge Oats and Irish Organic Jumbo Oats all received 2 Gold Stars each, the highest award given in the category, with their porridge being described by the judge’s as “rich and superb porridge” and “a glorious bowl of goodness”. Flahavan’s are launching their new Super Oats, which

Flahavan’s has announced the launch of a new Granola variety, Toasted Nut Granola, made with quality locally sourced ingredients.

Flahavan’s have recently relaunched their delicious flapjack range, which includes the tried and trusted Original and Choc Chip Flapjacks, as well as three brand new varieties, Multiseed, Fruit & Nut and Cranberry & Orange.

is sure to be a hit with Irish children this winter. Following extensive research, they identified that many parents who already understood the health benefits of porridge, also had a need to provide the same wholesome, natural, healthy breakfast for their children. The ability of porridge oats to sustain energy levels throughout the morning and help children be active is something parents really value. The Flahavan’s Super Oats packaging appeals to a younger age group with its colourful, fun and energetic cues. Flahavan’s Super Oats is super for active kids as its smoother texture appeals to younger children, and the oats contain a source of protein, which contributes to the maintenance of normal bones. The oats are high in fibre, 100% Irish wholegrain and provide a slow release of energy. Super Oats will be available in the popular drum format with a free scoop for easy measuring. Flahavan’s Super Oats is microwave ready in just two minutes. In cold cereals, Flahavan’s has announced the launch of a new Granola variety, Toasted Nut Granola. This deliciously indulgent treat of toasted wholegrain oat granola combines cashews, almonds, pecans, walnuts, and hazelnuts with the finest Flahavan’s Irish oats. Flahavan’s Toasted Nut Granola, made with quality locally sourced ingredients, will bring a dash of ‘delish’ to breakfast time when served as cereal or as a porridge topping. With an easy-open resealable pack for freshness, this delicious granola is free from additives and preservatives so consumers can enjoy each tasty spoonful free from guilt. Flahavan’s have also recently relaunched their delicious flapjack range, which includes the tried and trusted Original and Choc Chip Flapjacks, as well as three brand new varieties, Multiseed, Fruit & Nut and Cranberry & Orange. For refuelling on the go, these wholesome oaty snacks are sure to tickle taste buds. These flapjacks are baked to perfection following Mary Flahavan’s recipe in Flahavan’s bakery in Kilmacthomas, Co. Waterford. The finest quality Irish oats are sourced from local farmers, resulting in a delicious crunchy oaty snack that the whole family can enjoy. Celebrating over 230 years in business, Flahavan’s has grown to a company selling a wide range of oat products in 14 countries worldwide, with varying flavours and formats, including Multiseed, Fruits and Organic, convenience Quick Oats pots and sachets, flapjacks, muesli, Granola and new Super Oats.

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Recruitment

Hire Education! Caroline McEnery, MD, The HR Suite, provides vital strategies to ensure that when you’re recruiting staff, you hire the right candidate.

AS WE approach the end of 2016, a lot of employers will be setting budgets, strategies and plans for 2017. Recruiting additional staff or specific key people will inevitably fall under one of these plans. To ensure you are recruiting the best candidates I have put together some useful tips to enable you to make the right hire.

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Analyse your reputation as an employer in the current environment. Where there are shortages of talent in certain key sectors, you as the employer may have to sell the benefits of working with you to potential candidates. The popularity of the website, Glassdoor, enables candidates to look at reviews of you as an employer. Candidates may ask current employees their opinion of you as an employer or they may know someone that has interviewed with you previously and get their opinion on your recruitment process. Remember, your employees are your best brand ambassadors: if they enjoy working for you, they will recommend to you others. The nature of retail can have high turnover at junior levels. Retailers are dependent on staff referrals and positive word of mouth to continuously attract staff. A positive company culture, reputation and employer brand is an incentive for candidates to apply and stay in a company.

of your unconscious bias as an employer, it will create gender balance within your organisation, as well as ensuring that you don’t overlook potential talent.

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Utilise social media & digital recruitment platforms. Recruitment has dramatically changed over the last 20 years, with the arrival of social media and digital recruitment channels that are used for advertising and talent attraction. Print media as a tool for recruitment advertising is now practically obsolete. If you don’t have presence on an online platform to advertise and attract candidates for your role, you will have very little success of guaranteeing the role has been seen by the best possible talent on the market. If you are active online and on social media, use it to promote your company’s values and your corporate social responsibility updates. Top talent will often research a company to get an idea of the culture and values to see if they are the right fit for that company or not.

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Be open to integrating diversity into your workplace. This entails putting together a work force from different backgrounds. An employer that offers diversity will become known as an employer of choice and offers access to a diverse range of potential employees with different backgrounds, talents and experiences. Be open to offering flexible working hours. Retail working hours are practically 24/7. Managers should be mindful when scheduling weekend and evening shifts that they are fair to avoid burn-out from staff and increasing staff turnover. Also, ensure you don’t overlook women due to unconscious bias that women don’t suit particular roles or that they can’t commit to a role the same way a man can due to their gender. If you become conscious

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Stocktake your current employees. Look at the talent pool you currently have. Look at their skills, abilities and potential to ensure you don’t overlook a current employee for a senior appointment. You need to be

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Recruitment mindful of staff morale and to be seen as an employer that will progress and offer promotional opportunities to staff. Trainee management programmes work well in retail and are imperative for succession planning. The HR Suite can advise you on implementing a Trainee Management Programme.

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Perform a detailed job analysis in order to draft the job description. This should take careful analysis of the role that you want to fill, the skills and abilities needed, as well as qualifications, personality traits and relevant experience that would differentiate one applicant from another. Ask other staff members and managers of their opinion on what the role should or should not be. Their insight will be invaluable to you. You also don’t want to be in a position where after two months, the employee feels disgruntled as they are doing additional tasks that were not in the job description. As basic as this sounds, many companies regularly fail to give careful consideration to a job description. A good job description, which will become your advert, will help to attract the best calibre candidates and hopefully deter candidates that are not suitable from applying. Once your job description has been drafted, it will allow you to get a clear indication of particular requirements needed by the ideal candidate for the position in your company. You must decide what the necessary and desirable requirements are. This will facilitate you to form a shortlisting system, which will allow you to easily separate CVs that fit the criteria and those that don’t.

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The screening process. The shortlisted CV’s can either do a telephone screening process or can be called directly for an interview. Face-toface interviews still win out as the most trusted format of interviewing, as retail is about customer service and presentation, so you need to establish if the candidate is suitable for a customer service environment. Companies often do telephone/Skype interviews but will normally follow up with a face-to-face interview. Interviews should be structured and have pre-planned questions. I have come across too many employers who don’t give much thought to their interviewing methods. They often only hold a 20-minute interview with a candidate, which in my opinion, is not sufficient to establish if a candidate is right for your company and the role. Ensure you ask questions relating to the job description and ask competency based questions, which require the candidate to describe specific tasks or situations.

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The selection phase At the selection phase you need to establish if the candidate: 1. Can do the tasks required?

About the Author THE HR Suite are based in Tralee, Co. Kerry, and provide human resources consultancy, employment law advice, training and recruitment services to businesses throughout Ireland. MD Caroline McEnery has over 20 years’ experience in providing HR services to Irish companies. She is a member on the Low Pay Commission and is also an adjudicator in the new Work Place Relations Commission. If you have any queries, please feel free to contact our office on (066) 7102887 or (01) 9014335 or email info@thehrsuiteonline.com. Website: http://thehrsuiteonline.com.

2. 3. 4.

Has the potential to grow, develop and progress in the role and with the company? Will be productive and work co-operatively with the team? Fits in with the company and the company culture?

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Ability Tests It is fair to say that candidates are getting better at preparing for interviews. They will have practiced potential answers to present themselves positively at interview stage. More companies now use psychometric and personality tests to establish if a candidate is the right fit for an organisation. I am a trained administrator of Ability Tests and Occupational Personality Questionnaires and would always recommend our clients to use these tools. It allows the employer to access candidates before they make an offer. Such tests aim to assess an individual’s maximum ability in a competency that has been identified as important for their success in the particular role. These tests are useful to identify whether the candidate that presented themselves at interview will be the candidate that you hire.

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Reference Checks I cannot stress the importance of conducting reference checks before you make a hire. Unfortunately, most companies these days will only confirm title and dates but you should always try to do as much background checking as you possibly can. There is no exact science when it comes to recruiting the best team. However, the steps I have outlined are what’s required in order to put together a structure and process which will help you recruit the best candidate and build the best team for your organisation. For information relating to recruitment or Occupational Personality Questionnaires for your company, please contact one of our Recruitment Consultants at The HR Suite on (066) 7102887.

38|Retail News|December 2016|www.retailnews.ie

On The Vine

Brexit to Bite Irish Wine Market Wine value and volumes rose again in 2016 but Brexit will take its toll, warns Jean Smullen, as she looks back over the year in wine and predicts the big bottles for 2017, including the rise of ‘orange wine’.

IN 2016, volume and value sales for wine on the Irish market slowly returned to growth. After some years of falling consumption, the IWA figures show an increase in both volume and value sales, though value sales continue to be distorted by the two duty increases in 2012 and 2013. Anecdotal evidence of customers trading up in the independent off licence sector was also a heartening sign, and then the reality bite arrived in the form of Brexit! The collapse of sterling emphasised even more starkly the raw deal the Irish consumer faces compared to our European partners. 14 countries have €0 excise tax per bottle on a bottle of wine, compared to Ireland’s excise rate per bottle of €3.19. We are over 12% more expensive than the UK, the second most expensive country in Europe (for the moment).

The potential negative impact of Brexit on the wine industry is now starting to rear its ugly head as weak sterling has started to drive cross-border shopping. The hardpressed Irish consumer, struggling with reduced disposable income, has seen the tax take from a standard €9 bottle of wine increase from 39% of the price to 54%. So once again, the Irish consumer is voting with their car boots and is on the road to the north. Crossing Borders A recent poll by Red C for The Sunday Business Post found that 56% of those living in border counties intend shopping over the border in the run-up to Christmas 2016. A report by the trade analyst Goodbody also showed a 29% jump in the number of trips to Northern Ireland between 10am and

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On The Vine 11am on Saturday mornings. The high excise duties in the Republic of Ireland are once again driving shoppers north of the border. The savings are most certainly there, taking into account the purchase price of an average basket of Christmas alcohol products, including vodka, whiskey, lager, sparkling wine and still wine is now €53.17 more expensive in the Republic, due to our higher tax rates and the weakness of sterling, based on Revenue Commissioners Price Survey and exchange rates on November 7, 2016. “We pay the highest prices for alcohol in Europe, driven by our very high taxes, and the fall in the value of sterling is making it an economic reality for shoppers to cross the border this Christmas,” explained Donall O’Keeffe, Secretary of the Drinks Industry Group of Ireland and CEO of the Licensed Vintners Association. “This will have huge repercussions for jobs and businesses across Ireland and could decimate local economies in the border counties.”

Plus ca change…….

Innovation to the Fore Taking a look beyond the daily commercial activity relating to wine sales on the Irish market, from a wine perspective there are two countries leading the way in terms of innovation. Who would have thought Chile and South Africa would be the two most exciting wine producing countries in 2016? It is heartening to see the next generation of South African producers starting to establish a foothold in this market, especially in the independent off trade. Rather than drive volume sales, they are going after the mid-priced market. Distribution by a handful of small specialist Irish importers is driving sales. These producers, most of whom are under 30, are making superb quality wines from emerging regions such as Swartland. They are using old bush vines and virus free plant stock to make magnificent ‘new style’ South African wine from varietals such as Chenin Blanc, Sémillon, Grenache, Syrah and Cinsault. This is where South Africa is finding its mojo and most important of all, this is where there are huge opportunities to once again embrace premium South African wine. In the mid-price/premium sector, new wine styles from Chile prove that Chile can innovate with the best. Wines made from grape varieties such as Sauvignon Gris and Cabernet Franc are world class. Chilean producers are now producing wines in cooler, more far flung regions to the north and south of the central valley. They are also making top notch wines, utilising 100-year-old vines made from grape varieties such as Pais and Cinsault. Heavenly Carmenere This year, two Chilean producers stood out for me, including probably the best Carmenere I have ever tasted, courtesy

of Mario Pablo Silva of Casa Silva (Barry & Fitzwilliam). The coastal range of Colchagua Valley is the site for their Carmenere. Their 2009 Altura is one of Chile’s icon wines, made from a blend of Carmenere 50%, Cabernet Sauvignon 30% and Petit Verdot 20%: they produce 5,000 bottles a year, and in terms of what Carmenere is capable of, this is an outstanding example. Caballo Loco is a wine range made by one of Chile’s great characters, Jorge Coderch of Vina Valdivieso (J&C Kenny). The company has a wealth of vineyards and the quality of the terroir is shown by this single vineyard wine range. Caballo Loco (Crazy Horse) was launched three years ago and shows the best of a range of terroir wines from Chile. This includes Syrah from Limari, Malbec from Maipo, Carmenere from Apalta and Cabernet Sauvignon from Maipo. The Rise of Orange Wines Another big trend in the global wine world during 2016 was the rise and rise of natural and ‘orange’ wines. The term ‘orange wine’ is more or less new. It describes wines made from white grapes which have been left in contact with grape skins over a longer period of time. One of the key countries producing this innovative wine style is Georgia, a wine country with 8,000 years of history. What makes Georgian wine unique is its centuries-old winemaking method, Qvevri. Clay vessels are used to ferment and create delicious, rich organic wines. This ancient Georgian tradition of Qvevri winemaking produces these glorious ‘amber wines’, as they like to call them. The Georgian Wine Agency visited Ireland in October 2016 to promote them, and judging by the interest from the Irish trade, expect to see Qvevri wines available here in the not too distant future.

Georgia’s centuries-old winemaking method, Qvevri, uses clay vessels to ferment and create delicious, rich organic wines.

Wine Dates for Your Diary The generic wine fairs will start off the 2017 wine year. On Tuesday, January 17, Borsi Vini will feature wines from Southern Italy. Most of the producers are seeking representation and will be targeting the importing trade at the fair, which takes place in Dublin. The 20th New Zealand Annual Trade Tasting will take place on Thursday, January 19, in the Radisson Blu Hotel, Golden Lane, Dublin, from 2-6pm. Wine Australia will be back in the RHA Gallery on Monday, January 30, for their annual Australia Day Tasting.

40|Retail News|December 2016|www.retailnews.ie

SuperValu & Centra Off Licence of the Year Awards

Licenced to Thrill

The Edward Dillon & Santa Rita Estates SuperValu and Centra Off Licence of the Year Awards saw the country’s finest SuperValu and Centra off trade retailers rewarded.

SuperValu Tralee was named SuperValu Off Licence of the Year. Pictured at the presentation are (l-r): Andy O’Hara, CEO, Edward Dillon & Co; Jim Garvey, Sandra Lynch, Tony Carlos and Kevin McCarthy from SuperValu Tralee; Tom Gaskin, Santa Rita Estates, and Donagh McClafferty, Category Manager, Mugrave Retail Partners Ireland.

THE top Centra and SuperValu off licence teams from across Ireland gathered on November 10 for the Edward Dillon & Santa Rita Estates SuperValu and Centra Off Licence of the Year Awards. On arrival at the Castleknock Hotel & Country Club in Dublin, guests were treated to a cocktail reception with drinks from Bombay Sapphire, Jack Daniels and Martini, accompanied by a selection of delicious canapés. Magician, Shane Black, was also on hand with a few tricks up his sleeve. Hosts on the night were, Andy O’Hara, CEO of Edward Dillon, Donagh McClafferty, Category Manager at Musgrave Retail Partners Ireland, and Tom Gaskin of Santa Rita Estates, who welcomed guests to the event, where they enjoyed a four course dinner. The evening was MC’d by RTE radio presenter, Shay Byrne, with entertainment provided by comedian Alan Shortt. The winners on the night were: Overall Winner of SuperValu Off Licence of the Year: SuperValu, Rock Street, Tralee, Co. Kerry SuperValu Large Store Winner: SuperValu, Blackrock Road, Blackrock, Co. Dublin SuperValu Medium Store Winner: SuperValu, Long Quay, Kinsale, Co. Cork

SuperValu Small Store Winner: SuperValu, Sarsfield Street, Kilmallock, Co. Limerick Winner of Centra Neighbourhood Supermarket Off Licence of the Year: Centra, Maugheraboy, Co. Sligo Runner Up in Centra Neighbourhood Supermarket Off Licence of the Year: Centra, Main Street, Dingle, Co. Kerry Winner of Centra Convenience Store Off Licence of the Year: Centra, Dublin Road, Castletroy, Co. Limerick Winner of Centra Wine Store of the Year: Centra, Point Road, Crosshaven, Co. Cork Superb Prize The overall winner and category winners of the Edward Dillon & Santa Rita Estates SuperValu and Centra Off Licence of the Year Awards won a luxurious trip to Nashville, and all finalists received a certificate of achievement on the night. Speaking at the event, Andy O’Hara, CEO of Edward Dillon, said: “We would like to extend our congratulations to SuperValu Tralee, the overall winner, and all other winners for reaching such a high standard in their stores. We would also like to say well done to all finalists for taking part this year.”

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SuperValu & Centra Off Licence of the Year Awards

Andy O’Hara, CEO, Edward Dillon & Co., presents the award for SuperValu Medium Sized Store of the Year to Dwane Hunt, Michael Smith, Martin Griffin and Jacinta Smith from SuperValu Kinsale. Also pictured are Tom Gaskin, Santa Rita Estates, and Donagh McClafferty, Category Manager, Mugrave Retail Partners Ireland.

Niall Brougham and Killian Clarke from SuperValu Blackrock, Co. Dublin, winner of the SuperValu Large Store of the Year Award, are pictured with Andy O’Hara, CEO, Edward Dillon & Co. (left); Tom Gaskin, Santa Rita Estates, and Donagh McClafferty, Category Manager, Mugrave Retail Partners Ireland (right).

SuperValu Kilmallock was named the SuperValu Small Store of the Year Award winner. Pictured are (l-r): Andy O’Hara, CEO, Edward Dillon & Co., with Lilian Twomey, Ronan Dempsey, Liam Ryan, and Eamonn McCarthy from SuperValu Kilmallock, along with Tom Gaskin, Santa Rita Estates, and Donagh McClafferty, Category Manager, Mugrave Retail Partners Ireland.

Presenting the Award for Winner of Centra Neighbourhood Supermarket Off Licence of the Year are Andy O’Hara, Edward Dillon & Co., Barry O’Sullivan and Dean Gaffney from winning store, Centra Maugheraboy, Sligo; with Tom Gaskin, Santa Rita Estates, and Donagh McClafferty, Category Manager, Mugrave Retail Partners Ireland.

Bernard Lynch from Centra Crosshaven receives the Centra Wine Store of the Year Award from Tom Gaskin, Santa Rita Estates; Andy O’Hara, CEO, Edward Dillon & Co.; and Donagh McClafferty, Category Manager, Mugrave Retail Partners Ireland.

Pictured are (l-r): Tom Gaskin, Santa Rita Estates; Andy O’Hara, CEO, Edward Dillon & Co.; Tom Duggan, Centra Castletroy, Centra Convenience Store Off Licence of the Year; and Donagh McClafferty, Category Manager, Mugrave Retail Partners Ireland.

42|Retail News|December 2016|www.retailnews.ie

Drinks News Tesco Ireland’s Sweet Surrender! AS part of its ongoing commitment to help Ireland’s shoppers make healthier choices, Tesco Ireland has announced reductions in sugar levels in its own brand soft drinks, halving the sugar content in some products, including Tesco Cola. The move makes Tesco the first retailer in Ireland to respond to the Government’s A Healthy Weight for Ireland Plan. As a result, Tesco customers are now consuming on average over 20% less sugar from its own brand soft drinks than in 2011. Additionally, Tesco Ireland has committed to reorganising its 148 stores to give better positioning to low sugar drinks. This will involve stocking as many low sugar drinks as sugary drinks and giving display prominence to no/low sugar drinks in stores. “This is a really important move by Tesco. Anything that makes the healthier choice easier is positive and this initiative will help the consumer to do just that,” noted Professor Donal O’Shea, Consultant Endocrinologist at St Vincent's University Hospital and St Columcille’s Hospital, pictured (left) with Alison O’Doherty, Senior Buying Manager for Impulse at Tesco Ireland; and Joe Manning, Category Director at Tesco Ireland.

NEW LIMITED EDITION SHORTROSS GIN THE distillers at Rademon Estate in Co. Down, home to Shortcross Gin, have released a new batch of their international award-winning limited edition Shortcross Cask Aged Gin. Three casks of the expression were laid to rest this year, with a limited number of bottles now available to purchase across the UK & Ireland. “The release of our first batch of Shortcross Cask Aged Gin took place earlier this year and was an incredible success,” explained David Boyd-Armstrong, Head Distiller and Operations Director. “Due to the unprecedented demand for this new Shortcross expression, we decided to release another batch of our highly commended Shortcross Cask Aged Gin in the run-up to Christmas, providing us with the perfect opportunity to offer a unique product and gift during the festive period.”

Matua Named IWSC New Zealand Wine Producer of Year MATUA has taken the top prize for all New Zealand wineries at the prestigious International Wine and Spirit Competition (IWSC), winning the trophy for New Zealand Wine Producer of the Year. The winery, which produced New Zealand’s first Sauvignon Blanc in 1974, had a medal tally which incorporated the Trophy alongside 12 medals, including Gold Outstanding for the 2013 Matua Single Vineyard Pinot Noir, five Silver Outstanding medals, four Silvers and a Bronze. This now means that Matua has received the title of NZ Wine Producer or Winemaker of the Year at a major international wine competition four years consecutively, 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016, having already been bestowed this honour at the 2013 and 2015 New Zealand Royal Easter Show Wine Awards and the 2014 New Zealand International Wine Show. In Ireland, Matua is distributed by Findlater Wine & Spirit Group.

THE WILD GEESE IRISH WHISKEY DEFEATS WILD TURKEY THE High Court of Australia has rejected the request of Campari America, owner of Wild Turkey, to appeal the recent unanimous decision of the court to find in favour of The Wild Geese Irish Whiskey concerning the non-use of trade marks by Wild Turkey. The landmark decision means that The Wild Geese Irish Whiskey can now enter the Australian market and Campari cannot use the ‘Wild Geese’ trademark on its products in Australia. “We are delighted that the High Court has effectively endorsed the original unanimous decision that grants us the basic right as a business to use our name,” said Ándre Levy, Co-Founder and Chairman, The Wild Geese Irish Whiskey. “This is just one part of a larger battle that we have been engaged in for the past 14 years that has included over 50 actions across several geographies.”

BRITVIC IRELAND PRELIMINARY RESULTS 2016 has been a very successful year for Britvic Ireland, with revenue growth of 9.4% (5.8% on a constant currency basis) to £131.7m and volume growth of 3.6%, according to the company’s preliminary results for the 53 weeks ended October 2, 2016. Britvic Ireland has now recorded six consecutive quarters of growth. Britvic Ireland has successfully established and leveraged its position as the number one player in “no added sugar” and now claims over 30% share and is outperforming the market. For the past two years Britvic has been innovating in the low and no sugar segment as part of its health strategy to deliver more choice in the soft drinks market. It has launched five new ‘low’ and ‘no added sugar’ products, including Club Zero, MiWadi 0% Sugar, MiWadi Minis 0% Sugar and Ballygowan Sparklingly Fruity. 60% of Britvic Ireland’s sales are now in the low and no sugar segment.

RETAIL GROUPS REVIEW

Irelandâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Grocery Superstars on the Secrets of their Success

44|Retail News|December 2016|www.retailnews.ie

Retail Groups Review

Brilliant Year for BWG Foods

BWG Foods is a leading wholesale and retail company. It owns and operates the Spar, Eurospar, Mace, Londis and XL brands in the Republic of Ireland, with over 1,030 stores across the country. The wholesale division of BWG Foods also includes BWG Foodservice and a nationwide network of 21 Value Centre cash and carry branches. As the largest convenience operator in the country, with a family of leading retail brands, BWG Foods provides retailers with many benefits, including award winning store design and retail offers, world class supply chain, on the ground retail advisory support services, innovative marketing, IT, training and development, alongside access to years of retail experience. Importantly, BWG Foods deploys a multibrand strategy for convenience, forecourt and supermarket retailing, which means support is tailored to meet the unique ethos of each brand and the needs of the individual retailer. With dedicated teams, BWG Foods provides integrated marketing and advertising campaigns for each individual brand, spanning national, local and social media, and supported by public relations. Regular promotional activity is run across each brand to drive consumer spend and footfall, supported by strong in-store displays and Point of Sale material.

BWG Foods provides bespoke staff training programmes for retailers, covering a range of topics, including food safety, fresh food advice, category management and store standards. BWG Foods operates an award winning National Distribution Centre (NDC) located in Kilcarbery Business Park, Dublin 22. This 240,000 square feet state-of-the-art facility opened in 2012 and caters for BWG Foodsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; entire ambient and alcohol distribution. This year, operations were expanded to fresh and frozen supplies, making it a fullservice facility. BWG Foods has relationships with more than 650 suppliers, dealing directly with approximately 14,000 customers in the retail, foodservice and licensed sectors. Through its branded retail estate, BWG Foods and its retailers provide employment to over 22,000 people and serve in excess of one million customers every single day. In 2014, BWG Group announced Spar South Africaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s investment in the business, which continues to be led by Group CEO, Leo Crawford and the existing management team. With the acquisition of Londis is 2015, BWG is now the largest operator of convenience brands in the country, with over 40% share of the convenience market.

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Retail Groups Review Spar

Spar: Name of Group: Spar Head Office: BWG Foods, Greenhills Road, Tallaght, Dublin 24 Type of distribution network: National distribution centre servicing fresh, ambient and alcohol to stores nationwide. Number of Stores nationwide: Over 400 Colours: Red, white and green Tagline: “Under the tree at Spar” Average Store Size: 200 square metres

SPAR is one of the country’s largest convenience retail groups, bringing consumers the most innovative, award winning in-store offering and shopping experience for over 50 years in convenience, neighbourhood and supermarket shopping under the Spar and Spar Express formats. Spar has a number of exclusive offerings, including Tasty Deli and coffee partnerships with Insomnia, Seattle's Best and Bewley's. Spar is particularly focused on Colin Donnelly, Spar Sales supporting local Irish suppliers Director. and giving them a platform to reach thousands of customers on a daily basis. Convenience While convenience is the foundation on which the Spar brand is built, the offering is constantly evolving to meet the changing needs of consumers. Today, Spar focuses on the new customer, offering great fresh foods, healthy options, expansive range and price and value, all key factors in the Spar offer, and the offer is always evolving. Their new initiative and focus on health and wellbeing Spar Better Choices and Spar Better Choices Kids is delivering new

sales in key categories by offering consumers more choice. It is Spar’s firm belief that they are not in the food business serving people but in the people business serving food, so superior customer service is the key to their brand and to the success of Spar overall. Being part of Spar International, Spar retailers have unique access to some of the best practice in retail from around the world. In return, Spar Ireland is a leading light on a world stage, responsible for pioneering some of the latest and greatest thinking in convenience with new store designs and food solutions such as the one currently being rolled out across the estate. Spar Better Choices Initiative With a strong focus on health and wellbeing, Spar has introduced the Spar Better Choices initiative to stores this year as part of the growing demand for healthy and nutritious food from consumers. The Spar Better Choices campaign aims to offer customers a new range of healthy and convenient options, from across the fresh food, deli and grocery ranges. The initiative also caters to customers with varying nutritional needs, with low fat, high protein, and gluten free products on offer. Spar Better Choices was launched by Claudine Keane in June 2016 and Spar Better Choices Kids was launched in August 2016. Marketing Spar has had a busy year on the marketing front, continuing to co-invest with retailers in promoting the brand through a number of high profile sponsorships and activities. 2016 was a fantastic year for Spar due to its exclusive sponsorship as convenience retail partner of the FAI and its hugely successful Spar Team of Gary Breens campaign during the Euros. The campaign was led by digital and social media with an online video produced featuring Gary Breen himself to recruit people to enter a competition. Spar recently won The Best Use of Digital Award at the Irish Sponsorship Awards for the Team of Gary Breens campaign. SPAR also continued to sponsor the very successful Spar FAI Primary School 5s Programme, which has just launched for 2017 with a new ambassador, Keith Andrews. Last year, nearly 24,000 children from 1,267 schools participated, making it the most successful year to date. A Spar store continues to feature on the set of the nation’s favourite soap, Fair City, as part of the ongoing sponsorship. This year, Spar’s exclusive Tasty Deli was added to the set, ensuring that Spar’s new look and feel is communicated to viewers.

Spar has a number of exclusive offerings, including Tasty Deli, as well as coffee partnerships with Insomnia, Seattle's Best and Bewley's.

Strong Growth Spar is showing very strong overall sales performance for 2016 and more importantly, organic sales are now positive throughout the entire country. This is testament to all the hard working Spar and Spar Express retailers that have worked tirelessly over the past number of years. “We are very confident at Spar with our growth plans for 2017 onwards with a strong pipeline of new business for the remainder of the year,” revealed Colin Donnelly, Spar Sales Director. “Our policy of recruiting independent retailers who share our vision for the Spar brand is certainly paying dividends.”

46|Retail News|December 2016|www.retailnews.ie

Retail Groups Review Eurospar

Eurospar: Name of symbol group: Eurospar Head office: BWG Foods, BWG House, Greenhills Road, Tallaght, Dublin 24 Type of distribution network: National distribution centre servicing fresh, ambient and alcohol to stores nationwide Number of stores nationwide: 50 Colours: Colours: Red, white and green Tagline: ‘Famous for Fresh’

THE first Eurospar supermarket opened in 1997 in Lucan, Co. Dublin, and the network has expanded over the years to what it is today. Eurospar supermarkets and their retailers are at the heart of local communities around Ireland: family run businesses, committed to servicing the local neighbourhood. The Eurospar brand is owned by BWG Foods, a leading wholesale and retail company. Working in partnership with independent retailers, BWG ensures a profitable business model and world class Malachy Hanberry, supermarket offer, constantly Managing Director, innovating through product Eurospar. development, cutting edge store design and service. Through its wide network of stores, BWG Foods supports local jobs, suppliers, producers and community groups. Innovation Eurospar has been awarded many local and international awards for innovation and best practice in retailing and has international scale through Spar International, with stores in over 36 countries worldwide. Eurospar focuses on six key elements: the best fresh foods; giving shoppers the best value; rewarding them for shopping with Eurospar; stocking product ranges that shoppers want; providing exceptional customer service and the best possible shopping experience.

Eurospar supermarkets and their retailers are at the heart of local communities around Ireland.

Famous for Fresh In 2015, a new look supermarket store format was unveiled for the Eurospar brand, with a renewed emphasis on fresh food offerings in response to shopper demand. Under the new tagline ‘Famous for Fresh’, Eurospar boasts an innovative range of in-store departments, with a host of new product offerings in fruit & veg, bakery, and butchery. There has also been a huge amount of innovation throughout the off licence, health & beauty and baby-care departments, as well as discounter deals. Advertising The Eurospar retailer is supported in such a way that they can become the supermarket of choice in their locality. National and regional advertising campaigns drive awareness and demand to enable the retailer to compete with other supermarkets in their area, as well as marketing programmes which are adapted to the needs of the local store. Eurospar retailers have access to exclusive product offers that can set them apart from competitors: everyday low pricing, strong promotions, along with exclusive departments. The ‘S Budget’ discount range means they can compete with the local discounter and an ever-expanding Spar Range gives a quality value alternative for today’s shopper. Spar Select is a range of premium products sourced from local Irish and international suppliers.

Under the new tagline ‘Famous for Fresh’, Eurospar boasts an innovative range of in-store departments, with a host of new product offerings in fruit & veg, bakery, and butchery.

Community Services Eurospar retailers have very strong ties to their local communities and pride themselves on engaging with local community projects. They work with nominated charities in their areas to raise much needed funds through collection boxes, donations made from the sale of a range of Spar Range products and local fundraising activities. As an integral part of the local community, Eurospar stores are home to a broad range of community services, such as the post offices, dry cleaning and café style coffee and food offerings where shoppers can meet and mingle. The Eurospar retailer is customer focused, financially astute and wants to work with BWG Foods to develop the brand at a national and local level. They see the benefit of being an independent supermarket owner in their local community, whilst having the backing of marketing, retail operations and store development expertise of BWG Foods.

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Retail Groups Review Mace

Mace: Name of Group: Mace Head Office: BWG Foods, Greenhills Road, Tallaght, Dublin 24 Type of distribution network: National distribution centre servicing fresh, ambient and alcohol to stores nationwide Number of Stores nationwide: 230 Colours: Turquoise and orange Tagline: “Going the Extra Smile” Average Store Size: 135 square metres Wholesale partner: BWG Foods Forecourt partner: Strategic partnership with Maxol and operates forecourt locations with a broad variety of fuel partners

THROUGH a strong shopper offering, focused on both neighbourhood and forecourt retailing, comprehensive national and local marketing programmes and unrivalled retailer support, Mace sets itself apart from its competitors. Mace prides itself on “going the extra smile” and through the Mace Excellence Awards Programme, run in conjunction with EIQA, ensures that its stores provide best practice retailing to shoppers. The value offering is tailored for the two sets of store types and shopper types Alex Banahan, Mace Sales Director. that exist within the group, with promotional activity focused on forecourt shoppers and on neighbourhood store shoppers. Exclusive Fairtrade coffee offerings, a Mace own brand range, a high quality Irish sourced Glenmór meat range combined with exclusive wines, beers and spirits, ensure that Mace shoppers are

Mace is a convenience retailer that promotes a proposition of ‘Going the Extra Smile’, based on the fact that consumer research found Mace is the standout retailer when it comes to valuing its customers.

The Mace brand goes from strength to strength and there is a strong programme of activity and investment to ensure that this continues in the year ahead.

fully serviced across each store type as appropriate for their needs. Local Mace has been a part of the Irish community for over half a century, so understanding local customers is central to each and every business. Many of the Mace stores have been owned by generations of the same family and are well established in their local community; they support local teams and community initiatives. In 2014, Mace named the Irish Hospice Foundation as their charity partner and Mace retailers and their shoppers continue to raise money for this very deserving charity, particularly for the Nurses for Nightcare programme. Donations are made to the charity through the sale of a selected range of Mace own brand products, from collection boxes in stores and through locally organised fundraising activities. Going the Extra Smile Mace is a convenience retailer that promotes a proposition of ‘Going the Extra Smile’, based on the fact that consumer research found Mace is the standout retailer when it comes to valuing its customers. Mace believes in going the extra smile: customers are greeted with a friendly ‘hello’, a smile and a ‘thank you; each store owner makes sure the right range of products are stocked to meet local shoppers' needs; store layout is designed and planned to make shopping enjoyable and easy. Mace Right Options Capturing the shopper trends towards a desire to follow a healthier lifestyle, Mace has introduced a new programme called Mace Right Options. Working in conjunction with Aoife Hearne, Registered Dietitian, the range offers Mace shoppers the ‘right option’ for their lifestyle across all food and drink offerings. With a brand position of “Going the Extra Smile”, the Mace team have introduced a programme of customer service training for its store staff. By identifying a customer service champion in each store who undertakes an intensive training programme, it means that each champion is in a position to deliver top-class customer service to shoppers and to instil similar practices with other staff members. The Mace brand goes from strength to strength in both forecourt and neighbourhood retailing and there is a strong programme of activity and investment to ensure that this continues in the year ahead.

48|Retail News|December 2016|www.retailnews.ie

Retail Groups Review Londis

Londis: Name of Group: Londis Head Office: BWG Foods, Greenhills Road, Tallaght, Dublin 24 Type of distribution network: National distribution centre servicing fresh, ambient and alcohol to stores nationwide Number of Stores nationwide: Over 130 Colours: White and green and orange Tagline: “Local Like You” Average Store Size: 200 square metres Wholesale partner: BWG Foods

LONDIS joined the BWG Foods group in 2015, making it a landmark year in the history of the brand, following on from its 60th birthday celebrations. Londis was originally founded by a group of like-minded retailers who wanted to secure better trading terms from suppliers and to enhance their businesses through collaboration and co-operation. This sense of community and co-operative ethos remains at the forefront of how Londis does business today.

BWG has put in place a programme of co-investment with Londis retailers to upgrade and modernise stores.

Tastes Like Home A powerful advocate of supporting local, Londis is delighted to be involved with Catherine Fulvio’s new TV show, Tastes Like Home, airing on RTÉ One. Catherine is a perfect fit for the Londis brand: being a Wicklow girl herself, she values the importance of good quality food and has a great ‘local like you’ attitude. The campaign was launched in March 2016, by sending life size Catherine Fulvios to all stores with application forms so customers could apply to be a participant on the show. In conjunction with this, there was a heavy weighted social media promotion, where customers could apply through www.londis.ie and the Londis Ireland Facebook page. The show’s production team was inundated with entries from villages and towns across the country: finally, the applications were whittled down to six people. Conor Hayes, Sales Director, Londis.

‘Local Like You’ Londis has very strong links to Irish suppliers across their range of goods from fresh to ambient. Londis retailers are also strong supporters of suppliers in their locality because an integral part of the Londis model is to be a part of the local community and supporting local initiatives in any way they can. Londis has a very distinct personality and set of brand values, which is brought to life in the ‘Local Like You’ marketing programme and showcases just how much Londis retailers care about the local communities which they serve.

An integral part of the Londis model is to be a part of the local community and supporting local initiatives in any way they can.

Bia Blás There have been lots of developments at Londis since joining BWG, with a particular focus on retail innovation, product offering and store design and layout. Several new and exclusive food and beverage offerings have been launched in recent months. Chief among these is a focus on foodservice with the introduction of Bia Blás, a new and exclusive deli offering, as well as a new bakery concept and three new coffee offerings. The brand’s private label offering is being expanded to focus on fresh and chilled, giving Londis retailers access to BWG’s exclusive sub-brands, such as Glenmór meats, Fresh Choice produce and the extensive exclusive agency wine portfolio. Londis retailers also have access to a new category management system to improve effectiveness of product layout and drive sales. Co-investment Programme Significantly, BWG has put in place a programme of coinvestment with Londis retailers to upgrade and modernise stores, giving retailers access to funds which may not have been readily available in recent years. This is supported by the launch of a brand new store concept and retail offer, which is currently being rolled out. It is all these initiatives combined that ensures differentiation from competitors, along with driving growth across the Londis estate. Importantly, these new changes will allow the retailers more time on the shop floor, enabling them to deliver on what matters most; giving the local Londis customer the best shopping experience possible. With the support of BWG Foods behind the brand, in partnership with ambitious Londis retailers, alongside new initiatives like Bia Blás, Londis is well positioned to see healthy growth next year.

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Retail Groups Review XL

XL: Name of symbol group: XL Head office: BWG Foods, BWG House, Greenhills Road, Tallaght, Dublin 24 Type of distribution network: 21 Value Centres Nationwide and Chill distribution Number of stores nationwide: Over 240 Colours: Blue, green and silver Tagline: ‘A great deal more at your local store’ Average store size: 110 square metres Wholesale partner: Value Centre

XL offers retailers the opportunity to retain their independence and local identity, while benefitting from the many advantages of symbol group membership. XL offers a flexible, market leading package which enables retailers to tailor their shop to consumer needs and react quickly to changing market Colm Fitzsimons, XL National Business conditions to help Development Manager. grow their business. XL’s affordable fit-out cost is one of the many attractions,

The XL brand will celebrate its 20th birthday in 2017.

with access to competitively priced products and innovative offerings via BWG Foods being another major advantage. Competitions XL’s consumer competitions run up to five times a year, giving XL a point of difference from competitors and it typically gives away over 1,000 prizes each year. For example, XL ran a summer competition to win a 2017 family holiday, with consumers redeeming a free bucket and spade in-store and then snapping a picture of it on their holidays and uploading it to the group’s Facebook page to be in with a chance to win. XL had a fantastic response to this competition, with buckets and spades flying off the shelves in many stores! Neighbourhood XL retailers are very conscious of their local credentials and being a part of the local community is very important to them so they aim to support local Irish suppliers as much as possible. As a group of neighbourhood stores run by independent retailers, XL’s ethos is underpinned by a dedication to community retailing, price and value. Their ongoing aim is to improve the shopping experience for customers and ultimately drive footfall and sales for XL’s retail partners. That means delivering a more customer-centric category management system, coupled with innovation and expansion in popular categories such as deli, coffee, fresh foods and wine. In recent years, XL have focused more than ever on delivering value through everyday price reductions and ongoing special offers and promotions, making XL appealing and relevant to retailers and their local shoppers.

XL offers a flexible, market leading package which enables retailers to tailor their shop to consumer needs and react quickly to changing market conditions to help grow their business.

Great Coffee XL has introduced a new deli concept which is proving very successful, as well as the addition of two new coffee brands, Insomnia and Seattle’s Best, and a focus on in-store bakery. They have also introduced an extensive consumer value message, which is a key addition to the symbol this year. XL added 20 new stores to its network this year as part of its national growth strategy. The XL network currently has 240 stores nationwide, providing employment to over 2,400 people. XL has added more than 100 stores over the past four years, making it the fastest growing retail brand in Ireland. The brand will celebrate its 20th birthday in 2017.

50|Retail News|December 2016|www.retailnews.ie

Retail Groups Review

Super Year for SuperValu 2016 proved a superb year for SuperValu as the group continued to engage with Irish shoppers. SUPERVALU enjoyed a tremendous 2016. Now capturing 22.4% of grocery spending, SuperValu continues to enjoy a positive performance, with an increase in sales of 2.3% yearon-year, according to the latest supermarket share figures from Kantar Worldpanel in Ireland, for the 12 weeks ending November 6, 2016. More shoppers have chosen to visit the retailer this year but they have also spent more, parting with an additional 80c per trip on average. SuperValu continues to engage with Irish shoppers in a way that is relevant and exciting for them. SuperValu’s Home Truths II report, released in April, reveals we want to cook more but lack of time and cooking skills stand in our way. As a nation, we are big supporters of cooking from scratch, believing that it is the healthiest option; with nine out of 10 of us saying it gives us control over what we eat. Yet 37% of under 34-year-olds say they don’t cook from scratch out of pure laziness, 31% say they lack inspiration and 16% say they just don’t know how. One in 10 Irish adults never involve their children in cooking at home which is a concern, given the importance of cooking as a life skill as they grow into teenagers and adulthood. The report shows a real age divide when it comes to meal options and behaviour, with 18-24 year olds having above average weekly consumption of take-aways and fast food, while over half of us have a takeaway at home at least weekly. Good Food Karma Project To address these issues and help get Ireland cooling, SuperValu took its Good Food Karma campaign a step further. The Good Food Karma Project wants to ensure that wholesome, delicious food is a force for future-proofing the health and wellness of the next generation. SuperValu is working with an army of foodies, including celebrity chefs Kevin Dundon, Martin Shanahan and Sharon Hearne Smith, athletes David Gillick, Bernard Brogan and Anna Geary, The Happy Pear, Daniel Davey and inspiring foodies Conor Bereen, Marc Bereen, Duncan Maguire, Federico Riezzo and Ciaran McGonagle. This super-team has created a series of recipes, videos and blog posts, all available at supervalu.ie, to inspire Ireland to get eating less processed and more nutritious food. They also hit the road over the summer to visit communities around the country, giving demonstrations and helping people to improve their culinary skills. “At SuperValu, we are passionate about supporting further growth in home cooking, which will help ensure the next generation is healthier than the last,” said Ray Kelly, Marketing Director at SuperValu. “We want to change people’s relationship with food by demonstrating the real benefits of good wholesome food and the fun and satisfaction

Pictured at the launch of the SuperValu Good Food Karma Project are Juneau Conroy, one of Ireland's youngest chefs, with celebrity ambassadors Kevin Dundon and Martin Shanahan.

that is gained from cooking.” Kelly continued: “Customers are looking for inspiration, advice and guidance on what they can and should cook for their family and friends. Our Good Food Karma Project is all about giving people the tools and skills to enable them to do precisely that, from providing food inspiration ideas to simple advice on cooking skills. We are calling on everyone to cook just one more meal at home every week: they can get inspirational advice and tips from our Good Food Karma ambassadors on line and in store to help them do just that.” Real Rewards Relaunch October also saw the relaunch of the Real Rewards loyalty programme, including a new a new partnership with Bank of Ireland, the first in a number of new partnerships from a range of different industries that SuperValu will incorporate into its Real Rewards programme, building upon its existing relationships with Electric Ireland and Getaway Breaks. The re-launched Real Rewards programme enabled its existing one million members to earn points in a variety of ways, including by linking their Bank of Ireland personal credit card and SuperValu Real Rewards card, earning customers 250 Real Rewards Bonus points. Once they have linked, Customers will earn 2 points per €1 spend when shopping in SuperValu and 1 point per €10 spend with any other purchase. “As part of our innovation agenda, SuperValu is

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Retail Groups Review stores all across Ireland. “We’re very proud that SuperValu and our superb suppliers and food producers won awards across all the food categories, which is quite simply down to the suppliers’ passion for quality fresh food and their unstinting commitment to delivering innovative products that give our customers both the quality and value they want,” said Martin Kelleher, Managing Director, SuperValu. “It’s great to see their hard work and commitment was recognised by Blas na hÉireann this year by winning so many Gold, Bronze and Silver awards.” Constantly Innovating SuperValu’s desire to give customers what they want extends right across the year. August saw renowned TV host Pictured at the relaunch of SuperValu Real Rewards are (l-r): and leading celebrity Graham Niall Dineen, Residential Markets Manager, Electric Ireland; Norton teaming up with Richie Boucher, CEO, Bank of Ireland; and Martin Kelleher, MD, SuperValu for a second successive SuperValu. year to launch his new blend of constantly exploring new ranges of products and services to Sauvignon Blanc wine in early offer consumers,” noted SuperValu MD, Martin Kelleher. September, followed by his new “Our Real Rewards programme has always been popular Shiraz wine in early November. with our customers and the feedback we received from them Graham Norton Sauvignon Blanc was that they wanted new ways to benefit from the scheme, has become one of the bestselling similar to our partnership with Electric Ireland.” white wines in just 12 months, as SuperValu’s wine buyer, Award Winning Range Kevin O’Callaghan, explains: The quality of the SuperValu range was also recognised “Consumers are buying it initially with a series of awards during 2016, including a host of Irish for the celebrity name, but they Quality Food & Drink Awards, including the Christmas Q are returning for the quality.” Fish Award for SuperValu Signature Tastes Trio of Smoked October saw the launch of Salmon, from Dunn's of Dublin; SuperValu Signature SuperValu’s new mouth-watering Tastes Single Origin Java Coffee Capsule, from Euro-Caps bakery range. The range includes B.V., which won the Coffee category; and SuperValu & traditional Irish favourites like Centra BBQ Pork Rib Rack, from Kepak, winner in the pork 100% Wholemeal Stoneground category. Soda, Brown Round Soda Bread, SuperValu also lifted a record 103 Blas na hÉireann Great Taste Award winning awards, picking up 29 awards for its own brand range of Sean’s Brown Bread, as well as products, winning 13 Gold, nine Silver and seven Bronze, Graham Norton Shiraz health and world breads like Hi launched in November and Fibre Seed and Carrot Bread, is expected to replicate the Oats and Chia Seed Cob, Rye success of his Sauvignon Sourdough with Sunflower Seeds and Tomato and Fennel Loaf. The Blanc. cake range includes Chocolate Brownies with Raspberry and Amaretti and Rocky Road Biscuit Slice, made with Belgian chocolate, butter and crunchy biscuit chunks. SuperValu’s Christmas 2016 Bakery range includes luxurious and exciting products to tantalise taste buds, from Armagnac brandy mince pies to a first ever Signature Tastes’ Chocolate Wreath Cake, as well as Biscuit Cake Pudding, made using Belgian chocolate and Irish butter, enrobed with milk chocolate, hand finished with soft icing and chocolate decorations. There are also bite-sized sweet party treats, perfect puddings like the Signature Taste Festive Christmas Pudding Taste Pack and the Signature Taste Round Christmas Cake. SuperValu is constantly innovating and delivering new products to excite consumer taste buds, including the SuperValu lifted a record 103 Blas na hÉireann awards in 2016. recent launch of a brand new, mouth-watering Hampshire while SuperValu’s Food Academy producers went home with Ham (Gluten Free) range. The Hampshire breed is one of 74 awards – 26 Gold, 30 Silver and 18 Bronze. the oldest breeds of pig in existence today and is renowned SuperValu’s Food Academy is a unique training for offering the leanest, most delicious meat. SuperValu programme, run along with Bord Bia and the Local Enterprise Signature Tastes Glazed Hampshire Ham on the bone is Board, with the aim of supporting, nurturing and mentoring available in selected SuperValu stores this Christmas for start-up food businesses. Since it started, The Food Academy €60, while throughout the year, Hampshire Ham is available Programme has been a huge success, with more than 200 Food to buy in selected SuperValu stores fresh from the deli Academy producers now selling their products in SuperValu counter.

52|Retail News|December 2016|www.retailnews.ie

Retail Groups Review

Centra Helps Consumers to Live Well Research from Centra reveals that Irish consumers are increasingly health aware, and the Centra Live Well and Live Every Day programmes have proved hugely successful in tapping into consumer behaviour. Centra Ambassador Pippa O’Connor: “Initiatives like Live Well make it easy to make those healthy choices”.

TWO thirds of Irish consumers are more health conscious than a year ago, according to recent research by Centra, conducted by Red C, that shows a shift in shopper behaviour towards healthier options. Centra’s findings show that two thirds of Irish adults admit to making more of an effort to live healthy compared to 12 months ago. Four out of five people feel they are more conscious about their food intake compared to a year ago, with two thirds of the nation now admitting to consciously checking the ingredients in what they consume. Anticipating shoppers’ needs, Centra have decreased shelf space for sugary drinks over the past 12 months and promoted healthier alternatives instead, helping to reduce the calorie intake of their customers by 125m calories. This is the equivalent of 7.8m spoons of sugar taken out of shoppers’ baskets in the past year. This achievement forms part of Centra’s Live Well programme, which launched 12 months ago, and encourages

customers to make healthy choices and promotes healthy living. Showing consumers growing appetite to seek out healthy alternatives, Centra has seen sales of €17m in Live Well products since launching. Genuine Attitude Shift Centra’s research reveals a genuine attitude shift, with 85% of Irish adults saying they are more conscious about the products they consume, by monitoring more closely their fruit, veg, water and sugar intake compared to 12 months ago. This shift in mindset has been borne out by changes in shopping trends in Centra stores. Sales of nutritional bars, such as Bounce protein balls, Fulfil and Naked, have seen 50% growth in the last year. Since the launch of Live Well, sales of salads are growing 58% faster than hot deli food such as breaded chicken, sausages and bacon. Salads are also growing two thirds faster than the traditional sandwich option at the cold deli.

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Retail Groups Review Centra #LiveToday Photo Competition OVER 1,500 images of people’s favourite moments were shared for the Centra #LiveToday photography competition to mark Centra’s new brand position ‘Live Every Day’. Pippa O’Connor is pictured with some of the finalists’ photographs. The overall winner was Martina Corry for her image of her granny, Josie O’Brien peering out from a half stable door set against an old brick wall in Tulla, County Clare.

According to Centra’s research, Irish adults claim to drink a higher amount of water than this time a year ago, particularly when it comes to younger consumers. Centra customers are staying hydrated, with sales of water growing 20% ahead of sugary alternatives since the launch of Live Well. More than just healthier alternatives in-store, Live Well encourages people to get active. Over 11,500 children got active at Centra’s hurling events and Centra got over 200,000 people walking last year through their pink walks in aid of the Irish Cancer Society’s Action Breast Cancer programme. Finally, Live Well aims to educate and inspire shoppers. The Live Well hub on www.centra.ie includes dedicated Live Well videos that have achieved 1.6m views over the past 12 months, providing nutritional advice, recipe ideas and exercise tips. Live Every Day Launched in October, Centra’s ‘Live Every Day’ brand positioning will see a radical transformation of the Centra brand, including in-store renovations, a heavyweight €3m marketing campaign and the introduction of healthier convenient products in-store. Live Every Day is about helping shoppers live in the moment and allowing them to make the most out of every day. Centra’s brand transformation is not just a tag-line; there will be tangible proof points that customers will experience. This includes store renovations to bring a fresh stylish look that will appeal to a new generation of Centra shoppers, with Centra due to invest €24m in renovating stores over the next two years. As Ireland’s number one convenience retailer, the Centra brand continues to experience strong momentum, opening seven new stores already this year, three of which were greenfield stores. Centra’s new in-store experience has already been internationally acknowledged, with the convenience brand winning Gold at the A.R.E (Association for Retail

Environments) Design Awards in Las Vegas, recognising the very best in international retail design. Centra clinched gold alongside other world-renowned brands such as Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Lego and Under Armour. Redefining Convenience Not only will the look and feel of stores evolve, Centra will be redefining convenience with a healthier, more innovative product offering. As part of the brand transition, customers will experience notable changes in-store, with healthier options more prominently displayed, to help consumers to choose healthier on-the-go alternatives. Ranges in-store will go through radical transformation, including new healthier bakery ranges, as well as new deli and coffee offerings. Centra has also reformulated a number of its ranges. All of their new fresh bakery products are free from artificial flavourings, colours and hydrogenated fats. Similarly Centra’s dinner meal ranges were revised with a new range of healthier meals developed. These new meals are all less than 450 calories and contain at least one of consumers’ ‘five a day’ per serving. In the last year alone, Centra has removed almost 200m calories from its customers’ baskets by reducing shelf space for carbonates in favour of promoting healthier alternatives. “With Live Every Day, Centra is redefining convenience with a healthier, more innovative offering across our stores,” noted Ray Kelly, Centra Marketing Director. “We are revolutionising our in-store experience to position Centra as the ultimate time saver for great food. The in-store experience is critical for our success as we understand that our customers lead busy lifestyles and as Ireland’s leading convenience brand, we want to make their lives simpler. Whether they choose to Live Well with healthier choices or live it up with some well-deserved indulgence every once in a while, Centra are here to help.” Centra’s communications plan behind Live Every Day was led by heavyweight TV advertising to drive mass awareness and establish an emotional connection with viewers. It was supported with the largest outdoor campaign of any brand in 2016 to showcase Centra’s quality food credentials. PR, digital and social media activity helped to extend the campaign, driving additional awareness and engagement. The total investment figure for this new brand positioning is €3m across media and production.

Centra Zips Ahead HUNDREDS of people got the chance to soar through the sky on Centra’s City Zipline in September. The event marked the launch of Centra’s new brand position, Live Every Day, which encourages people to live in the moment and make the most of every day. Pictured on the Centra City Zipline was comedien PJ Gallagher.

54|Retail News|December 2016|www.retailnews.ie

Retail Groups Review

Brilliant Year for Barry Group Barry Group has enjoyed another stellar year in 2016 across its Costcutter, Carry Out and Quik Pick franchises. WITH 2016 proving to be another strong year, the Mallow based Barry Group is well positioned to continue growing across all of its selling channels and to continue to enhance its reputation as one of Ireland’s most respected wholesale distribution companies. 2016 has seen the addition of 40 new group stores to the Barry Group franchise estate, proof of the company’s attraction to retailers and of the application of Barry Group’s award winning team. The number of new jobs created is put at 500, as more than half of the new group retailers have previously traded as independent outlets or under another franchise brand. Quality Convenience Retail Neighbourhood retailing is enjoying an upsurge, according to Jim Barry, Managing Director of the Barry Group, Jim Barry, Managing Director, Barry Group. who says that more people back at work and improving consumer spend generally milestone for a company that has grown to be one of the most is driving demand for quality convenience retail. respected wholesale distribution companies in Ireland. “Barry Group has enjoyed a hugely successful year from The key to developing the retail franchise business is in both a recruitment and sales point of view. This is huge delivering profitable solutions to retail partners, so that they vindication of the strategies we’ve put in place as a company can compete with the international operators, Jim Barry and of the range of services we offer retailers,” said Edwina believes: “In the Barry Group, we pride ourselves on being Lucey, Sales Director, Barry Group. hands-on and innovation driven. It is our business to provide The new stores have a wide geographical spread, with solutions for our retail partners, so that they can concentrate outlets opening nationwide in Drogheda, Limerick, Galway on running modern, vibrant stores at the heart of local and Cork, amongst others. communities, and offer quality, value, and good friendly Barry Group’s three franchise channels, Costcutter, service.” Carry Out and Quik Pick, have each enjoyed significant success this year. Jim Barry attributes this success to Barry Multiple Award Wins Group’s unique standing in the market: “We are a family Once again this year, the company was named as both a business ourselves and that means we are in a unique ‘Great Place to Work’, and one of Deloitte’s ‘Best Managed position in the market to understand and adopt to the needs Companies’ in national business awards schemes, making of other family businesses. We work exceptionally hard on Barry Group the first wholesale company in Ireland to establishing a lasting relationship with our retailers and I achieve both awards and Barry Group MD, Jim Barry was think that relationship is the foundation of our success.” also named as Ireland’s Most Trusted Leader at the 2015 GPTW awards. Over 60 Years in Irish Retail Earlier this year, Barry Group was named as a National Founded in 1955 by James A. Barry, the Barry Group Champion in the European Business Awards, with Jim celebrated its 60th year in business last year, a significant Barry being named in the Top 10 in the Entrepreneur of

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Retail Groups Review the Year category in the overall European Business Awards. In October, the Le Fonti IAIR Award was presented to the Barry Group (Excellence of the Year for Innovation Wholesale Distributions Ireland). “To be selected in the top 10 in Europe for our category is terrific vindication of the work we do as a company,” notes Jim Barry. “We are always pushing ourselves to offer the very best to our customers, and receiving this prestigious award is great recognition of that work.” With the platform of a strong 2016 behind the company, Jim Barry is bullish about Barry Group’s prospects in 2017: “We have a number of exciting projects in the pipeline for 2017 and we’re excited about their potential impact on the business. Our intention is to achieve double digit growth across all of our selling channels in 2017.”

Edwina Lucey, Sales Director, and Jim Barry, Barry Group MD.

Proud to be local

Family Owned Professionally run

Costcutter Ireland is the perfect symbol group partner

For a family business

‘What separates us I believe, is our understanding and appreciation of the needs of other family businesses and offering them the stability and platform they need to ensure their business is successful’ says Managing Director of Barry Group Jim Barry – parent company of

Costcutter Ireland

Barry Group can point to over 60 years in business and a string of high profile awards as proof of the stability they can offer a business and they can also point to the growing reputation that Costcutter is developing as a vibrant, innovative retail group as proof of the platform they

can offer retailers

The opening half of 2016 has seen some significant additions to the Costcutter group with fourteen new stores opening at various locations

across the country

‘We are constantly challenging ourselves in every aspect of our service and we believe that resonates with our customers. As a company, we pride ourselves on the relationships we build with our customers and we are always striving to offer

the perfect partnership

For more information on how Costcutter can help your business acheive its full potential

contact Oliver Savage: 086 6036142 or visit barrygroup.ie.

56|Retail News|December 2016|www.retailnews.ie

Retail Groups Review

Gala Performance in 2016

Gala Retail’s focus on delivering and supporting retailers is working, increasing its presence in Dublin and on forecourt sites nationwide. GALA’S unique structure is what sets it apart from other convenience groups. Its ‘retailer first’ strategy ensures that Gala retailers benefit from Gala Retail’s expertise, combined with the local support and invaluable knowledge of Gala’s network of wholesalers, which are situated across Ireland. By focusing on delivering for each Pictured at the announcement that Gala and every retailer, partnered with Special Olympics Ireland Gala is confident that its retailers are in four-year deal are(l-r) Gala CEO, Gary best-placed to know Desmond; Special Olympics bowling athlete, Deirdre Nevin; former rugby and serve their international and Special Olympics board community, which is member, David Wallace; Special Olympics why the Gala Group bowling athlete, Brendan Kerley; and CEO is growing. of Special Olympics Ireland, Matt English. 23 stores joined Gala in 2016, and total group store numbers now exceed 200, with the makeup of stores including forecourt, ‘neighbourhood’ and ‘high street’ stores. Stores in the Gala Group include Gala, Gala Express and the recently relaunched Your Stop (formerly known as Checkout). “Gala retailers are regarded as amongst the best in the country, and this year, a number of our retailers have been recognised on a national stage, with wins for the quality of their offering, service and overall store performance,” noted Gala Retail CEO, Gary Desmond. “In 2016, we’ve welcomed many new dynamic retailers to the Gala Group, in addition to a number of our current retailers who have expanded their Gala footprint by opening new stores. It’s an exciting time for Gala, and with the first quarter of 2017 already shaping up to feature a number of new store openings, we’re confident that Gala is growing!” Gala stores have access to buying power in excess of €800m through the Group’s association with the Stonehouse buying group, ensuring that Gala stores can offer quality products at value prices, a combination that is crucial in today’s competitive convenience sector.

Gala Conference and B.E.S.T Awards Celebrating Gala’s achievements and rewarding its retailers, the Gala Group conference took place in September at the Malton Hotel in Killarney. Hundreds of guests attended, including retailers, wholesalers, suppliers and Gala stakeholders,for the annual event which hosted the Gala B.E.S.T (Business Excellence Standards Tool) Awards. “Gala is privileged to have so many talented retailers within the Group and our annual awards are a chance to recognise these retailers and to celebrate their successes over the past year,” Gary Desmond noted. “Being an award-winner is not a given, and each year, our B.E.S.T awards are judged by an external third-party to ensure standards are upheld year-on-year. We are thrilled with this year’s results, and are pleased to be able to report that our top award, the gold standard, was our largest category.” 32 stores were recipients of the ‘gold’ accolade, while many other retailers received either silver or bronze. There were also 10 category award winners, including Gala Supplier of the Year, Britvic Ireland. Chilled Distribution Gala’s chilled central distribution offering goes from strength to strength, enjoying double digit growth year-on-year. Now offering a full array of dairy and deli products, it has exceeded expectations and is a key pillar in the Gala offering moving forward.

Pictured are Aine Moriarty, Chief Executive of IFTA, with broadcaster, Pat Kenny, who received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the IFTA Gala Television Awards, and Gary Desmond, CEO of Gala.

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Retail Groups Review Gala Marketing Marketing plays a central role with Gala, and as a vibrant, communityfocused convenience retailer, all marketing activities are reflective of the brand’s values. Gala stays true to its tagline, ‘The National brand with local focus’, and in 2016, the Gala Group was involved in several highprofile events, including signing a four-year partnership with Special Olympics Ireland and the IFTA Gala Television Awards. Gary Desmond, CEO of Gala Retail In April, Gala with Ireland soccer manager, Martin announced a new fourO’Neill at the Gala conference year partnership with Special Olympics Ireland. Gala’s relationship with Special Olympics Ireland has strengthened since it became one of the main sponsors of Team Ireland at the Special Olympics World Summer Games in 2015, and this new partnership runs from 2016-2019. Earlier this year, Gala’s journey with Special Olympics Ireland commenced with its support of the all-island Area Events, and the relationship reflects the four-year Olympic cycle, including the Ireland Winter Games (2016), the World Winter Games (2017), the Special Olympics European Games (2018) and the World Summer Games (2019). October saw the brightest talents in Irish entertainment gather for the annual IFTA Gala Television Awards, where almost 500 guests celebrated and rewarded the very best of Irish creative talent and Irish home-grown TV programming, in categories such as entertainment, soap and comedy. As the headline sponsor of the event, Gala introduced two new elements to this year’s proceedings in the form of a new award, the ‘Gala TV Rising Star Award’ and the introduction of a Gala Red Carpet Reporter, Yvette Poufong. Yvette, who won a competition launched by Gala to find a bright new presenting talent, reported and interviewed celebs live from the red carpet on the night, and her red carpet video is available to view on Gala’s Facebook page. The Gala TV Rising Star Award was won by comedian and TV presenter, Al Porter, who beat competition from other top TV talents including Angela Scanlon, Kevin McGahern, Maire Treasa Ní Dhubhghaill, Darren Kennedy and Vogue Williams. Gala’s sponsorship of the IFTA Gala Television Awards continues in 2017. Named as the first commercial sponsor of parkrun Ireland, Gala’s sponsorship of parkrun grew alongside the growing popularity of the free, weekly, 5km runs. Now including junior parkrun, parkrun has grown to 60 events nationwide and over the year, Gala ran monthly ‘parkrunner of the month’ competitions which saw volunteers and parkrunners rewarded for their commitment to the events. Following on from last December’s incredible stunt, when Gala helped Disney to turn the Dublin Spire into a landmark lightsaber to mark the arrival of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Gala’s partnership with Disney continued in 2016. Gala shoppers availed of pre-screenings for some of the biggest movies of the year, including Moana, The Good Dinosaur, Pete’s Dragon and many others, which were held across the country. With an online audience that’s grown to over 130,000 on Facebook alone, Gala’s social media efforts continued in

2016, with competitions, quizzes and original content driving superb levels of engagement. After months of development, Gala has also just launched its new website, www.Gala.ie. A multifaceted website, which reflects the Gala brand through its modern and fresh design, www.Gala.ie will become a central asset for Gala’s marketing activities in 2017 and beyond. The Future As Gala enters its 19th year, the Gala Group will continue to grow in 2017. In addition to growing store numbers, there are also plans for innovative new in-store concepts, further brand extensions and the launch of a refreshed Gala brand identity. Marketing efforts will continue with the Special Olympics World Winter Games taking place in Austria in March 2017, and the IFTA Gala Television Awards will once again be on our screens later in the year. Delivering compelling on and offline activities for Gala shoppers will remain a priority, with Gala investing in the generation of original content for online and direct mailers. This new initiative will be launched in January and will run throughout the year. “It’s been proven time and time again that Gala’s unique structure is proving to be a winning formula with retailers,” explains Gary Desmond. “Our retailers retain their independence, and this, coupled with the support of our wholesalers and expertise of Gala Retail, is driving more retailers to the Gala Group. “There’s a massive opportunity for us to grow as a Group as retailers start to look for nimbler and less restrictive convenience group partners. Similarly, with a business model that works, we’re investigating the possibility of Gala brand extensions, which will complement Gala’s core convenience business.” In the current climate, it’s widely accepted that there’s many challenges ahead for all businesses. “Uncertainty in the business environment is not beneficial to any sector, so yes, we’ll all feel the repercussions of Brexit as it becomes clearer how this will impact of Ireland’s economy,” Desmond concludes. “However, over the past 18 years, there have been many challenges in business, and we’ll face this challenge as with any other, by continuing to deliver superior convenience retailing to communities across Ireland.” Gala continues to look for progressive retailers who want to grow with Gala. If individuality, and simply being the BEST in retailing are important to you, find out more by contacting Gala on (045) 910066.

CEO of Gala Retail, Gary Desmond pictured with Gala Regional Operations Executive & Special Olympics volunteer, Catriona Conlon and the Team Ireland squad for the Special Olympics World Winter Games

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Retail Groups Review

Busy Year for Tesco Ireland 2016 was another busy year for Tesco Ireland, as the retailer embarked on a host of exciting initiatives and activities. CUSTOMERS continue to respond positively to Tesco Ireland’s investment in Staying Down prices with improvements in sales volumes, particularly in the important fresh food category, and an increase in the number of customer transactions. Their ‘100% Irish Meat 100% of the Time’ campaign underpinned the retailer’s continued commitment to providing customers with the best quality and freshest Irish produce, with 100% of the fresh beef, chicken, pork, eggs and milk sold in Tesco sourced in the Republic of Ireland. They also focused on developing and extending the Tesco own label range and remain the market leader in customer perception of their food and non-food range, according to a company spokesperson.

Iseult Ward, CEO of FoodCloud, Christine Heffernan, Director of Corporate Affairs, Tesco Ireland, and Orla Gilroy, CEO of Daisyhouse, are pictured celebrating Tesco Ireland’s hugely successful partnership with FoodCloud, which has seen the retailer donate over 2.2m meals to people in need since 2014.

Tesco and Irish Agri-Sector Recent research from Indecon Economic Consultants shows that Tesco Group is the single biggest buyer of Irish food and drink in the world. Indecon estimates that the full economy wide impact of Tesco is €3.26 billion every year through the purchase of Irish food and drink, employment, taxation, the provision of services etc. €1.57 billion worth of Irish food and drink is purchased by Tesco Group, of which €979.5m is exported from Ireland for sale in Tesco stores in the UK and internationally. This accounts for almost 12% of the total food and drink exports from Ireland. The Indecon research also revealed that:

•

Tesco works with 480 Irish food and drink companies, half of which are small to medium enterprises, employing less than 50 people;

•

100% of the fresh beef, pork, lamb, chicken, eggs and

milk sold in Tesco Ireland stores is sourced from farms in the Republic of Ireland;

•

Tesco works with 13,000 Irish farm families;

•

Tesco Ireland is responsible for nearly 47,000 jobs; employing 14,500 people directly in stores, head office and their depot and supporting a further 32,180 jobs in its supply chain.

Supplier Relations Tesco and Bord Bia continue to work together on an annual supplier development programme. During the year, a number of Irish food and drink companies continued to flourish under the programme, which helps Irish companies to secure, grow and maintain a listing with Tesco at home in Ireland. To date, 50 Irish food and drink companies have completed the programme, recording over €30m worth of sales to Tesco stores, with nearly a quarter of this revenue

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Retail Groups Review the benefits from a financial and convenience point of view and they can always get the slot they want,” notes a company spokesperson.

Pictured at the launch of the Tesco Community Funds National Communi-Tea Day are Samantha Browne (7), Christian O'Sullivan (5), Lucas Browne (9), Maya Rose Elmonem (6) and Kacey Wallace (6).

generated in the UK, highlighting the export opportunities realised through the programme. Leading the Way in Grocery Home Shopping Tesco continues to offer the most extensive grocery home shopping service: with over 87% population coverage, they’ve seen double digit growth in orders year on year, delivering over 44m products in the last 12 months. They’re always looking to make the shopping experience simpler and easier for customers. Their new app enables customers to place orders while on the go and schedule a delivery slot at their convenience. Additionally, Tesco Ireland have seen a rise in popularity of their Delivery Saver service, which allows a customer to have as many deliveries as they like from €7.50 a month. Indeed, they now see customers shopping twice a week to ensure they always have the freshest food. “We find that customers who join up to Delivery Saver once tend to continue their plan time and time again because they see

No Good Food Goes to Waste No matter how efficient processes are, retailers will always have perfectly edible good food going to waste at the end of each day in stores. Tesco’s continued ambition is to ensure that no good food goes to waste and to do this, they partner with Irish social enterprise FoodCloud, a platform that links businesses that have too much food with those who don’t have enough food. Every day, Tesco stores follow their normal clearance policy for food that’s nearing its best before date, with any unsold food donated to local charitable groups and organisations through FoodCloud. This is live in 120 Tesco stores, with the remaining stores coming on line by the end of the year. “We truly believe in doing the right thing and are working hard to redirect as much waste food to people first as possible. With that in mind, we’ve integrated FoodCloud’s app technology into our Tesco systems in stores to make the process much more streamlined and effective for colleagues and the 200+ community groups we work with each week,” the spokesperson explained. Tesco was proud to be the first retailer in Ireland to partner with FoodCloud in 2014 and in just two short years into the partnership, they have reached an impressive milestone whereby Tesco Ireland have donated over 2.2m meals to people in need right across Ireland.

At the Irish Quality Food & Drink Awards, held in September, Joe Manning, Category Director, Tesco, accepts the Value Q - Frozen Award for Tesco Everyday Value 3 Way Cook Chips, from Helen Lyons, Irish Quality Food and Drink Awards, and celebrity chef and food author Rachel Allen. Tesco won no fewer than 10 awards on the night.

Butcher Liam Delahunty displays his skills at the Tesco stand at 2016 National Ploughing Championships.

Community Fund Celebrates Communi-tea Spirit During September, Tesco Ireland held their biggest Community Fund event ever, with stores right across Ireland hosting Communi-Tea Days for their customers, colleagues and the local groups and organisations they’ve partnered with to date. The celebration marked the Fund reaching the significant milestone of donating nearly €2m to 5,000 good causes nationwide. Over 900 groups, from schools, GAA clubs, music groups, dance school, local parish projects and much more took some time to visit Tesco stores, enjoyed a cuppa and a chat with customers about their experience of taking part in the Community Fund.

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Retail Groups Review

A Big Year for Aldi Ireland

Aldi enjoyed a tremendous 2016, with new store openings, refurbishments, food awards and a new rugby initiative. 2016 was another busy year for Aldi Ireland as it expanded its Irish network to include 128 stores nationwide, launched a new initiative, Play Rugby in association with the Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU), continued to build a strong corporate responsibility programme and celebrated its award winning products across Irish and international food awards. Aldi has continued to invest in and develop its Irish operations, opening six new stores this year, in Sallynoggin, An Taoiseach Enda Kenny and Paul O’Connell launching Aldi Play Rugby at Aldi’s Terenure store. Mullingar, Athy, Bandon, Skibbereen and Swords. It also completely refurbished and extended three of its existing stores, including its Ashe Road Waterford, Castletroy and Palmerstown stores. Aldi is delivering continuous, long-term growth. According to Kantar Worldpanel, more and more households are visiting Aldi stores each week and it has now captured an impressive 11.3% of the market. Aldi employs over 3,000 people, recruiting 400 employees this year alone. Aldi Play Rugby Aldi introduced its first sports partnership as Official Supermarket Partner to the Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU). As part of this, in September, An Taoiseach Enda Kenny and Paul O’Connell unveiled Aldi Play Rugby at Aldi’s Terenure store. The partnership with the IRFU will see Aldi providing a substantial investment over the next four years to support the national initiative for school children. Aldi Play Rugby will assist teachers, coaches and parents to develop a rugby programme in their school, encouraging kids to get active and eat healthy.

Charities throughout the country benefited from Aldi's new Community Support Fund. Pictured are Hilda Baker, 46th/ 92nd Glanmire Scout Leader, and Cliona Marten, Aldi’s Glanmire store ‘Charity Champion’.

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Retail Groups Review Increased CSR Programme Now established as a responsible leader in corporate activity, Aldi has significantly increased its corporate responsibility programme, introducing several initiatives focused on giving back to the communities it serves. The retailer has been very active with FoodCloud, rolling out a national donation programme, whereby 79 of its stores around the country are supplying their surplus food to be redistributed to charities and community groups. Aldi donated 500,000 meals to charity through the programme. This equates to a saving of over €700,000 for the charities and community groups involved. Aldi has also partnered with the Irish Cancer Society on a range of initiatives, including its Colour Dash Pictured are Elaine Maguire (right) from Aldi and Sean Campbell (left), CEO of Foróige, with charity run, which took place members of Killimordaly/Killtulla Foróige Club, who were named the overall winners at the Foróige in Dublin, Cork, Galway and Youth Citizenship Awards in partnership with Aldi in the Citywest Hotel, Dublin. Killimordaly/Killtulla Sligo over the summer. As part Foróige Club Co. Galway, was awarded the top prize for their initiative to create an awareness and of Aldi’s Community Support fundraising campaign for defibrillators in their local area. Programme, Aldi continued to support Foróige, including sponsorship of The Foróige Youth Citizenship Awards. Highlights of 2016 At a local level, Aldi now has a ‘Charity Champion’ in Once again, Aldi’s pop-up restaurant at Taste of Dublin each of its stores and regional distribution centres around was a festival highlight. ‘Hooked by Aldi’ delighted the the country, whereby the store staff can make suggestions masses and raised funds for social enterprise FoodCloud. for donations specifically for their local community as part of Meanwhile, the Aldi marquee at the National Ploughing a Community Support Fund. The many local charities which Championships in September was filled to capacity each day have benefited from the initiative include Glanmire Scouts, of the three-day long event. Mallow Wheelchair Support Group, Greystones Cancer Aldi led the way in introducing innovative and original Support, Ashbourne Men’s Shed and Good 2 Talk Longford. groceries this year, ensuring its customers had access to As the dust settles on 2016, Aldi plans to continue its the most sought after products at the best prices possible. work in 2017, adding new stores to its existing network, To meet shoppers’ demand for fresh, healthy food, Aldi bringing great value to more Irish consumers and supporting introduced a huge array of lines, including coconut oil, the communities it serves. organic raw cashew nuts, falafel, kale, ready-to-eat avocado, superfood salads including Specially Selected Quinoa and Bulgur Wheat Salads, fruit snack packs and spiralised vegetables. True to form, Aldi’s products also rated highly over the 2016 awards season, winning five awards at the inaugural FreeFrom Irish Gluten Free Awards, seven at the Irish Quality Food and Drink Awards, 32 at the international Great Taste Awards and 15 at Blas na hÉireann, which pays tribute to the very finest Irish produce.

More and more households are visiting Aldi stores each week and it has now captured an impressive 11.3% of the market. Aldi employs over 3,000 people, recruiting 400 employees this year alone..

Aldi opened a new store in Swords in November, creating 25 new jobs.

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Retail Groups Review

Lidl Lights Up 2016

Lidl enjoyed a spectacular 2016, winning a host of awards, opening six new stores and announcing plans to recruit 600 new staff. DURING 2016, Lidl opened six brand new stores across the country, which brings the total number of stores to 149 in Ireland and 38 in Northern Ireland. The new stores opened in Swords, Co. Dublin, Ballina, Co. Mayo, East Wall, Dublin 3, Glanmire, Co. Cork, Virginia, Co. Cavan, and Glenageary, Co. Dublin. Two existing stores were modernised and rebuilt as new concept stores, which boast new architectural design and more spacious layouts, further improving customers’ shopping experience. In April, Lidl’s Corporate Headquarters relocated from Newbridge, Co. Kildare, to Tallaght, Dublin 24, where 400 head office staff are based in a state-of-the-art building. Lidl Northern Ireland’s Regional Distribution Centre in Nutts Corner, Belfast, was given a £20m makeover, which saw the premises extended by 5,000 square feet. Personnel In August 2016, Lidl revealed recruitment plans and announced they are to hire 600 new staff in the next two years, following significant growth in the Irish market and anticipation of further expansion. Recruitment commenced immediately for the roles, which will be filled over the next 24 months across all business units, including store operations, warehouse and distribution support, as well as

Pictured at the announcement that Lidl are to recruit 600 staff over the coming 24 months were Maeve McCleane, HR Director of Lidl in Ireland, and Minister of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Mary Mitchell-O'Connor TD.

head office and regional office roles. There are a variety of roles on offer in store operations such as managers, deputy managers and store assistants to support the growing store network across Ireland and Northern Ireland.

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Retail Groups Review •

Pictured at the announcement of Lidl’s three-year partnership with the Ladies Gaelic Football Association are (l-r): Aishling Sheridan, Cavan, Karen McDermott, Westmeath, Áine Haberlin, Laois, and Lorraine O'Shea, Tipperary.

Sponsorship In January, Lidl announced they were to become the official retail partner to the LGFA and the title sponsors of the Lidl Ladies National Football League. After a clever online campaign, it was revealed they were behind the 'Ladyball' product which divided the world of social media, creating a much needed debate. The fabricated product and associated 360-degree marketing campaign was designed by Lidl, with the support of the LGFA, to put the spotlight on women in sport in Ireland and raise awareness of the difficulties female sportspersons have in getting the same recognition as their male counterparts. Since announcing the partnership in January, Lidl has donated over €250,000 worth of jerseys and equipment to post-primary schools and are delighted to be able to donate a further €165,000 to local ladies’ Gaelic football clubs as part of the Lidl LGFA Club Competition. Reputation In April, Lidl was named the fifth most reputable organisation in Ireland in the annual Ireland RepTrak 2016 study, announced by The Reputations Agency. The independent study ranked each company on its RepTrak Pulse score, representing an average measure of four emotional indicators: trust, esteem, admiration and good feeling. It also studied how organisations were rated across the seven more rational dimensions of reputation: leadership, products & services, innovation, governance, workplace, performance and citizenship. Economic Report In April, Lidl published an economic report, ‘The Economic Impacts of Lidl’s Operations in the Republic of Ireland’, which was undertaken independently by DKM Economic Consultants. It established that Lidl’s capital investment programme in Ireland to date, combined with its ongoing operations, has and continues to be a major contributor to the Irish economy. Key findings of the report were as follows: • Since establishing its first seven Irish stores in 2000, which have grown to 149 today, Lidl has invested €1.4 billion in the Republic of Ireland; • Lidl employs 4,000 staff directly in Ireland and supports the employment of an additional 5,700 in suppliers and the wider economy through its ongoing operations in Ireland and overseas; • Almost 21,000 years of employment have been generated in the Irish economy through Lidl’s capital programme since 2000; • 1,200 workers have been kept permanently employed as a result of its store and distribution centre capital

development programme; Purchases from Irish suppliers have grown year-onyear and in 2015, a total of €539m was sourced from 180 Irish food suppliers. Of this, €152m worth of Irish sourced goods was purchased by Lidl for sale in its store network overseas, which accounted for 1.4% of total Irish food and drinks exports in 2015. This export activity added €97m to Ireland’s GDP, according to DKM.

Product and Industry Awards Throughout 2016, Lidl has been awarded numerous industry and product awards. To date, 143 products have won awards through prestigious organisations such as The Irish Quality Food Awards, Blas na hÉireann, The Great Taste Awards and The International Wine and Spirits competition, to name just a few. Highlights of 2016’s industry awards include The Social Media Awards, where Lidl’s Communications Department won Best Use of Facebook, Best Use of Instagram and Best In-House Team for the third year running. The All Ireland Marketing Awards recognised Lidl’s ‘Ladyball’ campaign, which was awarded the 2016 Public Relations Campaign Award. Lidl’s sponsorship of Ladies Gaelic Football won Best Sponsorship of a Sporting Event or Competition at the 2016 Sports Industry Awards. CSR Lidl Ireland’s EXPORTS support of charity partner Barretstown continued COUNTRIES ANNUALLY throughout 2016, with over Investment in Ireland in 2015 80 fundraising events taking Lidl Irish sourced A FURTHER goods for sale Lidl Ireland place over overseas buys almost the 12-month MILLION EXPORTED FOR SALE TO period. Since LIDL STORES OVERSEAS 2013, a total OF TOTAL MILLION GDP IMPACT OF IRISH GOODS IRISH FOOD of €1.47m has & SERVICES AND DRINK PER ANNUM been raised EXPORTS MILLION by Lidl, which ANNUAL Annual provides camp contribution CONTRIBUTION TO to the Exchequer IRELAND'S GDP programmes CAPITAL throughout ALMOST EXCEEDS INVESTMENT the year for children MILLION MILLION PER ANNUM MILLION suffering from IN 2016 serious illness. Each year, Barretstown ‘The Economic Impacts of Lidl’s Operations in the Republic of Ireland’ was an economic report has to raise €4.8m to stay undertaken independently by DKM Economic Consultants. operational and fundraising done by the staff of Lidl help them reach that target, enabling them to provide more camps and reduce waiting lists. 70 fundraising events have taken place in Northern Ireland this year, with all proceeds being donated to Lidl Northern Ireland’s charity partner, CLIC Sargent. To date, £160,000 has been donated to the charity, which provides services and support for children and young people living with cancer. Lidl’s partnership with Food Banks, FoodCloud Hubs, Crosscare and Fareshare saw a combined donation of 85.7 tonnes of food being donated, which equates to 187,711 meals, since 2013.

€152M

TO 18

€500

€152

€97

1.4%

€700 €350 €110 REPORT ON THE ECONOMIC IMPACTS OF LIDL’S OPERATIONS

IN THE REPUBLIC OF IRELAND (2000-2016)

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Forecourt Focus: News Applegreen Wins prestigious European SME Award APPLEGREEN has won the prestigious Star of 2016 Award at the European Small and Mid-Cap Awards, held recently in Brussels. As the winner of the Star of 2016 Award, Applegreen is considered to be an exceptional performer in its sector and a responsible corporate citizen. In selecting the winner from newly-listed mid-cap companies across Europe, the judging panel also looks for a company that stands out from the crowd in a broad range of areas, is an exceptional leader, has clear growth potential, is well-managed and has made good use of the proceeds of flotation. “This is a fantastic achievement for Applegreen,” noted Deirdre Somers, CEO of the Irish Stock Exchange and President of the Federation of European Securities Exchanges (FESE). “These Awards are coveted by newly listed companies throughout Europe and their exchanges. They are only awarded to companies with exceptional leadership and potential for growth. As CEO of the ISE and President of FESE, it is a very proud moment for me to see an Irish-listed company crowned the Star of 2016.” Bob Etchingham, Applegreen’s CEO, who accepted the Star of 2016 Award on behalf of the company, said, “We are so thrilled to win the Star of 2016 European Small and Mid-Cap Award. Listing on the Irish Stock Exchange has been a hugely positive experience for Applegreen. Our IPO in June 2015 enabled us to raise funds which we have used to expand in Ireland, the UK and the USA. Our listing has increased our profile and importantly, diversified our shareholder base internationally. Some illustrious companies were eligible for these Awards, so it is a huge honour for our team to be recognised as being one of the best newly-listed companies in Europe.”

Bob Etchingham, CEO, Applegreen, receives the Star of 2016 Award at the European Small and Mid-Cap Awards in Brussels. Also pictured is Deirdre Somers, CEO of the Irish Stock Exchange and President of the Federation of European Securities Exchanges (FESE).

Orla O’Gorman, Head of Equity at the ISE, who attended the Awards ceremony, said, “We are so proud to see Applegreen win this international SME Award. It is a testament to Applegreen’s management that the company has been recognised as an exceptional performer in its sector, a responsible corporate citizen and a company that stands out from the crowd among newly listed companies in Europe.”

Shining a Light on Mental Health

MAXOL have launched a Maxol and Aware Christmas Candle, which is now available at all Maxol locations nationwide. The perfect stocking filler, the high quality, Irish-made candle is for sale for just €4 at Maxol till-points across the country and all proceeds will go towards the company’s charity partner, Aware. With more than 450,000 people experiencing depression in Ireland, Aware’s message is one of hope; with support and information, recovery is possible. Gerry O’Brien, Head of Fundraising and Business Development at Aware, said, “We are thrilled that Maxol is supporting us with this initiative. The candle is a simple idea that reminds us of the light of hope in dark times. We hope that Maxol customers will support this campaign and help spread the light of hope this Christmas and beyond.”

Pictured at the launch of the Maxol and Aware Christmas Candle are Ciara Dunne, Marketing Executive, Maxol; Pauline McCarthy, Marketing Executive, Trade and Events; Fergal Harrington, Group Brand Development Manager, Maxol, and 6th year students from Loreto College Stephens Green.

Always FRESH MILK

and the SAME BEANS as our coffee shops

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Forecourt Focus: News Top Oil appoints Marketing and Communications Manager TOP Oil has announced the appointment of Iris Kavanagh as Marketing and Communications Manager. Based in Top Oil’s Head Office in Dublin Port, Iris will oversee the development and implementation of marketing and brand development strategies at Top Oil. She will also be responsible for evaluating customer research, market conditions, competitor data and the design and implementation of marketing strategy and plans for Top Oil, in addition to both internal and external company

communications. Iris brings with her over 10 years’ experience as a marketing and communications professional. Previously, she worked as Head of Communications and Corporate responsibility, Northern Europe, for global food and facilities company, Aramark. “We are delighted to welcome Iris to the team at Top Oil,” noted Martin Daly, Sales and Marketing Director for Top Oil. “As we continue our focus on building the Top Oil brand, Iris’ wealth of experience and focus on marketing and brand consistency are key attributes we are looking for as we continue to grow.” Iris Kavanagh said; “I am delighted to join the Top Oil team, Top Oil’s success over the years and commitment to developing its brand was a key driver for me in joining. I look forward to working as part of the team as we continue to grow our Irish business.”

Beat the Blues with Maxol Topaz Play Or Park and Aware Winners MAXOL is supporting Aware’s Beat the Blues programme taking place in 2017 in secondary schools nationwide. Beat the Blues is an interactive programme, which encourages positive mental health and wellbeing amongst teenagers aged 15-18. It is delivered to 30,000 students in 460 schools across the country Pictured at the launch of Beat each year. the Blues secondary schools Maxol is helping Aware programme was Pauline to fund the programme McCarthy, Marketing Executive, in secondary schools as Trade and Events; Gerry O’Brien, part of its official charity Head of Fundraising and partnership. “We are proud Business Development, Aware; to be part of Beat the Blues Fergal Harrington, Group Brand this year,” said Fergal Development Manager, Maxol; and Ciara Dunne, Marketing Executive, Harrington, Group Brand Maxol. Development Manager at Maxol. “The programme is designed to help teenagers understand the importance of looking after their mental health and with the support of our network of local retailers, we are helping to shine a light on this important subject.”

TOPAZ has announced that two of its customers have won an allexpenses paid, once in a lifetime trip to Lapland, one of the world’s most exciting destinations. Eugene McKiver from Co. Leitrim and Kieron Doyle Pictured is Eugene McKiver, from County from Co. Wicklow, Leitrim, winner of the Topaz Play or Park together with their magical family trip to Lapland and €2,000 families, will be spending money, with his wife, Katherine kicking off this and two daughters, Leonie and Kristen. festive season in wonderful Lapland! The families will enjoy a sleigh bell spectacular itinerary as well as €2,000 spending money. The prize package includes return flights for the family, fourstar accommodation, a reindeer sleigh ride, a snowmobile ride, a husky sleigh ride and a private meeting with Santa.

To find out what Costa Express can offer you contact: ROI tel: 021 500 3526 NI tel: 02892 688349

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Shelf Life ON the back of the very successful launch into the Irish sports nutrition market this year, Nutramino has added something rather special, indulgent and decadent to its range of protein bars. With no less than 19g of protein, Nutramino Dark Chocolate & Orange is the brand’s first protein bar made from rich, dark chocolate. The Glanbia-owned brand provides consumers with a superior protein range, and they’ve done it again with a fantastic combination of silky, dark chocolate, infused with a delicate orange flavour and crispy crunch, delivering a delicious taste experience.

ENERGIA Get Ireland Growing is a new €70,000 pool of funding from GIY and Energia, which is available to community and voluntary organisations who can apply for grants, which will enable them to start or further develop a community food-growing project in their area. The Energia Get Ireland Growing Fund will be split across three categories, ‘Sow’, ‘Grow’ and ‘Harvest’ with awards ranging from €500 to €2,000. Together, GIY and Energia will support at least 85 community food growing groups from all across the country. Pictured is Kieran Loughran, CEO of Headway; Amy O'Shaughnessy, Acquisition Marketing Manager at Energia; and Michael Kelly, Founder of GIY. See www.giyinternational.org/energiaget-ireland-growing.html for more information. CENTRA are helping consumers feel festive with their quality Christmas products, to ensure a hassle-free Christmas that helps you make the most of your day. Centra’s festive entertaining range is perfect for all occasions over the Christmas period, so consumers can spend quality time with their loved-ones. The range includes quality party food, perfect for easy entertaining, like Piri Piri Style Irish Chicken Fillet Skewers, Goats Cheese Bruschette and Mini Sausage Roll with Black Pudding, as well as a selection of paté, cheeses and meats and an antipasti platter. Centra also stock a huge range of Irish craft beer, as well as prosecco, cava and champagne. For the main event, there are whole Irish turkeys, Bord Bia quality assured ham fillets and Centra’s Free Range Turkey Breast Joint wrapped in Bacon, which costs just €10, as well as a great range of hassle-free sides and delectable desserts. KEFIR is an ancient cultured drink rich in probiotics and known for its incredible health benefits. Its origins can be traced back more than two-thousand years to the Caucasus Mountains region, located between Russia, Turkey, Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan. America’s number one Kefir brand, Lifeway Kefir launched an Irish version of this superfood, which is produced using fresh West Cork milk. The drinks are now available in major supermarkets across Ireland, in four 500ml varieties; Original, Mango, Strawberry and Blueberry. Pictured celebrating the launch of Lifeway Kefir in Ireland are; Tara Ellis, Noah Ellis, Rian Hyde, Daniel Hyde, Alanna Hyde from Innishannon, West Cork.

RADINA Shkutova has been appointed Marketing Director of Heineken Ireland. She joins from the Heineken Zagorka Brewery in Bulgaria, where she most recently held the role of Marketing Director. Radina started her Heineken career in 2005 as Brand Manager on Heineken and Global Brands. In her prior role, Radina and her team drove significant business growth for Heineken Bulgaria, building a strong portfolio and achieving the leading position in the premium segment. She was awarded the prestigious “Advertiser of the Year” Award in Bulgaria in both 2014 and 2016. NEW ProU is a delicious, locallyproduced fortified yogurt which has twice the protein and three times the calcium of regular yogurts, developed by former Bord Bia executive Michael Murphy and his wife Jane (pictured). Containing all natural ingredients, a 150g pot of ProU has 10g protein, all consumers’ daily Vitamin D requirements and over 60% of their daily calcium requirements - an ideal snack for people looking to kick back into action after the Christmas splurge. MICHAEL Ring TD, Minister of State for Regional Economic Development officially opened Irish Pet Foods in Westport, Co. Mayo, recently. The new business, which manufactures dry dog and cat food, currently employs six people, increasing to 15 within two years. It is owned by prominent Turkish businessman, Rasim Selçuk who has already invested €3m in the project and expects to invest another €2m in building up the business. Irish Pet Foods has already established export markets in Turkey and plans to expand to the UK and other European countries in the near future. Pictured are (l-r): Michael Ring TD, Minister for Regional Economic Development; Barry Egan, Enterprise Ireland Regional Director; and Rasim Selçuk, CEO, Irish Pet Foods. SPAR on Amiens Street in Dublin city centre sold the winning lottery ticket for the recent €11.3m Lotto jackpot. “We are thrilled to have sold the winning ticket here at Spar Amiens Street,” noted Paul FitzGerald, of Spar/Top Amiens Service Station. “The win has created a great buzz in our store and in the locality.” TEELING Whiskey’s Global Brand Ambassador, Kevin Hurley (pictured) has scooped the award for ‘Industry Legend of the Year’ at this year’s Irish Craft Cocktail Awards. As the 2016 recipient of this award, Kevin will now be inducted into the Irish Craft Cocktail Awards Hall of Fame.

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Truly Irish Country Foods Ltd. Newcastlewest, Co. Limerick, V42 K207, Ireland. Tel: +353 69 78334 Email: office@trulyirish.ie Website: www.trulyirish.ie