10|Retail News|January / February 2020|www.retailnews.ie
Industry News Spar supports Daily Mile initiative AS part of Spar’s partnership as Official Retail Partner of Athletics Ireland, they will support a number of different Athletics Ireland initiatives including the Daily Mile. A primary school programme which sees children run or jog at their own pace for 15 minutes every day, making them fitter, healthier, and more able to concentrate in the classroom, The Daily Mile was launched by Athletics Ireland in 2018. The initiative is fast approaching the magic number of 1,000 primary schools signed-up, equating to more than 180,000 students engaged with the programme daily across 26 counties. Spar have teamed up with Irish international athlete Rhasidat Adeleke (pictured) as a Spar ambassador for The Daily Mile. Rhasidat will encourage teachers and students around the country to participate in The Daily Mile. For more information on The Daily Mile, log onto https://thedailymile.ie/.
Aldi revamps Ballincollig store ALDI’S ‘Project Fresh’ store on Main Street, Ballincollig, has reopened its doors following an extensive renovation project which has seen the store completely refurbished as part of Aldi’s €160m investment in its Irish store network. Featuring the new layout, the Ballincollig store offers a wide selection of fresh food at the front of the store, hi-spec fixtures and fittings and new signage that provides a more efficient and hasslefree shopping experience. The car-park has been extended to include 20 bicycling spaces and 14 additional car parking spaces, making a total of 103 spaces available for customers. The store will be powered by 100% green electricity. Aldi has invested heavily in improving its energy management systems and its entire store network is now powered by 100% wind generated energy.
Fyffes fitness initiative wins European marketing award THE efforts being made by Fyffes to help combat childhood obesity through its fitness-based Fit Squad initiative were recognised at the IMC European Awards for Integrated Marketing Communications, held in Brussels recently. The Irish-based fruit importer was honoured with the Silver Award in the ‘Small budget campaign’ category by a panel of almost 40 leading industry professionals across Europe. Developed by Titan Experience, in conjunction with Irish health and fitness expert Tom Dalton, the main purpose of Fit Squad is to demonstrate to young people in schools throughout the country how they can increase their physical activity. Since its inception last year, Fyffes’ fitness initiative has visited some 145 schools and seen over 14,000 children participate in 290 interactive sessions across 29 counties throughout Ireland, north and south.
Christmas FM raises €412,021 for Barretstown CHRISTMAS FM, the popular radio station generously sponsored by Cadbury, Coca-Cola and An Post, raised €412,021 for Barretstown, its chosen charity for 2019. The money raised allows Barretstown to ‘press play’ on over 1,400 days of life changing programmes for seriously ill children. The 2019 fundraising figure brings to over €2.25m the total amount of funds the radio station has raised for a range of charities since its inception in 2008. Pictured are Daragh O'Sullivan, Paul Shepherd and Walter Hegarty, co-founders of Christmas FM, with Ria Rianti, Brand Manager - Chocolate, Cadbury, and Garvan Rigby, co-founder, Christmas FM.
Lidl Ireland to remove cartoon characters from cereal packaging LIDL will stop displaying cartoon characters on its own-brand cereal ranges by spring 2020, to help parents tackle pester power in the supermarket aisles. “Promoting and providing healthier food options for our customers is something we are passionate about at Lidl Ireland and we are proud to be leading the way in the Irish retail market with our significant commitments,” noted Ciara Sheehan, Corporate Social Responsibility Manager at Lidl Ireland. “We want to help parents across Ireland make healthy and informed choices about the food they buy for their children. This latest move underpins our commitment to helping customers lead healthier lives.” The removal of cartoon characters from all own-brand cereals builds on Lidl’s existing work, which has seen the supermarket commit to reducing the sugar content in own brand products by 20% by the end of this year.
