Campus Oil currently owns three service stations, in Dunshaughlin, Portlaoise and East Wall Road, and sold one of its service stations to Circle K last year.

Documents filed with the Competition and Consumer Protection commission show that Lissan Coal Company Ireland is now adding to its portfolio by buying Campus Oil Retail.

No acquisition price for the deal has been disclosed.

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Staying true to its ‘We Love Local’ ethos, Boost Drinks has been supporting its Northern Ireland trade customers through the COVID-19 pandemic through various local initiatives.

From the beginning of the pandemic, the province’s best-selling soft drink Boost has provided more than 1500 urgently needed COVID-19 safety Point of Sale kits to retailers, along with advice on helping the channel navigate the virus in-store.

Boost, which supplies only to the independent sector and not to large multinational supermarket chains, designed and created posters with advice on social distancing and government recommended hygiene practices.

The company also created a dedicated new website enabling retailers to order free POS, obtain category advice and download free marketing guides to help drive sales in stores.
A full store audit was conducted for every independent convenience store that stocks Boost. This included siting POS to improve sales and gaining valuable feedback to help shape Boost’s offering to independent retail moving forward.

Since Boost was first launched in Northern Ireland in 2003, the brand has continued to succeed in the local market and has held the province’s top selling soft drink status for over three consecutive years*.

Boost’s Marketing Director, Adrian Hipkiss said: “It’s very important to us that we support our local customers, a commitment that we made and have stuck to since launching in Northern Ireland in 2003.

“We understand there are huge obstacles for many people at the moment as we navigate our way through unprecedented challenges. We hope our local trade initiatives have gone some way to help both our wholesale and retail customers.”

Boost understands that with the recent nationwide restrictions hindering footfall in depots, maximising opportunities to build brand awareness and increase sales is widely welcomed by wholesale customers.

Last month the Boost storage bays at Musgraves, Belfast, received a makeover in line with Boost’s new branding which is driving awareness to various pack formats across seven core Energy flavours, Sport, Protein, Iced Coffee, as well as limited editions.

And in September, Boost’s latest and biggest marketing campaign was launched. The campaign has seen £1.2 million invested across TV, digital, social media, and OOH advertising as well as revealing a complete brand refresh offering bigger cash bargains to retailers.

*Based on Units Sold IRI Marketplace Convenience NI 52 weeks to 9th Aug 2020

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The losses are to largely affect shop floor workers, while other jobs will be lost in the M&S central support centre and in regional management.

The retailer says it hopes a significant amount of the cuts will be through voluntary redundancy and early retirement.

The job cuts are to take place over the next three months and are in addition to the 950 jobs losses announced by the retailer last month.

M&S said the job cuts come after a “material shift” in trade and added that it hoped to create new jobs in online fulfillment.

The retailer announced that it had made a 30 per cent year-on-year drop in clothing and home sales in the past eight weeks since stores reopened, while its food sales were up 2.5 per cent in the past 13 weeks.

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Inspired by popular spirits and cocktail ingredients, and presented in stylish, fully redesigned 250ml slimline cans, WKD will be embedding its personality on the RTS category through a transformed range comprising:

• Raspberry, Rhubarb & Vodka flavour
• Apple, Elderflower & Gin flavour
• Peach, Passionfruit & Rum flavour

With a striking and colourful design, WKD MIXD will have a premium appearance and bring a sophisticated, grown-up presence to the RTS category. Cans will be available in both standard and £1.69 price-marked formats, and in 12 x 250ml shrink-wrapped trade cases.

New WKD MIXD cans will deliver a perfectly prepared cocktail every time. The cocktail-in-a-can approach offers consumers the ultimate in cocktail convenience: no requirement for individual ingredients, no wastage and easy to carry. Cans are lighter and quicker to chill than bottles and WKD MIXD cocktails are perfect for parties or big nights in, or for when friends gather for drinks before going out.

As a major relaunch initiative from brand owner SHS Drinks, WKD MIXD is being supported by significant marketing investment in 2020: using the creative theme ‘All MIXD up and ready to go’, a social media campaign will reach over five million consumers; a social influencer push will utilise a ‘Masters of MIXD-ology’ concept, taking a sideways glance at fancy cocktails; WKD will also be rewarding its legions of superfans with a range of exciting MIXD-branded giveaways online.

To create trial and generate rate-of-sale for stockists UK-wide: 30,000 cases of WKD bottle 10-packs will contain 50p off single-can purchase vouchers; new WKD MIXD will be cross-promoted on WKD bottle 4-packs; promotional activity with the cashback app CheckoutSmart will offer thousands of free cans to consumers through participating retailers.

Product innovation and trailblazing consumer marketing activities have supported the ongoing success of the WKD brand, ensuring that it remains fresh and relevant to its target market. The high-profile refocussing on WKD MIXD follows hot on the heels of hugely successful recent NPD launches – WKD Pink (July 2019), WKD Dark Fruit (January 2020), WKD Lemon (July 2020) – which have driven category growth.

With the total RTS can category growing annually at +19%², and the overall WKD brand in Northern Ireland growing +39% in the last year¹ and +78% in the most recent quarter³, SHS Drinks believes that there is huge potential for WKD MIXD to significantly build can sales for retailers in Northern Ireland.

“In the two years since its original introduction, the WKD range of pre-mixed cocktails has successfully recruited a unique, younger shopper to the RTS can category⁴,” says Nick White, head of marketing at SHS Drinks. “However, research insight has revealed that we can better leverage the WKD cocktail offering to deliver long-term growth for retailers. We know that consumers naturally transition from bottled RTDs to RTS cocktail cans – seeking higher ABV and a more mature taste – and we have evolved our range to better meet requirements.

“New WKD MIXD offers a range of grown-up flavours, each with a twist, in a convenient canned format and, at 5%, the range delivers the ABV level that consumers are seeking from RTS products. The enhanced cocktail offering showcases another great example of our category-leading approach: targeting incremental sales for Northern Ireland retailers through brand innovation,” concludes White.

The post WKD Takes Fresh Approach to Cocktails in Cans first appeared on Neighbourhood Retailer.

Founded in Portstewart in 2000, Bob & Bert’s is known for its distinctive style, quality coffee and fresh food offering and local community focused approach. It now has 20 stores across Northern Ireland and Scotland and employs over 400 staff.

After closing all of its sites in March as a result of the coronavirus lockdown, all of Bob & Berts coffee shops are now open and staff are back at work with, several locations staying open until 9pm.

Colin McClean, co-owner of Bob & Berts said: “We reopened our Coleraine site for takeaway only on May 18, reopened all sites in NI by the end of June and reopened in Scotland in mid-July. All sites are now fully operational and stores are performing ahead of our expectations, which is really positive and shows people have missed what we offer.”

The business has introduced a number of new innovations following the lockdown, including the launch of an online ordering service through its own app, which has had a positive impact on sales.. The app also allows customers to order for collection or delivery to their home or workplace within 30 minutes.

David Ferguson co-owner of Bob & Bert’s added: “Lockdown has given us confidence that we can deliver a takeaway service and we have seen the success of our app. We know there may be more twists and turns because of coronavirus but we’re committed to delivering a great service in safe environments to our customers.”

Bob & Berts also intends to continue with its programme of new store openings, with a store in Stirling, Scotland that was originally scheduled to arrive in April, now expected to open in October. The company is still looking for additional sites in Northern Ireland and Scotland and expects to launch its first store in the north of England in the latter part of 2021.

Bob & Berts is one of seven Northern Ireland-based companies to have received investment from BGF, the UK & Ireland’s most active investor in ambitious, growing companies. In 2017 BGF made a £2m equity investment into Bob & Berts to help drive the expansion of the business in Northern Ireland, Scotland, England and the Republic of Ireland.

BGF has backed 24 new companies in the first half of the year whilst continuing to actively support its portfolio. In June, BGF invested £10m in Lisburn-based Decora, a leading manufacturer of window coverings, to support its long-term growth plans including expansion into European markets.

Total H1 investment stands at £177m and includes £128m into new portfolio companies and £49m into existing portfolio companies.

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