Since taking over as operator of The National Lottery in February 2024, Allwyn has gotten straight to work introducing new initiatives and upgrading systems and equipment.

Having stepped into the role of Director of Commercial Partnerships and Retail Sales, Alison Acquaye-Acford has been leading the team involved with their core customers, keeping retailers updated on the ongoing changes and plans for the future.

Having marked the 30^th anniversary of The National Lottery last November, Allwyn took the opportunity to celebrate with its retail partners here in Northern Ireland earlier this year, when Chair Justin King MBE hosted a special celebratory breakfast at the Titanic Hotel.

As Alison explained, continued communication with their 43,500 retail partners is key to them being able to deliver on their ambitions, namely on their ultimate goal of growing returns to Good Causes from £30 million a week to £60 million a week by the end of their 10-year licence.

“Our retail partners are the backbone of The National Lottery and, to most players, our public face. So, we need to effectively communicate with them to ensure they continue to be great supporters and advocates of The National Lottery and everything it delivers across the UK,” said Alison.

“One of our main priorities is to make buying The National Lottery as easy and convenient for people as possible. That means being in the places that people are shopping and also ensuring we’re keeping up with the ever-changing retail landscape.

“For example, we’ve partnered with Snappy Shopper to offer independent retailers the ability to sell Scratchcards for home delivery, as that is becoming more popular for people with busy lives from a convenience perspective. And, for any retailer that does not yet have The National Lottery in their shop, we’d love to hear from you.”

In the last 20 months, from taking over as operator of The National Lottery a number of retail initiatives have been introduced, including rolling out the new, sustainable suite of National Lottery permanent point of sale (PPOS) equipment; launching the Local Retail Champions campaign, which is now in its second year; and introducing ‘Share the Win’, which rewards retailers who sell high-tier winning tickets in their stores.

Significantly, during the summer, they took National Lottery systems and terminals offline for 34 hours to allow them to deliver the biggest tech upgrade since The National Lottery was first launched in 1994.

“This saw us deliver 30-plus new systems, including new gaming software on every National Lottery terminal, and a series of complex data migrations, including the transfer of tens of thousands of retailer records and millions of transactions from the old to the new systems,” said Alison.

“We also upgraded our Retailer Hotline to new modern contact centre technology.

“Thanks to the support from our 43,500 retail partners, we were able to get systems back up and running several hours earlier than expected and the vast majority of stores were able to continue selling National Lottery tickets in good time.

“A small minority of stores experienced residual issues, and we have worked hard, and continue to do so, to carry out remote troubleshooting and face-to-face visits. Subsequently, we’ve also started the scale rollout of the new state-of-the-art Wave lottery terminals – with the new terminals being universally welcomed by the retailers that have received them.”

It’s fair to say that most of the focus for Allwyn this year has been on preparing their systems, tech and, most importantly, their retail partners for the recent technical switchover weekend. This involved delivering and installing the new Wave terminals in around 8000 stores that previously had Compact Lottery Terminals.

Alison explained that as the new terminal software wouldn’t work on the Compact Lottery Terminals, they had to ensure those stores didn’t experience any interruption to trading following the switchover.

“We then also carried out more than 39,000 phone calls, emails and face-to-face rep visits to National Lottery retailers ahead of the weekend; sent out comprehensive upgrade support packs to all stores, which included customer-facing posters and table-toppers to keep in-store players informed; and we doubled the amount of retail support resource available on the ground,” said Alison.

“Now our primary focus turns to rolling out the remainder of the Wave terminals and the PPOS items across all stores, with the rollout carrying on at pace in Northern Ireland as we speak.

“For the retailers that are patiently waiting, we are replacing thousands of Altura terminals each week and the PPOS is also steadily arriving in stores, so look out for communication from our support team who will be in touch to book in your installation date.”

Allwyn returned as platinum sponsor for the 2025 Neighbourhood Retailer Awards, as well as sponsoring the Community Store of the Year category, with Alison stressing the importance of them recognising and celebrating the achievements of Northern Irish retailers.

“It’s a real honour to be given the opportunity to help highlight, recognise and celebrate the huge contribution that independent retailers make to local high streets across Northern Ireland,” she said.

“It means a great deal to everyone at Allwyn to be able to celebrate the diligence, passion and perseverance shown by these retailers, day in, day out – many times 365 days a year.”

READ THE FULL INTERVIEW WITH ALISON ACQUAYE-ACFORD IN THE OCTOBER ISSUE OF NEIGHBOURHOOD RETAILER HERE

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The project is a national restorative justice programme for those impacted by the Horizon IT scandal.

The report (available here) collates the views of 145 people who were impacted by the scandal and attended sessions hosted by the Restorative Justice Council, with their insights used to design a full national restorative justice programme, to launch in spring 2026.

The Restorative Justice Council, an independent organisation, was commissioned to write the report by the Department for Business and Trade, Fujitsu and Post Office.

The three organisations have responded to Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry Chair Sir Wyn Williams with a joint statement to set out their intention to further develop the ideas proposed in the Restorative Justice Council’s report. The joint statement is available here.

Commenting on the report, Post Office CEO, Neil Brocklehurst said: “I am grateful to those who have shared their experiences of the Horizon Scandal with the Restorative Justice Council. We must now act – together with the Department for Business and Trade and Fujitsu – to establish a lasting and meaningful restorative justice programme which is directly informed by the wishes of those who were harmed.”

Recommendation 19 of volume 1 of the report of the Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry said: “By 31^st October 2025, the department, Fujitsu and the Post Office shall publish, either separately or together, a report outlining any agreed programme of restorative justice and/or any actions taken by that date to produce such a programme. For the avoidance of any doubt, the word Fujitsu in this recommendation is intended to include both Fujitsu Services Limited and Fujitsu Limited.”

The department, Fujitsu Services Limited and the Post Office have accepted this recommendation.

Recognising that a general apology was “nowhere near sufficient”, they said they were committed to:

• working with the Restorative Justice Council over the coming months to continue to lay a firm foundation for direct and personal apologies where we can
• supporting a wider and longer-term programme of restorative justice to make amends in other ways

The department, Fujitsu Services Limited and the Post Office firmly believe that such a programme must be led by the views of postmasters.

To that end, they have together commissioned the Restorative Justice Council to ask postmasters to share their thoughts and feelings about what a future restorative justice programme should include. This project was announced on 1^st September 2025.

The Restorative Justice Council engaged 145 former and current postmasters through five in-person listening sessions held in different parts of the UK and two online meetings. At the Restorative Justice Council’s request, those sessions were attended only by postmasters and their supporters.

The Restorative Justice Council’s report set out their findings, which are summarised very briefly in this statement.

The department, Fujitsu Services Limited, the Post Office and the Restorative Justice Council have also engaged with officials supporting the Inquiry’s Legacy Committee so that they could reflect their learning from the Inquiry Legacy Project.

“We will co-ordinate our plans with The Postal Museum, as an official partner for the Legacy Project, as they develop their proposals to consult and collaborate with the postmasters and those affected by the scandal,” they said.

Over the coming months the department, Fujitsu Services Limited and the Post Office will work together with the Restorative Justice Council to continue to listen to those harmed and ensure postmasters and their desires remain at the heart of the work to establish a practical, funded long-term programme. Plans for that programme will be announced in spring 2026 and are likely to evolve further in the light of experience, and of further understanding of postmasters’ views.

As well as the substance and financial structure of the programme, they will look to develop its future governance and hope to include postmaster representatives in that.

Alongside developing and commissioning the long-term programme, they will continue to work with the Restorative Justice Council on the pilot of the programme through to March 2026 and are asking the Restorative Justice Council to continue to engage more postmasters and hear from others harmed, including children of victims and to postmasters from historically marginalised groups.

You can read the full piece here: https://corporate.postoffice.co.uk/en/media-centre/#/news/restorative-justice-council-publishes-horizon-project-report-502790

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This is to mitigate against any incursion of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) into our domestic poultry sector and follows the recent suspect cases of avian influenza at two commercial poultry premises near Pomeroy and Lisnaskea.

The housing order, implemented by the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA), legally requires all bird keepers, including owners of pet birds, commercial flocks, backyard and hobby flocks, to keep their birds indoors or otherwise separate from wild birds. This measure supplements the Avian Influenza Prevention Zone (AIPZ) in Northern Ireland, introduced on 1^st November 2025.

In addition, a ban on the gatherings of galliforme (including pheasants, partridge, quail, chickens, turkey, guinea fowl), anseriforme (including ducks, geese, swans) and poultry will be implemented in conjunction with this housing order.

Similar measures are also being implemented by the Department of Agriculture, Food and Marine (DAFM) in Ireland.

Announcing the decision to introduce a housing order, DAERA Minister Andrew Muir said: “I have taken the decision to introduce housing measures for all poultry and captive birds and a ban on certain bird gatherings and I welcome the announcement that a similar order is coming into effect in Ireland. Officials will continue to remain in close contact with counterparts in ROI.

“This will help ensure industry across both jurisdictions are protected as much as possible as we move through the remainder of this HPAI season. This decision will mean that all poultry and captive bird keepers must keep their birds housed or otherwise separate from wild birds.

“This strengthens actions taken by my department to ensure mandatory biosecurity measures were implemented, since 1^st November 2025.

“Northern Ireland relies heavily on the agri-food industry as a source of employment. Poultry and egg production contributes significantly to the economy, valued at over £600 million, and it is vital that we do all we can to support industry efforts to keep HPAI out.”

The Chief Veterinary Officer for NI, Brian Dooher added: “I am urging all flock keepers to please take action now to improve biosecurity so as to reduce the risk of transmission of avian influenza to poultry or other captive birds.

“Anyone who keeps birds and poultry, not just those in the commercial sector, will now have a legal obligation to adhere to the housing order requirements, which are there to protect your flock. Incursions of avian influenza have a significant and devastating impact on our poultry industry, international trade, and the wider economy.

“I would encourage all flock keepers including backyard and hobby keepers to put in place measures to house your birds or keep them separate from wild birds from 00:01 on Thursday 6^th November 2025.”

DAERA stresses the mandatory legislative requirement that all keepers of birds (except keepers of pet birds kept in the owners’ home) must be registered with DAERA. If you have not already done so, please download a registration form on the DAERA website: https://www.daera-ni.gov.uk/publications/bird-registration-form.

Avian Influenza is a notifiable disease. Anyone who suspects an animal may be affected by a notifiable disease must, by law, report it to the DAERA Helpline on 0300 200 7840 or your local DAERA Direct Office immediately: https://www.daera-ni.gov.uk/contacts/daera-direct-regional-offices. Failure to do so is an offence.

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Dr Campbell served as Managing Director, and subsequently Chairman, of Moy Park from 1984 to 2008, having first joined the business in 1960.

Dr Campbell was instrumental to the foundation of the Northern Ireland Food and Drink Association and became the organisation’s first Chair in 1996.

Throughout his career spanning five decades, he was committed to the development of world class industries across Northern Ireland and engaged in non-executive roles for industry and charitable organisations including the Royal Agricultural Society, the Worshipful Company of Poulters, the Chartered Management Institute and more.

In 2006 he became the first ever patron for the Prince’s Trust in Northern Ireland, in recognition of his commitment to the charity and its work.

Michael Bell OBE, Executive Director, Northern Ireland Food and Drink Association (NIFDA) said: “Few individuals have made a bigger impact on the development of our industry than Dr Trefor Campbell. Trefor saw the potential of Northern Ireland food and drink to be a driver of economic growth locally and played a key role in the formation of NIFDA in 1996.

“Throughout his career, and even in his retirement, Trefor dedicated himself to the ongoing success of the sector and for the well-being of the wider community. He will be dearly missed. On behalf of all our NIFDA members and colleagues I want to pass on my condolences Trefor’s family and friends.”

Professor Ursula Lavery MBE, NIFDA Chair and Technical and R&D Director at Pilgrim’s Europe added: “I first worked with Trefor when I started out in my career at Moy Park in 1987. He was an inspiration for all of us within the business.

“Beyond championing growth for Northern Ireland food and drink, he was also a great ambassador for the industry and was committed to developing and nurturing the leaders of tomorrow, as is reflected by the NIFDA Educational Trust he launched. Across NIFDA and Pilgrim’s Europe, Trefor has left a strong legacy. Our thoughts are with Trefor’s family and wide circle of friends at this time.”

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The store, which is run by Aiden and Michael Corry, has been owned by the Corry family since opening in 2005 with just five employees, and now employs 35 people from the local area.

Over the years, the Corry family have made significant investments into the store, enabling a number of refurbishments to bring top quality services and products to shoppers, including a major rebuild introducing a 3,842 sq ft store to the community in 2022.

ViVO Dromore has picked up numerous awards over the years, most recently Neighbourhood Store of the Year at The Neighbourhood Retailer Awards in 2023. Judges described the business as a “stand-out store”, commenting on layout, presentation, the range of services available, convenience and the standard of customer care.

The local community has always been central to the store, with the staff often taking part in fundraisers for local charities. The team have raised money for numerous organisations over the years including Marie Curie and provide sponsorship of many local sports teams.

To celebrate the anniversary, the owners held a fun day for their shoppers with a bouncy castle, face painting and an exciting scratch card promotion with top prizes including Smart TV’s, Ninja Air Fryers, and Garmin Smart Watches.

INTEGRAL PART OF COMMUNITY

The Corry family are well respected in the local communities in which they operate, also owning SPAR Palmbush in Kesh. In total, the family employ more than 60 people across their two stores.

“We’re proud to be celebrating our 20-year anniversary. We’re delighted to have made such significant investments over the years to develop our store further and bring an expansive range of products and services to our local community,” said Aiden Corry.

“Being a community focused store, it was so important to us to celebrate alongside our shoppers, and we are proud to own a store that has such an impact in the community. We want to thank our store team and all our shoppers for their support over the years, we look forward to many more years serving the community from ViVO Dromore.”

Paddy Doody, Sales and Marketing Director at Henderson Group which owns the ViVO brand in Northern Ireland added: “We wish to congratulate the Corry family and the whole team at ViVO Dromore on their 20th anniversary.

“They are such an integral part of their local community, making major investments to provide value on the doorsteps of their shoppers, all while having a positive impact and giving back to local charities and community groups. We wish them every success for years to come.”

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