Kavanagh’s Centra Waterloo Place – knowing its fate is to be there for you
Marking seven years in business in May 2025, Kavanagh’s Centra Waterloo Place has embedded itself in the local area, proving to be an essential part of the business community, standing out as the only NI store for the Kavanagh Group.
With a city centre location on Waterloo Place in Derry~Londonderry, the Kavanagh Group’s move to open a high-convenience Centra store quickly proved to be a fruitful one, with a change in offer being sought by consumers in the area.
A family-owned retailing business based in Westport, County Mayo, the Kavanagh Group operates 12 SuperValu supermarkets in the Republic of Ireland and their one high-convenience Centra store at Waterloo Place.
Having traded under the SuperValu brand since 2001, senior management at the Group felt that a larger supermarket concept no longer suited the city centre location and recognised the demand for a high convenience store with a greater focus on food to go.
Following a £750,000 investment, Centra Waterloo Place opened its doors in May 2018, with the Group believing the Centra brand to be much more suited to the city centre location.
“A lot of our customers are office-based, professionals who want something on the go, quick, grabbing their lunch or breakfast on their way to work,” said store manager, Sarah McGuinness.
“At the start we were quite surprised at how busy we were. In the first few days we were running about because we did not expect so many people! We were selling out of a lot of stuff, so we had to get our heads down, concentrate on what our customers were looking for and focus on that.”
As well as being an instant success with the city’s shoppers, Centra Waterloo Place received its first industry accolade just a matter of months after opening at the Neighbourhood Retailer Awards, a win management described as a fantastic reward for the whole team.
Sarah will soon mark her 20th year working for the Kavanagh Group, and having previously worked in their SuperValu store, she was brought in as store manager for the new Centra store.
“I was here through the building and planning stages and when it opened in May 2018, it was great to see a bright, shiny new store,” said Sarah. “This store is my baby! I have been here from the start of the work to opening and up to now and we are just evolving all the time.”
The 1800 sq ft store is manned by 11 staff, including Sarah and all the team are committed to producing top-quality produce each day for their customers.
On opening the store, the Kavanagh Group and Musgrave were able to bring the very first Green Kitchen to Northern Ireland. The deli, which incorporates a made-to-order, innovative salad bar was a huge success at the start and continues to be a crucial part of the store today.
“The customers were mad about it!” said Sarah. “There is more of a theatrical side to it with everything prepared there and then. It was a great success for us when we opened and it still is.
“A few months ago we created a new menu for it, adding on new wraps and salads to it. Myself and the food to go team at Musgrave put together the new menu and it’s going really well for us.”
With 30% of their sales coming from food to go, it is the cornerstone of the store’s success and they continue to see significant growth in it. Predominantly a breakfast/lunch concept, Centra Waterloo Place does provide an evening range of pre-packed food through their Clean Cut range as well as the Good Food Locally Sourced range from Musgrave.
“It’s about finding out what the customers want and to keep providing that convenience for them,” said Sarah.
READ THE FULL FEATURE ON KAVANAGH’S CENTRA WATERLOO PLACE IN THE JUNE ISSUE OF NEIGHBOURHOOD RETAILER HERE
