Marking a £4 million investment, the brand-new convenience store and forecourt in Carn marks a somewhat bold move for the Wilson family.

Experienced retailers, with father Eamonn opening his first store on the Garvaghy Road in Portadown in 1994, the family-run business, which also includes Peter’s brother, Andrew as one of the owners, is a long-established and widely regarded one within the area.

Wanting to expand the business, they purchased their new site at Carn back in 2021, eager to bring new services and offerings to the vast swathe of workers based at the industrial estates.

“We felt there was a need out here that was not being met,” explained Peter.

“It is an industrial area and there are not a lot of chimney pots in the traditional sense, but there are a lot of businesses and workers, and we are catering for those.

“It was a long time getting to the actual build. My dad has had a store in Portadown which traded as a Costcutter from 1994 to 2020, when they renovated and changed to SuperValu.

“Around that time, we bought this site here and we finally got through the planning process at Christmas last year. We started work on the site about two months later and opened the store 32 weeks later, on 16^th September.

“There were no hold-ups during the build, everything went as smoothly as it could, thankfully. We used MSM Contracts in Portadown and they were very very good to us, and it all went well.”

Ideally located next to the Carn and Seagoe industrial estates, the new store boasts a large hot deli and fresh salad and sandwich bar, alongside extensive hot and cold, grab and go options.

There is also an extensive Frank and Honest coffee dock, with three machines and includes a range of coffees including iced as well as oat milk options. The dock also features 100% compostable coffee cups, plastic-free coffee capsules and Rainforest Alliance Certified coffee beans, while shoppers can also avail of a digital loyalty app and get a free coffee after earning 10 digital stamps.

Additionally there is an off licence, in-store bakery offering pastries, breads and scones and a Moo’d ice cream counter.

A particularly special asset for the store is the wide selection of ready-meals as well as their very own butchery range.

“We have our own Wilson’s Butchery just two miles away, so we are getting our prepacked range topped up a couple of times a day,” said Peter.

“We also have a big range of heat and eat items. Our store is a food-to-go driven store, given our location and there is a large deli counter.

“With our own ready-meal selection and butchery range, we’re here to serve the needs of those who both live and work in the area,” added Peter. “Whether it’s a quick bite, a family dinner, or the weekly shop, we’re committed to offering quality and convenience to the local community.”

The family opened the store to the public on Tuesday 16^th September with a full hard launch, inviting customers to the new facility with a host of welcoming offers including a spin and win wheel, free gift bags, gift vouchers, free samples and more.

As a Circle K forecourt, they enjoyed the added bonus just a few days later of one of the fuel company’s regular fuel day offers, Peter said.

“It was by complete coincidence that Circle K were running their cheaper fuel day offer and so it tied in really well with us just being opened,” he said.

“We had people coming who were only initially wanting to avail of the Circle K offer and then they called into the store as well, so there were lots of feet in the store across those early days.”

Their forecourt has eight pumps, two of which are high-speed HGV pumps, along with diesel and ad blue, giving those working in the two industrial estates the opportunity to fuel their cars before or after work.

“It’s beneficial for a lot of businesses in the industrial estate and for people topping up either in the morning or evening, going to and from work. You would have people filling up before they head north to Belfast or also if they’re heading west,” said Peter.

The support from customers in the early stages has continued with a very positive response from the area to the store, which is all very encouraging, as Peter explained.

“As a family, we were standing in the shop the night before, it was all cleaned, everything was ready to go and we looked around and thought it looked fantastic, and at the same time we were all hoping that we would get the customer base.

“When you open a greenfield site, you are taking a risk but the response and the feedback have been great.

“We have learned a lot over the first month,” he added.

“When you open a store you are forecasting what you will do, but now we know what our customers are asking for and what they want, so it’s about doubling down and expanding on those ranges and giving them more options, be it seasonal options as we approach Christmas or expanding what we have already.”

READ THE FULL FEATURE ON WILSON’S CENTRA CARN IN THE NOVEMBER-DECEMBER ISSUE OF NEIGHBOURHOOD RETAILER HERE

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She will take over from existing Managing Director Gordon Lawlor who will be taking up the role of Managing Director of Circle K Norway.

Ms Foxton will assume her new position on 1^st January 2024, and will be responsible for leading the business in Ireland. Ms Foxton has amassed a wealth of experience across her career particularly in the retail sector. She has worked for Circle K since 2018 and currently serves as Director of Finance & Real Estate. Her previous roles include Senior Finance roles at Life Style Sports, Arnotts, Kefron, and Diageo.

Commenting on her appointment, Ciara Foxton said: “I am honoured to be appointed Managing Director of Circle K Ireland and to lead our business of almost 2,500 team members.

“Our business is in a really strong position, and I am excited to build on the progress made in recent years, and further elevate Circle K’s standing as Ireland’s leading forecourt and convenience retailer.

‘EVOLVED SIGNIFICANTLY’

“We will do this by continuing to meet the needs of our customers and the communities we serve across Ireland. With over 400 sites across the island of Ireland and nine standalone convenience and food stores in city centre locations we are better equipped than anyone else to do this.

“The forecourt and convenience retail sector has evolved significantly in recent years and Circle K has been at the heart of this both locally here in Ireland and globally. It is important we continue to innovate and meet the changing needs of our customers. This means continuing to evolve our already strong offer across food, coffee, convenience, and fuel, with additional focus on progressing critical areas such as EV charging facilities, and sustainable and alternative fuel initiatives such as HVO and CNG.”

Current Circle K Ireland managing director Gordon Lawlor will commence his new position in Oslo, Norway from 1^st January. He has successfully led the growth of Circle K in Ireland since August 2019, having previously held the role of Fuels Director in Ireland.

He will now lead what is a strategically important market for Circle K globally as Norway continues to lead the rest of the world in the electrification of vehicles, while also serving as Circle K’s global hub for its E-Mobility capabilities.

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Between 1pm and 4pm on 14^th December, the price of Circle K’s premium miles and milesPLUS fuel will be reduced by 20c a litre at participating stations across the island of Ireland – excluding their Express Stations in Northern Ireland.

The forecourt retailer has announced that the price displayed at the pumps during the promotional hours is already inclusive of the discount.

There is a maximum of 100 litres for one vehicle per customer, and there can be no filling of fuel storage containers. They added the offer was not valid in conjunction with a fuel card or any other fuel offer.

Managing Director of Circle K Ireland Gordon Lawlor said: “We hope today’s fuel promotion will help customers go a little further for less as we come into the busy Christmas period.

“On behalf of everyone at Circle K, I would like to thank customers for their support during 2023 and wish them all a very merry Christmas.”

Find your nearest site at https://www.circlek.ie/station-search and view the Ts & Cs at Terms and Conditions – Circle K

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Gillian McGowran has been promoted to Market Development Director, with her predecessor Judy Glover taking up the role of Head of European Merchandising with Circle K in Europe.

In her new role, Gillian will have responsibility for the marketing strategy at Circle K Ireland as well as category and supply chain management.

Gillian has been with the company for 12 years, having previously served as Senior Manager Franchise Channel, and before that as Head of Marketing. She started her career in retail with Boots Ireland, where she worked for over 13 years.

Judy recently started a new position as Head of European Merchandising with Circle K in Europe. She will be responsible for eight markets across Europe and will continue to work closely with the senior leadership team at Circle K Ireland to offer the best customer service and operational excellence.

Judy has been working with Circle K since 2009 and has grown with the company across a number of roles including Senior Category Manager, Head of Category Management and Senior Market Development Director. Judy was instrumental to the successful rebrand from Topaz to Circle K. Before that, she worked for Tesco Ireland for over five years.

Gordon Lawlor, Managing Director at Circle K Ireland said: “At Circle K, investing in our people is a key priority to us and I am delighted to announce these two greatly deserved promotions.

“Gillian and Judy are both longstanding members of the Circle K team here in Ireland and I look forward to seeing them progress in their new roles, helping their colleagues thrive and making sure we are delivering excellent service for our customers in Ireland and globally.

“Promoting female leaders within the business is a key priority for us, in Ireland our leadership roles are currently 50/50 up to BU Leader, and we want to continue this into the future.

“I truly believe our colleagues are integral to our success and our goal is to create an environment where they can grow personally and professionally.

“Many of our colleagues have started their careers as sales assistants in our stores and are now working in roles within our Category Management, Fuels and Commercial teams. We also offer them opportunities within the wider Circle K network and there are several examples of colleagues who started in the Irish business and are now working with Circle K at a European and global level.”

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The move from fossil fuels to alternative fuels is continuing at pace, although challenges remain for expanding availability as easily as many companies would like. This has not stopped Circle K from making an unprecedented move to having its fleet of delivery vehicles fuelled exclusively by milesBIO HVO100.

EMBRACING THE FUTURE

Last year Ireland’s leading forecourt and convenience retailer announced that it would be the first fuel retailer in Ireland to use Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil (HVO) renewable diesel in its fleet of delivery vehicles, which is the equivalent of over 2,000 cars removed from the road, once the rollout is complete.

Jonathan Diver said that this rollout is on track and will be completed by the end of April.

“We have product available in our Dublin Port location for our core fleet with works ongoing in Cork and Galway to get our southern and western fleets transitioned. Our entire delivery fleet will be running on milesBIO HVO100 by the end of our financial year in April,” he said.

“This move is us trying to make a difference in our own environmental footprint and as a result, hoping others will follow. We hope that others in transport and logistics embrace the turn away from fossil fuels. The transition to electrification will happen, but it will take time.

“HVO can be used in the vast majority of diesel vehicles. Yes, there is a cost factor, but government regulation can help with that.”

“With HVO we want to get this product out to the market and get some form of government engagement so we can encourage others to use it and other alternative fuel products, such as compressed natural gas or hydrogen. We have locations that provide compressed natural gas (CNG) which is a good alternative for HGVs. Low-carbon fuels will provide real alternatives in the shorter term.”

SUSTAINABILITY

This drive towards sustainability is just one of four key areas for Circle K, as the company looks towards the longer-term future.

The company has charging facilities at 37 of their locations, with several sites ready to go live in the coming months, as Jonathan explained that “significant investment has been put in by Circle K to this area”.

“EV (electric vehicles) is the centre point of government policy when it comes to low carbon transport for the future” he said.

“There are factors which need to be developed to ensure we are making our customers’ lives a little easier, such as our infrastructure, having the right charging facilities available, and in the right locations.

“EV is a key and fascinating space in many ways. Circle K Norway is well ahead of Ireland in terms of its overall EV offering, with multiple sites offering EV chargers as the primary refuelling option for customers, so access to shared learnings and best practices from colleagues in an advanced EV marketplace is a great resource.

“There are a small number of EV cars on the road in Ireland, when compared to traditional fuel cars, but it is increasing, and at an increased rate. Consumers are looking for more charging points, and it is our responsibility to provide this service as efficiently as possible.

“Government policy in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland suggests we need to do more to speed up the transition, and we have committed very sizeable investment to this space, however, it’s quite challenging to roll out more EV chargers. We are finding it very difficult to secure the required electrical output in some of our service stations to feed high speed chargers.

“The infrastructure is not there in some of the in-demand locations we have identified. To make matters worse, the speed at which installations are happening is not quick enough. We need a change in how the whole process happens, as there is just too much red tape.

“We are a provider of fossil fuels; sustainability is probably our highest priority and EV is a big, big part of that. This red tape is holding us back from getting more done sooner and that’s the challenge really.

“It is still early days for EV, and there is still a lot to learn, even for EV drivers themselves. There are even some EV drivers who leave their cars sitting at the charging point all day and blocking other EV drivers from using it, so there are behaviours we need to understand, and take the learning.”

Whilst EVs are the most widely known and acknowledged amongst businesspeople and consumers alike as to where sustainability is headed, it is not the only option available, and there are shorter term actions using biofuels which can reduce carbon emissions sooner.

“Another key area for us is E10, the 10% ethanol blend into unleaded fuels. We sell a lot of fossil fuel and the more BIO we put into that, the more we can reduce carbon emissions. We will continue to work with government agencies to push the government to do more in this area, so that the industry can in turn do more to reduce our collective carbon footprint.”

Veering away from the reliance on fossil fuels was brought to the fore last year, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, although Circle K’s fuel supply in Ireland was minimally impacted by this.

“The positives from being part of a global organisation is that the supply of fuel was not as big an issue as it could have been,” said Jonathan.

“We didn’t really have those challenges; it was never a substantive issue for us. Ireland didn’t have a huge reliance directly on Russian fuel, but there were those supply chain issues in other parts of Europe and of course, the biggest impact was on price which was an issue across the globe.

“You will have seen that prices at the pump have come down significantly and a lot of that has to do with the supply of fuel, where it comes from has normalised somewhat. There are further sanctions on fuel sourced in Russia coming next month, and there will continue to be some volatility on fuel pricing, but unlikely to be to the same extreme as last year.”

HIGH STREET AMBITION

In a change of direction for the forecourt leader, Circle K moved onto the high street in 2021 with the acquisition of 10 Griffin Group convenience stores across Dublin, most of which were in coveted city centre locations. While it was described as an “unexpected step” by some, Jonathan said the move to the high street was an ambition of the company.

“The move to city centre locations makes sense, as the customer offering is very similar to what we do well in our forecourts. Impulse items, food on the go, coffee, are all areas where we provide a strong offering.”

On the success of Circle K’s standalone convenience sites in Dublin, Jonathan added: “Twelve months on and the sites are doing well. We are looking at other opportunities in this space and I do not think it would matter if it was in Northern Ireland or the Republic of Ireland. Where we find opportunities that will fit the brief, we will look at them.

“It’s given us an opportunity to work with other partners that we had not worked with before, like Subway, so there are those benefits as well.”

On the recovery of sales post-Covid, Jonathan said: “There has definitely been a change in consumer behaviour. There are some businesses where staff still work from home for part of their working week, and in other cases there are businesses that are back to business as usual, so there are certain locations that are back to 2019 levels and there are some that are still shy of that.”

NORTHERN IRELAND EXPANSION

Circle K’s expansion plans have also seen them further establish themselves in Northern Ireland, currently they have 48 locations with “more sites coming on board all the time”.

“We have two sites coming on in the next few weeks, one in Dungiven and one on the Stewartstown Road, so we are continuing to expand our offering in Northern Ireland. Retailers can see that we provide strong support to their businesses, so as a consequence we continue to expand our business in Ireland,” said Jonathan.

Asked about the differences between the markets in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, he added: “The two markets are quite similar in many regards. There are different regulatory environments but outside of that, they are quite similar.

“The Northern Ireland forecourts and retail offering is exceptionally strong, as is the Republic’s. The difference from an operations point of view is we have our company-owned network of 160 sites, but from a trading perspective the challenges and opportunities are similar.”

“One key difference on the fuel front is E10, as Northern Ireland brought this in last September following on from the rest of the UK in September 2021, so that is a positive step.

“We have put a lot of pressure on the government in the Republic to bring in E10 and it has committed to bringing it in in April of this year.”

Another recent highlight for Circle K was its Musgrave Marketplace deal, which now sees them supply 14 Musgrave sites in Northern Ireland, with further sites in the planning.

“We have a good relationship with Musgrave across Ireland,” said Jonathan. “We supply them with fuel, and they supply us in the retail sector, it’s great to have that partnership with them.”

RETAIL RESILIENCE

Looking ahead to 2023 and beyond, Jonathan said it is a busy and challenging time.

“We are looking forward to the year ahead and have several key projects in the pipeline. In fuels, our priority is in growing our EV and alternative fuels offering.

“We also want to grow our retail offering and obviously encourage our Dealer Partner network to go from strength to strength.

“On the forecourt side of things, we are continuing to look at sites there also. We took on 14 new sites in our company-owned side in the last 18 months, and we are still looking at more opportunities there.

“In terms of our Dealer Partner reach, we also expanded our network by 14 sites in the same 18-month period. Our target is to add 5% to our network each year,

we did that in 2022 and will do that again in 2023.

“We are really keen to continue growing our network in Ireland and will also have 10 trading franchise stores by this summer.

“We are continuing to look at opportunities in the high street, and we have a number of irons in the fire there. Hopefully we can acquire a few more.

“In B2B, following a competitive tender process carried out by the Office of Government Procurement (OGP), we were awarded the new framework agreement for provision of fuel card services to An Garda Siochána and all public sector bodies excluding the Health Service Executive and the Health Sector. The contract commenced in December last year and will run for a period of up to four years, so this was a real win for us in 2022.

“There are of course challenges we face, for example inflation and the impact that is having on our costs.

“It is also a highly competitive jobs market, so recruiting and retaining employees is key, which has been a challenge in the last 12 months. We need to make sure we are looking after those working for us.”

“Our industry is a particularly dynamic and innovative one, and, if you look at the times that there were significant economic challenges, then our industry was one of the most resilient in terms of retail, and I do not see that changing. People need fuel for their cars and their bodies.”

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