Landscape Filling Station on the Crumlin Road in Belfast opened in mid January following a lengthy seven-year gestation and is already proving hugely popular.

It’s a sign of its appeal that even the builders who completed the work are now coming there for their lunch while they work on another project in Belfast.

The forecourt launched by The Wall Group, which owns four SPAR stores in the North Belfast area, has been built on former Housing Executive land and replaces a much smaller forecourt across the road, which is destined to provide social housing for the area.

Helen Wall explains: “Part of the deal was that we had to build houses as well. So we’ve built six social houses behind the new shop and when the other shop is knocked down we have to build another four. That was part of the deal – it’s like the redevelopment of the whole area.”

She’s hoping that this new forecourt will be at the heart of a wider redevelopment. “If somebody would get the hotel (at Crumlin Courthouse) up and running, somebody else is talking about doing a hub with offices, the whole bottom of the road could be changing, and hopefully we will have a Post Office coming soon.”

First foray

The old Landscape filling station was the first foray into convenience stores for Helen and her husband Gavan, founders of the Wall Group.

“It was 468 sq ft and we had rented it out to somebody else to run. So we started off with that, and then we went up to the Ardoyne store and then we got the Whitewell store and we got Rathcoole – they’re all SPAR stores,” she says.

“The original Landscape store was really a glorified sweet shop with a petrol court. We did so many sweets, fizzy drinks, cigarettes and petrol, whereas our new store has 15 dairy fridges, six freezers, it’s got a deli, a Nugelato ice cream concession – it’s everything the other shop wasn’t.”

Helen herself is a qualified accountant, who has worked with everyone from Winemark and Musgrave before finally joining her husband Gavan in the family business four years ago. Before that, she says, former barrister Gavan changed careers and took on retail as a full-time role 13 years ago when they encountered some difficulties with the leaseholder of the old Landscape station.

He decided to run the station himself, much to Helen’s shock at the time.

She explains, laughingly: “I said ‘What, I’m eight months’ pregnant and you’re going to leave the Bar’ – and let me tell you, he had a fabulous practice at the Bar. You’re joking! But he said No, I’ve always really wanted to do it … and he did.

“He started it and it was doing something like £9,000 a week, and when we left it was doing over £60,000. We did it, we opened 24 hours a day, 365 days a year and we partnered with Hendersons.

“Then a year and a half later, they said to him ‘Look we’ve another one just up the road, now Ardoyne is coming on board, do you fancy that’ and Gavin went ‘Yeah why not’ so then he took that one on.  And then he bought another out on the Whitewell Road and then Rathcoole came along.”

Regeneration

About four years into running Landscape, the Girdwood redevelopment came on the radar and there was a sense of things happening in North Belfast – and it spurred Gavan to put plans in place for a bigger and better version of the Landscape station.

“Even though he’s not from north Belfast, Gavan went to school in North Belfast and always loved it,” Helen says.

“He said this whole area needs to be redeveloped and someone’s talking about doing the Courthouse and Girdwood Barracks, they’re making it into a recreational centre. I’m going to try and get a new petrol station – this road is crying out for it.

“It took him seven years to get planning passed and he got planning passed in the middle of Covid, in lockdown. We got planning sanctioned in April and we started building in May.”

Helen pays tribute to the team who got the impressive new 5,000 sq ft store up and running so quickly, including builders Cleary Contracting, architects Aisling Lamont and Conor McCavitt from Whittaker Watt, WH Stephens, Dougan Contracts and Martin Food Equipment.

“We touched lucky, we had a really good team behind us – they were fabulous,” she says.

Five times the size

The site is over five times the size of the previous site and boasts an eight-pump Go Fuel forecourt with 22 car parking spaces – it will open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

With The Wall Group’s bespoke ‘foodvenience’ offering, shoppers can pick up the SPAR Enjoy Local own-brand fresh food range, alongside food-to-go counters, including the Nugelato brand, the dailyDeli and Barista Bar coffee machines.

“We’ve got a complete fresh concession, with 15 fridges and six or seven freezers,” Helen says.

“We’ve put doors on all our fridges to keep our energy costs down and conserve energy and we don’t have any of the 5p plastic bags as well.”

Meanwhile, the team have gone for state-of-the-art when it comes to store tech, investing in many of Henderson’s most up-to-the-minute developments.

“Each checkout has got the new Glory system attached to it so our staff never have to touch cash which was very beneficial during Covid,” Helen says.

“So if you came in and you wanted to pay and it was £18 you can either tap your credit card or if you put in £20 it will shoot you out your £2 change. It’s all facing you as a customer so there’s no cash touched by our staff.

New ESELS

“And we’ve gone for the electronic shelf edge labels, the ESELs. When you think of all the paper and the ink you’re using for all the ordinary SELs, hopefully that will be a move that we will make through all our stores eventually and put in the electronic SELS.

“The benefit of ESELS should be realised at promotional change-overs. Staff members can utilise their time in a more productive and value adding activity.

“We’re still trying to find our feet on it, but hopefully we will and it’s certainly something I would put in the other stores, so it doesn’t take half a day every time there’s a promotional change.”

It should also help with the familiar dilemma that arises when Trading Standards comes to tell them that something advertised at 58p has actually cost £75p, she says.

“Everything like that should match because it’s the back-office press of a button that sends all the prices, and what comes through the tills goes straight on to the electronic SELs. So hopefully it’s not only increasing labour productivity and saving on paper costs, but it will make us more compliant for Trading Standards – otherwise things can get missed.

“I’ve done it now in this store because we wanted as much high tech that we could put into it to see if it works. We need to see, does it do what it says on the tin.”

The company has also invested in an HR system called OBBI which provides an onboarding process for every new employee that is recruited. It records the age of the employee, their details and whether they’re able and trained to sell cigarettes or lottery tickets: “It will ensure that we’ve got every member of staff trained to the right level and compliant with all the legal obligations that we’re meant to do within the store.”

Succession planning

The Wall Group has a culture of promoting from within and this system should help fit staff to the best posts and assist with succession planning, Helen says.

“It means we can ask Colin, who is the manager that we promoted to  a role encompassing Training, People Development, Compliance and Audit, ‘Who do we know in stores who have got x, y and z’ and he should be able to pull up and say ‘Helen, she’s able to do x, y and z’ – will she be beneficial down here, this is what we need.”

The Wall Group are proud of their organisational structure which allows them to respond quickly when anything unexpected comes along.

Helen pays tribute to their full-time accountant Ruairi who has put in place a portal that allows them access to regular information on the performance of each department.

“Ruairi has implemented a whole new system, the Wall Group Portal where we can monitor our KPI’s on a daily basis.

Our Operations Director, Kieran and his team ensures that all our stores deliver on sales, margin and excellent staffing. He ensures the smooth running of our four Spar stores and our Subway outlets.

“We’ve set up the systems and procedures, so if we get another store on board, we literally just lift these tools and put them over to the next site.”

Helen says that while they’re still on the look-out for more stores, they are hugely proud of the one they’ve just opened.

“It’s magnificent. It’s a £3 million spend – we decided from the start that we would build a beautiful store – fantastic lights and even from the front, it looks really good.

“Mind you when the first electricity bill came in, it was three times what I thought it was going to be with the way utilities are at the moment! But it looks really, really well. I’m so glad that we did it and I’m really proud of how it looks.”

The post A magnificent store: The Wall Group’s Landscape Filling Station first appeared on Neighbourhood Retailer.

EUROSPAR Kircubbin represents a multi-million-pound investment from Henderson Retail, standing at 4,150 sq. ft of retail space. The complete knock-down and rebuild project replacing the previous SPAR store has provided an additional 14 jobs across the retail floor, Dailydeli and Barista Bar café. This includes two new starts recruited via the company’s ongoing partnership with the Stepping Stones Employment Programme.

As well as providing a ‘Peninsula Pitstop’ for cyclists, road trippers and explorers to the beautiful surroundings of Strangford Lough, the supermarket will be a hub for the local community. Store Manager Darren Dickson, previous store manager of nearby EUROSPAR Portaferry, says the store will bring an exceptional supermarket offering great value, food to go deli, coffee and sit-in services, and will provide on-going support to local community groups and initiatives.

Darren said: “EUROSPAR Kircubbin is a local supermarket run by local people, deeply rooted in the heart of the community. This extends across our support and fundraising for Cancer Fund for Children and participating in litter picks with the local Church, to ensuring we stock everything our shoppers need, right on their doorstep while simultaneously capturing that growing passing trade for those exploring what we are lucky enough to have on our doorstep.”

The store offers a host of locally sourced fresh foods helping to keep food miles low, including Patton’s Bakery, who will deliver fresh bread and cakes from further up the Peninsula, potatoes  from William Orr and Son fields just across Strangford Lough, plus granola from Just Live a Little in Portaferry. Peppup Mediterranean Sauces, Mash Direct, Windwhistle Farm and Fresh Field Carrots are some of the other local suppliers, all within a 30-mile radius of the store, that will fill the shelves.

Darren continued: “J Wright & Sons butchery range will also provide fresh, locally sourced meat and poultry, complementing our own-brand Enjoy Local range, 100% of which is sourced from local farms and producers, while our SPAR Bakery brand offers fresh croissants, baguettes, tarts and a range of breads to enjoy now, or to take home. Each element of the store has been shaped using local shopper data, so we have everything covered from Tonight’s Tea with The CHEF range of handmade, ready to heat and eat favourites, as well as all our shoppers will need for a big supermarket shop.”

Mark McCammond, Retail Director at Henderson Group added: “In EUROSPAR Kircubbin we have a supermarket that will cater entirely to the local community, bringing added value across products that will drive down the cost of their trolley shop thanks to our long-term Tesco Price Match initiative on over one thousand big brand products, alongside our continued investment in Value on Your Doorstep. Local shoppers do not need to travel far to find the best deals on their favourite groceries.

“Our essential and innovative services range from The Post Office, which returns to the store after being temporarily housed in the community hall during construction, to our extensive dailyDeli food-to-go and café services.

“EUROSPAR Kircubbin is also home to Barista Bar Café Lite providing coffee and treats for day trippers and adventurers exploring the area, providing that Peninsula Pitstop experience with both indoor or outdoor seating areas providing outstanding views of the Mourne Mountains. Locals can do their weekly shop alongside those stocking up for their weekend away, and that’s the beauty of our local, community supermarkets.”

EUROSPAR Kircubbin is now open and operates Monday – Sunday, 7am – 11pm with a 30-space car park, a Circle K forecourt, free to use ATM, vehicle maintenance and bike rack stations.

The post New Kircubbin supermarket’s curb appeal provides ‘Peninsula Pitstop’ for local explorers first appeared on Neighbourhood Retailer.

EUROSPAR Glenavy Village replaces the former SPAR store on the same site, and has almost doubled in size, offering locals a huge variety of fresh and locally sourced food for now and later, and has been described as a dramatically new supermarket experience, right in the heart of the community with up to 70 car-parking spaces.

Essential services have also been retained including the Post Office branch which will continue to offer a range of everyday services, easily accessible for locals.

With the additional jobs created with the build, 35 local staff now work at the store, which is managed by David McFall, who has more than 14 years of retailing experience behind him.

“EUROSPAR Glenavy Village brings a local, supermarket shopping experience to build on the busy and popular SPAR which once stood on the site,” he said.

“We have built this store with the local shoppers’ missions in mind, meaning that those in Glenavy are primarily either looking for a snack, breakfast or lunch to go, or want to stock up with fresh foods and groceries for two or three days.

“We are catering to our neighbours who want reassurance that they are shopping locally, buying locally sourced products and ranges and can handily pop back in if they need to top up that shop in a couple of days’ time without having to go too far.”

The supermarket experience includes Tesco Price Match, an initiative from EUROSPAR which aims to price match big brand products to bring even more value to local shoppers. More than a thousand products are included, meaning shoppers can access top quality and lower supermarket prices on their favourite brands without having to go out of town.

The food-to-go offering has been given a major revamp and now sits under Henderson’s dailyDeli brand, offering an enhanced range of hot and cold food all freshly made in store daily.

“The dailyDeli is a fantastic food-to-go experience, bringing a full range of meal deals, plus vegetarian and vegan products and ranges to takeaway or enjoy in our seating area in-store,” David said.

“We have a Mauds Ice Cream counter, the all-new Barista Bar coffee machines, serving our popular Barista Bar brews plus new luxury hot chocolate and flat whites, plus our Kidz Zone offers Ice budz frozen drinks and Freal so our little shoppers can enjoy a fun experience when shopping too.”

Supplying a host of local fresh foods is a top priority for the supermarket, and that extends to the Brian Price Quality Meats and Butchery concession, with all meat farmed locally. The serve-over counter team is headed up by Damien McVeigh, who brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to offer advice and ideas to shoppers for their products, adding that extra sense of locality and customer service.

More than 30 bays of fresh produce give shoppers an outstanding choice of fruit, veg, meat and poultry, all sourced and supplied by local producers via Henderson Wholesale’s fresh team.

The SPAR Bakery range of freshly baked treats and breads sits alongside own-brand ranges including enjoy local, The Greengrocer and The CHEF – Henderson’s handmade range of meals created by its local team of cooks headed up by Chef Carl Johannesson.

Mark McCammond, Retail Director at Henderson Group which owns EUROSPAR in Northern Ireland, said: “With EUROSPAR Glenavy Village, we are bringing a supermarket shopping experience with a range of fresh and local food and brands, at great prices which the local community won’t have had on their doorsteps before.

“The new look, feel and choice of products in the shop has been considered for the local shopper, whether they’re popping in for something for tonight’s tea or stocking up for the next few days. And they can be assured they’re getting the best value, with over 1,000 products in-store price matched with Tesco.

“It’s fantastic to see the supermarket bring such a unique proposition and services to the area, including the three-pump MAXOL forecourt alongside 70 parking spaces.

“The team will also continue their community outreach from the former SPAR store, to support local schools and organisations.”

EUROSPAR Glenavy Village has sponsored the Ballymacrickett Primary School football team’s new kits, and is also fundraising towards a new sensory room for the school. The supermarket’s staff and shoppers will also fundraise for EUROSPAR’s charity partner, Cancer Fund for Children and has raised almost £4,000 for the organisation, and the store’s former charity partner, Marie Curie, so far this year.

“Not only will the team at EUROSPAR Glenavy Village deliver for the whole community but will give back to those who need it most throughout Northern Ireland,” Mark said.

Caption: Members of the Glenavy Youth Project helped mark the official opening of EUROSPAR Glenavy Village, joined by EUROSPAR Glenavy Village’s Community Champion, Dylan McKenna and customer Advisor, Eimear McKnight

The post New EUROSPAR Glenavy Village forecourt replaces former SPAR store first appeared on Neighbourhood Retailer.

The 7,500 sq. ft. gross space development features a new build EUROSPAR, employs 35 people and is providing the only supermarket offering in the village. It delivers a fresh food shopping experience customised for the Doagh community and is the first of the new fresh concept stores to open in Northern Ireland.

Data driven

Mark McCammond, Retail Director at Henderson Group explains; “This community supermarket has been designed and built with a data driven approach in order to provide a mission focused customer proposition tailored for local shoppers. It is the first outlet of its kind to open in Northern Ireland, following our new “Fresh” stores initiative, adapted for that community’s particular demands and needs, encouraging increased visits for a great fresh food shopping trip close to home.”

The team has worked with marketing, tech and analyst specialists to identify several criteria to determine a store’s primary shopping mission. The most important shopper mission for this type of EUROSPAR is the fresh produce top-up shop with products conducive to making a meal, therefore a greater proportion of space and variety of range to fresh produce and fresh meat will be dedicated in-store.

Not only will EUROSPAR Doagh provide an array of local brands from Newtownabbey’s Asher’s Bakery to Jenkin’s local butchery from Ballyclare, but will also have an enhanced offering of Henderson Wholesale’s own brands including The CHEF range of pre-prepared meals, Greengrocer’s fruit and vegetables and the popular SPAR enjoy local range of meats, poultry, baked goods and every day fresh essentials.

Elevated fresh food offering

Mark continued; “This proposition provides an elevated fresh food offering and meal solutions for tonight’s tea, catering to local demands. This is an innovative approach which Henderson Retail has applied to the new store, and has a vibrant fresh look with a choice of products that will create a standout shopping experience.”

As well as the fresh credentials, the store will feature the latest tech innovation for retail efficiency, including the GLORY cash management system to provide customers with full service yet touch-less cash payment solutions at the tills, and the option of self-scan checkouts for faster and contactless checkout experiences.

Store Manager, Daniel Duncan says the facilities and services EUROSPAR Doagh will bring to the community are second to none; “We are bringing a supermarket experience to the local community, which includes a 32-space car park, customer toilet facilities, ATM, an on-site WineFlair off-license and a fuel offering from Texaco. Our in-store Post Office will be managed by Eddie Lister, while the fresh food offering will be complemented by Henderson’s dailyDeli hot food counter and Barista Bar coffee, offering a great range of premium coffee including flat whites and hot chocolates.

Engaging

“We are already engaging with the local community and sponsoring the Doagh Primary School football team. We have also donated bedding plants to the school and pupils Hayley Crowe and Carter Johnston won our colouring competition and helped us officially declare the store open. Our community engagement also sees us supporting the Mid Antrim Animal Sanctuary, and we’ve provided sanitising stations to the Doagh Village Community Association. We also look forward to supporting EUROSPAR’s charity partner, Cancer Fund for Children with initiatives throughout the year.

“We’re delighted to be open and bring even more great value offers, services and facilities to the village.”

The post Fresh concept for NI – Henderson Retail opens its first store under the new format first appeared on Neighbourhood Retailer.

The strategic revamp keeps up with market trends, switching white for colour in keeping with dailyDeli hot food to go services in store, the design of which was also revised last year as part of the fresh SPAR store look and feel.

The new range of sandwiches, wraps, salads and snack pots includes two new sub-ranges; Nice and Simple uses key simple ingredients to provide great value for money, while the Choice range brings a selection of Under 400 calorie, vegan and vegetarian options of sandwiches, wraps salads and snacks to please every food mood.

New range

Julia Galbraith, Food To Go Brand Development & Marketing Manager at Henderson Group commented; “The new range was created to bring additional choice to the fixture, with more and more shoppers choosing our stores we want to be sure we have something to fit their particular lunch or snacking mood.

Shoppers now have a wider range to choose from which keeps up with lunchtime decision making, from a simple roast ham sandwich, to a choice of under 400 calorie sweet chilli chicken noodle salad or a vegan sweet potato pakora wrap. We continually adjust our products to fit the market, and we know that whether working from home or back in the office, consumers will continue to seek out ‘to go’ lunch options.

Working with local suppliers such as Around Noon allows forward thinking and quick turnarounds.

Collette Keenan, Head of Business Development of the Newry-based company says behaviour changes and requirements have been considered throughout the creation of the products. “We are carefully considering what shoppers want to eat. The rise in consumers turning to veggie and vegan diets, or taking a flexitarian approach, has seen us develop products that makes it easy to maintain various lifestyle choices.”

Sustainable packaging

Sustainable packaging is a key focus for businesses and consumers alike, and therefore the company has invested in fully recyclable labels, sandwich and wrap boxes with all salad and snack pots made from 50% recyclable material, which are also fully recyclable.

Julia Galbraith continued; “We make every effort to factor in such sustainability practices in all our products. The new Choice packaging was also designed with visibility in mind, with such a large range to choose from it’s important that shoppers can easily identify products that fit specific needs. The broader colour palette really stands out on fixture and clearly communicates the attributes of each product, providing transparency and an easier decision-making process.”

Product will be supported with POS communications in-store, including added value Meal Deal roundels, overbags and shelf cards, with the full range enhanced by digital and ambient marketing activity.

The new dailyDeli range will be available in over 130 SPAR, EUROSPAR, ViVO and ViVOXTRA stores and supermarkets, including all Henderson Retail operated outlets.

The post Henderson Group reinvigorates lunch on the go offering with colourful new range first appeared on Neighbourhood Retailer.