Staff from SuperValu, Centra and MACE stores across Northern Ireland encouraged customers to ‘Espresso they care’ and celebrate International Coffee Day (Saturday, 1 October) at their local store while helping to raise much needed funds for local charities Action Cancer and Northern Ireland Chest Heart & Stroke.

From Thursday, 29 September to Saturday, 1 October, each purchase of a Frank and Honest coffee in participating SuperValu, Centra and MACE stores, saw 50p going straight to the charities to help them continue to provide vital community services.

Last year the initiative raised an incredible £22,000 and this year the brands are hoping to smash that total and raise even more funds, which will help keep Action Cancer’s mobile clinic, The Big Bus, on the road and enable NI Chest Heart & Stroke to continue to deliver care services and health promotion programmes to thousands of people living with, or at risk of developing chest, heart, and stroke conditions.

SuperValu and Centra have been partnering with Action Cancer since 2001 and to date have raised £3.5 million for the charity.

MACE has enjoyed a partnership with Northern Ireland Chest Heart & Stroke since 2016 and has so far raised over £245,000 for the charity.

50p from the sale of each coffee has been donated to the charities over the three-day period.

Picture caption:

Launching the fundraising initiative from SuperValu, Centra and MACE, Desi Derby, Marketing Director at Musgrave NI is joined by Action Cancer’s Corporate Fundraising Manager Lucy McCusker (left) and NI Chest Heart and Stroke’s Corporate Fundraiser Steph Ellis (right)

The post Coffee with Kindness – from SuperValu, Mace and Centra first appeared on Neighbourhood Retailer.

And it plans to “disrupt the wholesale sector” with the help of a new digital platform which is expected to launch in Northern Ireland towards the end of next year.

Managing director Trevor Magill told IF&CR that the digital platform will trial in the Republic before it is introduced here in late 2022.

“One of our key mantras is about disrupting wholesale. We want to become the Amazon of wholesale – and become a one stop shop for wholesale customers in Northern Ireland to get the goods they want when they want them, and at the price they want to pay for them,” Mr Magill promised.

The company has already embraced the possibilities of the newest tech and the opportunities of the digital economy.

Having just recently launched the Frank and Honest Coffee loyalty app to replace the paper card, Mr Magill said it’s getting good traction very quickly.

Meanwhile, increasing numbers of customers are using the self-scan option in its Supervalu and Centra stores.

Musgrave NI is also trialling a collaboration with Just Eat in four Centra stores in Belfast, Lisburn and Carryduff in which customers can purchase coffee, food to go and groceries which can be delivered by Just Eat.

The company was also one of the first in Northern Ireland to embrace the remote working trend, meaning it was well positioned to act quickly when the Covid -19 pandemic arrived in March 2020, Mr Magill said.

“We were probably one of the first businesses in Ireland to make the decision to put a working from home policy in place. In March 2020, we quickly moved and within 24 hours staff were working from home – we were lucky that we had the technology to allow us to do that,” he said.

The post Musgrave NI pledges to become the ‘Amazon of wholesale’ first appeared on Neighbourhood Retailer.

When the Conway brothers did their research and decided that the Centra name was the one for them, they’d no idea it would turn out to be a milestone for the Musgrave symbol group too – it just turned out that way – but it made for good PR and helped put the new store firmly on the map.

Shared venture

The new enterprise is the shared venture of three brothers – Peter Conway, the eldest – and twins Daniel and Declan.

The family had owned the land for around fifteen years, where once there was an old service station, which was knocked down a couple of years ago.

“It was the ideal opportunity for a new project” explained Peter.

The Centra is coupled with a Go forecourt. It is easily accessible from the dual carriageway, and the forecourt has ample space including two lorry bays.

“It’s on an A road – so there’s plenty of passing traffic.”

Clearly Peter had done his homework and spent time researching the best symbol group for the site.

“Centra ticked all the boxes. It wasn’t just that the site secured plenty of passing trade, Centra has the high emphasis on its deli offering and coffee” said Peter.

Daniel Conway, Peter Conway, Martin Conway, Declan Conway and with Musgrave Managing Director Trevor Magill.

Centra concept

It was this particular emphasis on the deli that really sold the Centra concept to Peter Conway.

“The deli is the focus of the place – the shop builds itself around the successful deli – it is a special offering. The deli takes priority and everything else is there to support it. I travelled around the country, back and forth, looking for the details that make a difference – I wanted it to be right from the start.”

This is the first venture in to forecourt retailing for the enterprising family. The brothers had other interests in AirBnB, property, and a range of other businesses – but they had no idea that their forecourt would be the one hundredth Centra store.

“It was around 18 months in the planning – but spread over three years. The actual building took just over a year. There’s a lot more to opening a forecourt than you’d think – all the groundwork, the tanks – there’s a lot of spade work to be done first. However we had some excellent support and expertise – in particular, Raymond Armstrong who helped put the forecourt together. He really went over and above the call of duty to make sure it was all as it should be.”

Although having the site ready for electric vehicle chargers wasn’t an option just now – that’s something planned for down the road.

Centra brand

“The deli, the Frank & Honest coffee, and the Green Kitchen were all part of the Centra brand and we wanted to focus on that. The Green Kitchen is a lovely healthy offering, of chopped salads and the deli features everything hot and cold that hits the mark.

“We’re also particularly proud of the Nugelato ® ice cream boutique – it provides some theatre with its chocolate fountain. We consider it quite a coup to get the Nugelato band instore. There are around seven or eight outlets In Northern Ireland so far, but not many in forecourts.

“Nugelato has 60,000 followers on facebook – people are happy to queue to get this perfect ice cream – then post the pics on social media.”

The Nugelato brand is the brain child of Michael Nugent (hence the brand name – Nugeleto) and as Peter explained, he’s very protective of the brand name. and as Peter explained, he’s very protective of the brand name.

“Michael Nugent is very passionate and protective of his Nugelato brand, which is something we feel lends itself to perfectly fit our store ethos” explained Peter.

“It started in Newcastle and is now being rolled out. They deliver their fresh vanilla ice cream directly to us – a fresh vanilla mix in Nuggy pots which are then made up instore. It really has gone down very well for us – especially in the evenings. People are literally queued out the door.”

Food trends

Certainly ice cream has been one of the big food trends throughout the pandemic – with people opting for a walk or a drive with the ice cream treat to top it all off. The ice cream brings people in store – all the grocery and chilled offerings are all available too, along with the usual services from a forecourt and convenience store such as the lotto and so on.

The 100^th Centra at Dunman, Cookstown was lucky enough to avoid the worst of lockdown.

“A lot of our family businesses did have to shut down throughout Covid so this was a completely new family business, a whole new venture for us. With all the restrictions, it was like a security blanket – knowing we were putting together something special that would remain classified as an essential business. We were also fortunate that lock down gave us plenty of time to focus.

“We are a business family and myself and my brothers have grown up in the family businesses – but this really was a brand new venture for us.

Do it right, do it once

“We knew if we were going to do it that we wanted to get it right – my mantra is ‘do it right, do it once’. There were a few blips along the way, it wasn’t all plain sailing but there was nothing that couldn’t be fixed.

“We’ve also been delighted with the support from the local community – both the support for the business and the support for the family and the wider community. There’s a great community opposite. The people are just delighted with their new store and forecourt – the support has quite literally been overwhelming.”

The new forecourt and store is also providing employment for 35 local people. The big success stories in store have been the ice cream and the deli.

It’s an exciting time for Musgrave too which is investing £12 million in its Centra and SuperValu stores this year.

Will their be more forecourts and convenience stores from the Conway brothers in the future?

“We’re young enough and hungry enough so any opportunities that come up, we’ll go for it.”

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The post New Centra with Go forecourt – Conway Brothers Shared Venture near Cookstown first appeared on Neighbourhood Retailer.