The report published on Companies House says the increase in turnover is driven by solid like for like performance in both independent and company-owned stores, supported by Group company investments throughout its retail estate, including acquisitions by Henderson Retail.

The Group also attributes the positive results to its continuous focus on customer service, as well as more frequent missions by shoppers who wish to minimise waste, while warehouse facilities, strong stock availability and the Group’s investment in wholesale pricing make them an attractive wholesale partner.

Henderson Foodservice, which supplies to over 4,500 customers throughout the hospitality, education and healthcare sectors across the island of Ireland posted positive growth of +10.8% to £250 million compared to 2023, thanks to its exclusive new contracts with K&G McAtamney Wholesale Meats, Premier Wholesale Produce and Koffmann’s/The Food Heroes. The company’s retail coffee-to-go brand experienced significant growth and now has over 800 Barista units in 620 retail sites across the UK.

Profit before tax for 2024 was £63 million, approximately £6 million lower than in 2023, largely due to the Group’s strategic investment in wholesale and retail pricing, as well as continued investment in staff remuneration plus a wide range of other initiatives designed to improve colleague engagement.

Neil Gamble, Chief Financial Officer at Henderson Group said: “The grocery market remains highly competitive, therefore in 2024, we concentrated on investing profits back into the business to maintain our competitive position despite various economic challenges.

“Our co-investment strategy with retail partners has been key to establishing a best-in-class portfolio of supermarkets, forecourts and convenience stores, which has facilitated the strong sales performance across all our brand formats.”

GROWING POPULARITY

In total, the Group invested over £26 million across new and existing retail and property locations in 2024, while also renewing its partnership with Maxol to continue to supply 30 Henderson Retail operated service stations with branded fuel, with Henderson Wholesale continuing to supply to Maxol’s company owned service stations under the SPAR brand for the next five years on an exclusive basis.

Henderson Retail opened five EUROSPAR supermarkets in 2024, ahead of celebrating the brand’s 25^th anniversary in Northern Ireland this year. The year ended with the company operating 110 SPAR and EUROSPAR stores in Northern Ireland.

“The impact of inflation, higher interest rates and general deterioration in consumer sentiment made for a more challenging start to 2024,” he said.

“The directors continued to invest in retail and wholesaling prices to deliver better value for both retailers and shoppers, while our store refit, development and new openings, logistics, IT infrastructure and people development investments built a good foundation for future sustainable growth, which we are maintaining at a satisfactory level of profit so far in 2025.

“We are encouraged by the volume growth that we have experienced in 2025 reflecting growing popularity with the consumer for our proposition.”

The Group’s employee numbers at the end of 2024 reached 5,354, with a wage bill of £147m and almost 20% of employees engaged in Payroll Giving.

Henderson Group continued to fundraise for key charity partners in 2024 including Marie Curie, Cancer Fund for Children, Age NI, Tearfund, FareShare, Action Mental Health, NI Children’s Hospice, PIPS and Jack & Jill Children’s Foundation, raising approximately £1.7 million.

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Cathal Geoghegan and Mark Stewart-Maunder successfully completed the Bikes Against Bombs Cycle Challenge in support of UK charity, the Mines Advisory Group (MAG) in April, a challenge that spanned across five days, 400 kilometres and two provinces in Vietnam.

The duo has so far raised £18,854.93 for the charity, with support from their Foodservice colleagues, friends and family.

All 43 cyclists were senior leaders from the UK’s Wholesale and Convenience Retail sector and have raised £275,965, exceeding their original £250,000 target.

The funding will support MAG’s life-saving work to clear landmines and unexploded ordnance from current and former conflict zones around the world and return safe land to communities for agricultural and development purposes.

The Vietnam Cycle Challenge 2024 marks the ninth event of its kind. In that time, hundreds of people from across the sector have cycled across Vietnam and Cambodia (2015), Sri Lanka (2016), Laos (2018), Vietnam (2019), Cambodia (2020), UK cities (2021), Bosnia & Herzegovina (2022) and Thailand & Laos (2023), raising over £1.27 million for MAG.

Cathal Geoghegan, President of the Northern Ireland Chamber of Commerce & Industry and Henderson Foodservice Managing Director, and Mark Stewart-Maunder, Henderson Foodservice Commercial & Development Director said: “It was a real joy for us to join so many other riders in support of MAG’s amazing work. We were privileged to spend some time with their teams in Vietnam and see first-hand how their work is improving livelihoods and saving lives on a daily basis.

“The impact of their work is truly life-changing for so many people, not only in Vietnam but around the world. That gave us even more energy and motivation to successfully complete the bike ride, despite very difficult conditions!”

Tom Fender and Neil Turton, prominent leaders in the Wholesale and Convenience Retail sector and co-founders of Bikes Against Bombs added: “We know that land contaminated with landmines and unexploded ordnance has a direct impact on agriculture and food production, which can lead to significant rises in food prices right here in the UK. It’s something we have seen in recent years with the war in Ukraine, for example.

“MAG’s work is needed now perhaps more than ever and, as an industry, we are keen to play our part in raising awareness and financial support for their life-saving programmes. We were delighted to see a record number of participants this year – further proof that the enthusiasm for this challenge, and the work it supports, is only growing.”

Darren Cormack, MAG’s Chief Executive Officer said: “This year marks 25 years since MAG started operations in Vietnam and while the last bomb was dropped on the country over five decades ago, unexploded ordnance remains a very real threat to communities. We are tremendously grateful to all 43 participants for highlighting this important work during the bike ride and raising funds for our projects around the world. To complete such a challenge takes time, discipline, and dedication. We do not take that commitment lightly.”

With this year’s challenge successfully completed, the focus is now on 2025, which will mark 10 years since the first event: “We have been going strong for nine years and every year we see the positive impact the bike ride has,” added Fender and Turton. “We are calling on more colleagues in our sector to join us and make next year’s bike ride the biggest yet!”

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Henderson Foodservice, which launched the brand in 2015, has invested £250,000 to develop the new ‘My Barista Bar Rewards+’ app for users in Northern Ireland, that will digitise the brand’s loyalty scheme and streamline communications with users.

Alongside the app, the brand has also revamped its website, and launched a new online store, where shoppers can purchase branded products, reusable cups and merchandise which is produced in partnership with local Ballymena company, Ted & Stitch.

Keavy O’Mahony-Truesdale, Brand Manager at Barista Bar said they are responding to their customer demand and joining top coffee brands with their digitised approach.

“Barista Bar and the way we communicate with our customers has evolved over the years, led by their behaviour and preferences,” said Keavy.

“This digital approach not only modernises the brand’s presence but will enhance the overall user experience while reinvigorating our loyalty and rewards programme, improving customer engagement and satisfaction. We are thrilled to be able to offer this innovative and seamless experience to our valued consumers through the new ‘My Barista Bar Rewards+’ app.

“Barista Bar’s position in the local marketplace is very strong, and we have announced expansions into Scotland in recent months. Our products are available in 444 SPAR, EUROSPAR and ViVO branded sites in Northern Ireland, 49 Co-Op sites in the East of England, and we have 104 new sites agreed within SPAR Scotland stores, the roll out for which commences early this year.”

Henderson Foodservice has invested over £14m in the Barista Bar brand in the past nine years, establishing the product as the preferred choice for takeaway hot beverages to go in Northern Ireland, with over 12 million cups sold in 2023.

The all-new My Barista Bar Rewards+ app went live on Monday 15^th January and has been developed alongside local app developers, Sugar Rush Creative. It is available to download from App Store and Google Play.

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While the wholesale and retail company has been an early adopter of new tech, the arrival of Covid meant they had to pivot quickly and start pushing out new ways of doing things that had been in the pipeline.

Marking over 120 years in business, Henderson’s retain a deep sense of pride in being a family-run Northern Ireland business, headed by brothers Martin and Geoffrey Agnew.

‘STRONGEST BRAND’

As the number one convenience store and small supermarket brand in Northern Ireland, the Group is the biggest player in terms of store numbers, boasting some 500 stores. With a mix of company-owned and independent retailers, the SPAR brand is “by far the strongest brand in consumers’ eyes” says Sales and Marketing Director, Paddy Doody.

“We have brilliant examples of great stores in almost every town and village in Northern Ireland, we have a very strong spread of stores and our ethos is, and always will be, to reinvest in our businesses,” said Paddy.

Their independent retailers are the bulk of the Henderson Group business, while their company-owned stores make up approximately a fifth and collectively they reported a 10.9% increase on a like-for-like basis in their Christmas trading figures.

‘The SPAR brand is by far the strongest brand in consumers’ eyes’

While Paddy said they are “really pleased with that performance” he issued it with an air of caution, stressing that inflation has to be taken into consideration.

“Food inflation was reported to be as high as 14% for the month of December, so it’s not real volume growth. I will be honest, we are seeing a softening in our volumes, but a big increase in our turnover.”

It is those immediate, well-documented challenges that Henderson’s and so many others are facing.

CHALLENGING HEADWINDS

“The headwinds we are being confronted with – heat, light, electricity costs, wage costs, are all linked to the impact of inflation. The war in Ukraine, which has created both political and economic instability, all has an impact on consumer sentiment.

“So therefore, across the board, consumers are a little more anxious than we were seeing before, a bit more uncertain and therefore a bit more discerning in their spending.

“Those are the things that are concerning us as a business, that those headwinds are front and centre and that will be across every sector and every business.

“That’s not including the uncertainty the impact of Brexit and the Northern Ireland Protocol has been causing. The political landscape in Northern Ireland is deeply troubling as a business. Our views as a Group reflect those of the CBI, of which we’re a member, that clearly it needs to be sorted and we need an Executive back up and running.

“They need to get their differences sorted out and as a business, we are apolitical. We’re very clear that NI needs an Executive running, decisions made by the people of NI for the people of NI. But at the moment, it’s just not acceptable the current situation we’re in and have been in for many, many months.

“We’re hoping that a new focus on that by both the UK Government and the EU will yield some results here and allow us in Northern Ireland to go forward.”

‘INVESTING IN A STRONG SECTOR’

That being said, Paddy highlighted there are still many things to be positive about.

“We operate in a very strong sector – food and retail is a robust industry. While it’s not immune at all from economic downturn, we do operate in a sector where people have to buy food and eat.

“We do, however have to have an efficient business model and do have to continue to invest in the business. As a business we have done that in spades over the last number of years and continue to do so.

“We are planning big investments in 2023 and have a capital programme of over £60 million that we will invest in our company-owned stores and in partnership with our independent retailers.

“We are a successful, independent, family-run, family-owned business and we have an ethos and culture of continual reinvestment to drive the business; and that’s about partnering with our independent retailers, investing in their business, investing in new stores, investing in promotional and price activity to give better value to the shopper, and investing in our infrastructure.

“In the past five years we have invested around £40m at the site in Mallusk. We’ve built new warehouses, we acquired land to build a new warehouse back in 2017-2018 and new offices which were about a £3m spend in 2018.”

FOODSERVICE

While continuing to invest in both the wholesale and retail levels of the business, Paddy added they are continuing to focus on the food service side of the company as well.

“It operates on the whole island of Ireland and would have been hit very badly during covid lockdowns with bars and hotels closed, schools and restaurants closed, so their business dropped massively over that period,” he said.

“The good thing is that in 2022 our food service business has bounced back very, very strongly. We finished the year with a significant increase of 40% on 2021.

“Our NI business has recovered very well and our Republic of Ireland business is coming back very strongly. Though there are still a lot of challenges from a food service point of view, particularly with Brexit and supply chains and we have the other issues with the cost-of-living crisis and high inflation, wages costs etc.”

AWARD WINNERS

No stranger to winning awards, the Henderson Group enjoyed another strong year of performances in 2022. They saw their retailers collect a host of awards at the 2022 Neighbourhood Retailer Awards, most notably the hat-trick of awards taken home by brothers Jonathan and Terry McCullagh, including the Retailer of the Year title for their Omagh store, McCullagh’s SPAR Classic Service Station. The brothers also claimed the Forecourt of the Year category and Food to Go Store of the Year titles on the night.

Other winning stores last October included JC Stewart EUROSPAR Foodhall, Lynch’s EUROSPAR Skeoge, Creightons SPAR, Blacks Road and SPAR Maxol Service Station at Cherryvalley.

“Throughout the UK we have performed very strongly, for example we picked up 13 awards at the Retail Industry Awards. Not only does it include other symbol groups in the UK, but it also includes Aldi, Lidl, Tesco, Morrisons and so on. For us to go between our company-owned stores and our independent stores and pick up that many awards was absolutely exceptional. Mulkerns EUROSPAR in Newry is a real award-winning store and picked up a host of awards last year too.

“Also at the Grocer Gold Awards, Henderson Retail won Independent Retail Chain of the Year again last year, which is the third time we’ve won it in five years.”

DEDICATED STAFF

While the last few years have brought new and unprecedented challenges for the country, Paddy was keen to sing the praises of all Henderson employees.

“During Covid, all our stores remained open, all our independent retailers’ stores were open, we had a warehouse distribution facility with drivers and pickers that never stopped. In fact, our business took a huge increase in business over that period and we have retained that level of business.

“We took a step increase in our business and I put that down to shoppers who hadn’t normally used our stores coming to us and they realised that SPAR and EUROSPAR stores and supermarkets have got better and are closer to home – locality is a value that shone through during those tough lockdown months. Shoppers saw the range of services, the fresh and locally sourced products, the local butcheries, the Barista Bar coffee offering and the year-round value on local products and big brands.

“I would definitely pay tribute to our retail teams and our warehouse and delivery teams who worked right throughout the pandemic, they are absolute heroes as far as I’m concerned in terms of what they did,” he said.

“From a charity perspective, our retailers are brilliant working with our chosen charities, which are Marie Curie for SPAR, Cancer Fund for Children for our larger format EUROSPAR and ViVOXTRA stores, Age NI with ViVO and our corporate charity partner for Henderson Group is Action Mental Health. Our ethos is to always engage with charities and raise funds to support their important work and services, and we have raised £1million for our charity partners in 2022.”

The pandemic ultimately changed the shopping habits of consumers, with many avoiding the larger stores and wanting to stay closer to home, and Paddy said this is a continued trend as they face new challenges, including the rising cost of groceries and utilities.

ENSURING VALUE

“Local shoppers are asking for more, we have invested a lot in market research and focus groups, asking shoppers what they want. What they want at the moment is value, it is that simple, they just want value.

“But value is not just about the price, it also includes your time, which is valuable. It’s quicker for you to go to your nearest SPAR or EUROSPAR than it is to go to an out-of-town multiple, so that value will be an element of convenience.

“It also comes down to your own personal ethos, you might want to support local businesses. A local shopper will say ‘I want to support someone I know so that the money is invested back into the facilities, so they continue to have a fantastic store, but also invested back into those local employees in their local neighbourhood’.

“Shoppers are looking for that all-round value, they want to go into the store and get in and get out fairly easily, it’s about parking, it’s trying to hit a number of shopping missions in one.

“The consumer mindset is quite complex and quite varied, people are quite different. We’ll try and categorise them as much as possible, but we are in an era of personalisation in many respects.

“We have a very strong SPAR brand representation throughout the range. You will see that that area of the business is growing faster than other areas. Shoppers are making the decision to look for value, to be savvy and maybe they are looking at a market-leading brand of an item and they are looking at our SPAR brand item and wondering if the first is really worth the extra 30-40 pence.

“We do recognise that some families are struggling, without a doubt, and that’s why we will continue to invest to bring that value to the doorsteps of our shoppers in local communities,” he added.

TO SEE THE FULL FEATURE IN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD RETAILER YEARBOOK, CLICK HERE

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The company, based in Mallusk won the Business Growth award and picked up highly commended for Food and Drink eCommerce Website of the Year.

The Irish eCommerce Awards were held at the weekend in Dublin, and are the only dedicated celebration of Irish e-tailers, software providers, agencies and entrepreneurs which recognises and rewards the organisations, teams and individuals who are helping shape the thriving internet retail industry across the island of Ireland.

In recent years, Henderson Foodservice has invested heavily in its digital transformation throughout 2020, working with specialist partners to develop a platform to meet the needs of the company’s broad spectrum of customers across Ireland. Henderson-foodservice.com is now one of the fastest, most intuitive and progressive websites in the foodservice industry, which the company will continue to develop throughout its 2023/24 strategy.

The company has experienced a growth of online sales by 99% so far for 2022 compared to 2021, with the new strategy allowing sales to expand threefold compared to the previous platform. The company has also grown their customer base by 87% in the past year, with 75% of those customers putting their orders through online.

Henderson Foodservice Director, Cathal Geoghegan commented: “Our team has worked tirelessly to overcome huge challenges in the past couple of years to bring our eCommerce proposition to life for our customers.

“We have used a multi-channel approach to acquire new customers as well as communicate more effectively with existing customers, and skilled up our sales reps to become web advocates to show how our efficient, user-friendly platform can create a more cohesive and efficient ordering platform for our customers and our internal teams.

“We are thrilled to pick up these awards against some stiff competition from online retail giants, and I’m incredibly proud of our team who have embraced the developments our company needs to bring solid growth and customer expansion, pivoting to meet an ever-changing marketplace.”

The Irish eCommerce Awards judges was made up of a panel of industry experts from across the UK and Ireland. A full list of winners can be found via ecommawards.ie.

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