Good Food Locally Sourced comprises a range of almost 150 products, offering a variety of everyday wholesome tasty food, including meat, poultry, dairy and meal solutions – all sourced from local suppliers across the island of Ireland.

Brought to market in partnership with suppliers including McAtamney’s Gourmet Kitchen in Portglenone and Strathroy Dairies in Omagh, the new range delivers convenient products to Northern Irish customers at the great value the retail brands are well known for and will be made available to more than 200 stores.

Customers nationwide can shop the range from 6^th May, enjoying fresh milk, a selection of meat cuts, as well as delicious readymade offerings such as lasagne, pies and bakes. Global cuisine influences include the popular honey chilli chicken, chicken tikka masala and an NI favourite – the peppered chicken stack – all with the quality assurance of local.

Julie Cherry, Trading Director at Musgrave NI said: “Good Food is an authentic promise of taste, quality and value, while Locally Sourced makes an equally important promise that the range is sourced from here.

“Our investment to bring Good Food Locally Sourced to market reflects our already firm commitment to supporting local producers and suppliers – we spend £166 million annually on local food and drink, we work with 3,000 local farmers and 240 local food and drink suppliers, and stock over 4,500 local products across our stores.”

The launch will be supported with in-store POS, mix & match promotions, and a through-the-line marketing campaign including OOH advertising, TV and radio.

Good Food Locally Sourced will be available to purchase from 6^th May 2024 and will be available from SuperValu, Centra and Mace stores.

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This is the largest amount ever raised by the retail brands, which are part of Musgrave NI, in one year, and will help keep the charity’s mobile detection unit, the Big Bus on the road.

Fundraising initiatives throughout the year, including the Sponsor a Mammogram and the Frank and Honest coffee Time to Espresso we Care campaign, were ardently supported by SuperValu and Centra retailers and their teams, and by caring customers who gave so generously.

Desi Derby, Director of Marketing for SuperValu and Centra said: “I am absolutely delighted by the amount of money raised by our customers, retail partners, and colleagues for Action Cancer during 2023 and want to thank every single person who contributed, for their support.

“There are very few partnerships that have this type of longevity, and to have raised this incredible total in 2023, which was also Action Cancer’s 50^th anniversary year, demonstrates support for the charity is stronger than ever. I am very proud that these funds will help ensure the Big Bus continues to visit communities across Northern Ireland, saving lives, and enable Action Cancer to deliver its health education programme in schools across Northern Ireland.”

‘Without the incredible financial support of SuperValu and Centra, The Big Bus would simply not exist’

Gareth Kirk, Action Cancer CEO added: “The partnership between SuperValu and Centra is one of the longest and most enduring charity partnerships across these islands. Without the incredible financial support of SuperValu and Centra, the Action Cancer mobile clinic The Big Bus would simply not exist.

“The Big Bus is truly a one-off vehicle with no similar vehicle with onboard free breast and skin cancer detection services operating anywhere else in Europe.

“This life-saving service is only made possible through the incredible generosity of the Musgrave Group and its superb customers – thank you. Together we have not only made a difference to the lives of local people and communities, but through early detection of cancer, saved lives.”

In addition to 2023 being Action’s Cancer’s 50^th anniversary year, it was also a very special year for the Big Bus, the year when yet another unique life-saving service was introduced, a skin cancer detection service.

Throughout 2023, the Big Bus visited 119 communities across Northern Ireland. A total of 2,122 mammograms were completed, providing reassurance to women in these locations and detecting early-stage breast cancers in nine women, who had no symptoms. As a result of onboard health checks, 838 people were referred to their GP for further investigation. Nearly 600 men and women were assessed for a potential skin cancer resulting in some 9% being directly “red flagged” into the hospital system for further assessment.

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The title was claimed by McCullagh’s Centra Campsie Road, Omagh and owner Niall McCullagh was delighted to collect the award on stage at the Crowne Plaza Belfast.

Independently judged by Spotcheck, the awards were judged to exacting standards over a three-month period. For this category, they were looking for a Confectioner, Tobacconist and Newsagent which clearly met the needs of its customers and specialised in an extensive variety of CTN products.

Judges said the store was “small but is well organised”.

They added: “Services and facilities are well aligned with the customer profile. Staff are quick, efficient and engaging.”

Speaking after receiving the award, Niall McCullagh told NR that they were “honoured and privileged” to win the CTN of the Year, adding that they were “very happy to have won”.

The Neighbourhood Retailer Awards reward excellence, recognise achievement, raise industry standards, and reward entrepreneurial spirit and are Northern Ireland’s most prestigious retail awards.

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Musgrave will supply more than 1,800 products to the new Dobbies store, which opened in Antrim earlier this week.

The specially-curated ‘SuperValu Favourites’ range will include own-label lines such as Signature Tastes, Donnybrook Fair, Frank & Honest Gourmet Coffee as well as the Happy Pear range.

Customers will be able to enjoy the popular plant-based food brand the Happy Pear, launched in Northern Ireland last year in an exclusive partnership with Musgrave. The range includes chilled soups, meal pots, and ready meals, such as Shepherdless Pie, as well as a range of ambient cooking sauces, breakfast cereals and sweet treats.

Leading gourmet grocery brand Donnybrook Fair, famous for its hand-prepared gourmet meals, freshly baked goods and the finest pantry fare, will provide shoppers with options for the whole family.

‘NEW CONCEPT’

Julie Cherry, Trading Director at Musgrave NI said: “An in-store foodhall partnership is a brand-new concept for Musgrave and one we’re very excited about.

“Building long-term stable relationships is one of our values, so we’re delighted to partner with Dobbies to reach more shoppers across NI with our quality convenience food offer.”

Dobbies CEO David Robinson added: “Musgrave has a fantastic reputation in Northern Ireland and we’re pleased we’ve been able to strike a partnership that will resonate with shoppers at the new Antrim store, providing quality local produce. We look forward to building a strong relationship with the Musgrave team.”

The 110,000sq ft Dobbies store is the garden centre’s second venture in Northern Ireland; the largest in its UK portfolio it is expected to bring more than 1 million visitors a year to The Junction Retail and Leisure Park.

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A stalwart of the grocery industry in Newry, Murphy’s Greenbank has been serving the local community and further afield for almost 35 years.

Having enjoyed a long tenure at the helm, founders Seamus and Madeleine Murphy led the shop and forecourt business for over 20 years before leasing to Musgrave, when they joined the symbol group’s Centra family.

Formerly a greenfield site, Seamus and Madeleine built and opened a 2500 sq ft shop and forecourt in 1988-1989; carrying out various renovations over the years, at one point they added a 500 sq ft extension.

In July 2021, their son Declan and daughter Niamh came on board and they recently oversaw a £650,000 revamp of the shop, modernising and growing the store.

Making significant changes to the store, they have created a more seamless and modern shopping environment for their customers.

“We have had a lot of local people returning to the shop as they see we have increased our offering and offers available and they see that we’ve invested in our store, so this has brought a lot of repeat custom,” said Niamh.

STORE DEVELOPMENTS

Situated at Greenbank, close to the industrial estate and the main Newry to Warrenpoint dual carriageway, Murphy’s Centra is ideally located to cater for an impressive passing trade, with breakfast and lunchtime trade a key area for them.

As part of that, within their recent revamp, they carried out significant work to their deli section, moving its position within the store and entirely new deli equipment installed. This has allowed the store to increase their offering and introduce many new lines.

A new Frank and Honest Coffee dock offers shoppers a greater selection of hot drinks to takeaway and has an environmental pledge at its core, featuring 100% compostable coffee cups, plastic-free coffee capsules and Rainforest Alliance certified coffee beans.

Shoppers can also benefit from the digital loyalty app, which offers a free coffee after earning 10 digital stamps.

As part of the extensive renovations of the store, all-new refrigeration was brought in, with a whole new chilled section introduced, allowing them to increase the range offered in the store. Additionally, they have increased the range of other products available, including a bakery section.

“We have been able to increase our Musgrave offerings as well and we’ve introduced the Moo’d ice cream bar,” said Niamh.

SUSTAINABILITY GOALS

Along with new flooring and new LED lighting, the store has introduced more innovative and modern technology, with new tills, two self-serve checkouts and digital screens behind the counters increasing both the experience and convenience for all their customers.

These advancements also assist the flow of traffic in-store and creates efficiencies among employees.

In addition to lighting and refrigeration, the new store aligns with Musgrave Group’s sustainability goals, featuring Electronic Shelf Edge Labelling (ESELs) to reduce the store’s energy consumption and carbon footprint. In 2022, Musgrave Group announced its target of reaching Net Zero Carbon by 2040 and has committed a £3.6 million fund to support retailers to upgrade their stores to achieve this goal.

With work beginning in January of this year, Niamh said they were delighted the scheme went to plan overall, allowing them to complete ahead of their official relaunch date in May.

“Of course, the shop was open throughout the works, which was intense at the time, but when it’s complete and you look back at what you have achieved, you appreciate what you went through to get to this stage,” said Niamh.

“We have had a very positive response from our customers,” she added. “The renovations were needed and have made a huge difference to the store.”

Their hot and cold food deli counter is one of their key profit centres, with sandwiches, salads and hot foods all available, while Niamh said the new Frank and Honest Coffee dock has also been an attractive draw for consumers.

“We also sell a lot of confectionery goods and our food to go is a big success for us. Since we relaunched, we have seen an encouraging uptake in the grocery offering too, with people browsing more.

“Impulse buys and our epic deals are also great, and we have been developing our social media, so customers are aware of our services and deals.

“The growth of the store and our facilities has meant we have been able to increase our staffing levels too and we now employ 30 staff here. Once staff are brought on, we bring them in for training for a few days before they start.

“Musgrave also have their online Learning Academy, which allows us to encourage staff to get and update their training when they can. We update staff training regularly, and it’s something we’re actually doing at the minute.

A COMMUNITY STORE

While a mainstay of the city, Murphy’s Centra is first and foremost a community store, working to enhance and support the local area where it can, including fundraising for charity.

“We had the Action Cancer Big Bus at the store for a day recently and it was fully booked. We also organised a fundraising event ourselves to be held on the same day, when we held a spinathon,” said Niamh.

“All the staff got involved and took shifts in the spinathon. It was a great event and raised £1000.”

On the day of their relaunch, they also invited Damien Hillen from the Southern Area Hospice, based in Newry, to the store and presented him with a donation of £1000.

“Customer satisfaction is something we like to focus on and it is very rewarding to see people come into the shop and seeing what we have done to the store and being able to provide that customer satisfaction, it’s showing that what we have done here is paying off.

“A big part of it is chatting to customers and building on those relationships, being a friendly and welcoming store for everyone.”

TO VIEW THE FULL INTERVIEW WITH MURPHY’S CENTRA GREENBANK IN THE AUGUST-SEPTEMBER ISSUE OF NEIGHBOURHOOD RETAILER, CLICK HERE

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