A total of 34 life-saving defibrillators have been installed by MK Medical inside all SuperValu and Centra stores owned by the company, as well as Musgrave MarketPlace sites, Musgrave’s headquarters on Dargan Drive and drinks wholesaler, Drinks Inc on Boucher Road, Belfast.

SuperValu and Centra stores included are located across the region, including Banbridge, Belfast, Carrickfergus, Comber, Cookstown, Dungiven, Armagh, Limavady and many more.

POTENTIAL LIFELINE

Defibrillators have the potential to save the lives of staff and customers, with latest research showing that accessing these devices within 3-5 minutes of a cardiac arrest increases the chance of survival by over 40%.

Trevor Magill, Managing Director of Musgrave NI, said: “Our stores across Northern Ireland are at the heart of their communities and we’re proud to provide a potential lifeline to them in an emergency with the installation of defibrillators at our Musgrave-owned SuperValu and Centra stores.

“Timing is crucial when dealing with a cardiac arrest, therefore having direct access to a defibrillator whether in our stores or office locations, could be life-saving.”

To learn more about how to use a defibrillator please visit St John Ambulance.

Musgrave sites where defibrillators are installed:

Head Office and Regional Distribution Centre, Dargan Drive, Belfast

Drinks Inc, Falcon Rd, Belfast

Marketplace, Dargan Crescent, Belfast

Marketplace Pennyburn, Buncrana Rd, Derry City

Centra, Ballymagorry, Tyrone

Centra, Banbridge Church Street, Down

SuperValu, Dairy Farm, Belfast

Centra, Foxes Glen, Stewartstown Road, Belfast

SuperValu, Kings Square, Belfast

Centra, Woodburn Rd, Carrickfergus

SuperValu, Comber

Centra, Burn Road, Cookstown,

Centra, Buncrana Road, Derry/Londonderry

SuperValu, Downpatrick

Centra, High Street, Draperstown

SuperValu, Dungiven

SuperValu, Tattymoyle Road, Fintona

Centra, Irvinestown, Fermanagh

SuperValu, Irvinestown, Fermanagh

SuperValu, Market Street, Limavady

SuperValu, Knockmore Rd, Lisburn

Centra, Main Street, Moira

SuperValu, Dundrum Road, Newcastle

SuperValu, Clones Road, Newtownbutler

SuperValu, Market Street, Omagh

Centra, Clady Road, Portglenone

SuperValu, Station Road, Portstewart

SuperValu, Main St, Strabane

Centra, Mullaghglass Road, Whitemountain, Lisburn

Centra, O’Neill Rd, Newtownabbey

Centra, Main St, Claudy

Centra, Mayfield link, Mallusk

Centra, Feeny Rd, Dungiven

SuperValu, Main St, Portglenone

The post Musgrave invests £65k installing defibrillators in locations across NI first appeared on Neighbourhood Retailer.

From Monday 13^th February, shoppers in SuperValu, Centra, MACE and Musgrave MarketPlace will be able to donate £1 via a simple “Tap to Donate” mechanism at the till, with 100% of the funds donated going directly to help support the immediate humanitarian response.

As part of the campaign, Musgrave Group will donate £88,000 (€100,000) to two charities who are actively supporting people on the ground in Syria and Turkey: UNICEF and the Red Cross.

MUCH-NEEDED SUPPLIES

Trevor Magill, Managing Director of Musgrave NI, said: “We in Musgrave Northern Ireland, along with our customers, colleagues and retail partners have all been deeply saddened by the scale of the humanitarian crisis following the earthquake in Syria and Turkey.

“Musgrave Group is immediately contributing £88,000 (€100,000) to UNICEF and the Red Cross to help bring much-needed supplies including food, blankets, and medicine to those impacted by this devastating event.

“We are also encouraging our customers to donate what they can at the till. Working closely with the charities, we will ensure that 100 per cent of the donations go as quickly as possible to help those who need it.”

Commenting on the appeal, UNICEF Ireland Executive Director Peter Power said: “The children of Syria and Turkey urgently need support. Through this action by Musgrave and their customers, UNICEF will be able to protect more children and deliver critical life-saving support to those affected by the earthquake in Syria and Turkey.”

The post Musgrave Northern Ireland support for UNICEF earthquake crisis appeal first appeared on Neighbourhood Retailer.

Since the partnership began in 2016, staff from Musgrave NI’s three wholesale branches in Belfast, Derry~Londonderry and Lurgan, have taken part in a range of activities from Jolly Jumper days and raffles to static cycles and climbing Slieve Donard, to raise funds to help rebuild the lives of thousands of local people living with chest, heart, and stroke illnesses.

Desi Derby, Marketing Director for Musgrave MarketPlace said: “We are very proud of our partnership with NICHS and are thrilled to have reached this landmark total of £50,000 across our three Musgrave MarketPlace branches, thanks to the dedication and enthusiasm of colleagues and of course with the generous support of our customers.

“NICHS carries out vital support and prevention work in communities across Northern Ireland and we are very pleased to know our fundraising efforts are making a real difference. We also support the charity through our network of Mace stores and in conjunction with Musgrave MarketPlace, have raised a combined total of £300,000 to date.  We look forward to continuing our partnership with plenty more fundraising ahead.”

Jackie Trainor, Director of Income Generation at NICHS added: “Almost 90% of our care and prevention services and research are funded exclusively by public donations so we would like to say a huge thank you to Musgrave MarketPlace and their customers for their ongoing support.

“These fundraising efforts are vital to the work we do and will really help support the 335,000 local people living with chest, heart and stroke conditions and their families.”

The post Landmark fundraising efforts for Musgrave Marketplace and NICHS first appeared on Neighbourhood Retailer.

Last year, Circle K acquired 10 Griffin Group convenience stores across Dublin, most of which were in coveted city centre locations. It was an unexpected step onto the High Street for the forecourt giant which is well known globally for its fuel and convenience store.

But senior director of retail operations for dealer & franchise Derek Nolan insists the company is in no danger of forgetting its roots, despite its continued interest in the High Street and rules out a similar move in Northern Ireland any time soon.

“This is an important and exciting development with Circle K, but it’s important to note that we remain hugely committed to fuel retailing and our network of service stations throughout the island of Ireland,” he tells NR.

Fast growth

Derek’s own area of the business – the dealer and franchise network – is growing quickly, with 243 sites across the island of Ireland where he works directly with independent retail partners.

“We’ve brought 15 new sites to the dealer network over the last 15 months. Our dealer partners look to the Circle K model as to what the future is going to look like, and an example of that would be around electrification and fuel quality,” Derek says.

“We have more than 14,000 stations globally and that gives us a good sound basis of understanding of the current market and what the future looks like.

“We currently have 49 dealer partners in Northern Ireland and we grew it by eight dealer partners last year. We’ve already seen another new site join since May, so watch this space because Northern Ireland is still a big area of opportunity for us.

Recent highlights

“One big highlight recently was the Musgrave Marketplace deal which was a big opportunity for us – it was a big statement for Circle K in Northern Ireland that we went from five Musgrave sites to now 12 overnight.

“Musgrave are investing in a high number of these sites and we’re excited to be part of the big renovation at the site in Portstewart.

“Our dealer partners are looking for the same things in Northern Ireland and the Republic – they’re looking for innovation. they’re looking for certainty of product. Fuel quality is a big part of our offer and that’s what Circle K brings.”

Derek has been in retail ever since leaving school – yet there can’t be many in the forecourt industry whose resume can boast numerous encounters with A-list celebrities, including Tom Cruise and Mark Wahlberg.

Starting as a 16-year-old at Quinnsworth, he moved up the ranks to become head of the retail support office at Tesco before becoming retail director across Odeon Cinema’s 123 sites in the UK and Ireland.

Transition phase

Six years ago, Derek made the leap to what was then Topaz.

“I joined just after the acquisition when they were transitioning from Topaz to Circle K and they wanted to bring the global brand into Ireland – so that was a massive attraction.

“It was all around major transition and being able to bring a new way of working into the company – who wouldn’t want to be part of 420 sites rebranding?

“The core part of my role now is setting a clear strategic map of where we want to grow as a channel, but the area I most enjoy is getting out with the team and speaking with our customers and seeing the team achieve its short and long term goals.”

One of Circle K’s key strengths is that it’s a globally recognised brand with a well-established record of delivering excellence, Derek says.

Global experience

“The key part for us is that we’re able to bring that global experience and insight into an existing local market,” he says.

“In Circle K everything comes back to making our customers’ lives easier every day, so we need to adapt to meet their needs, to deliver products and services and show leadership in areas such as electrification and sustainability

“We have led the way in developing next generation fuel, gourmet coffee and a wide range of high quality food options and across the island of Ireland we are the largest and most advanced network of service stations with longstanding ties to communities across Ireland.”

Circle K has evolved from a fuel retailer that sold convenience to a retailer that sells fuel.

Listening to customers

“We’ve really led the way in developing high quality fresh food on the go, but we pride ourselves on listening to the customers. Customers’ behaviours have changed and will change and we’re adapting to what those tastes and changes are into the future,” Derek says.

“I think a key area where we are leading is around technology and frictionless – we’re looking at what technology is needed, whether that’s to eliminate queueing at the front of the shop or just making life easier for the customer on the forecourt.

“We will be introducing mobile pay in the future – we already have Pay at Wash, so where we have wash machines you have the ability to pay without getting out of your car, for example – and that’s something we’ve just introduced this year.

Net zero

Circle K also prides itself on its leadership in sustainability and the net zero transition, offering the largest EV charging network in Ireland.

“We’re progressing on the introduction of E10 – that will go live in Northern Ireland in November,” Derek says.

“It’s likely that all fuel pumps will eventually be replaced by EV chargers at the front of the store, but it’s not going to happen overnight.

“We know that the forecourt of today is not the forecourt of tomorrow, and we are already leading the evolution in terms of extent of EV and alternative fuel capabilities across our network. I know we’re going to be seen as the leader in the market on this.

“We know we need to transition away from fuel products, but it’s not a case of just flipping a switch overnight. The country still relies on petrol and diesel to keep people moving – for example, delivery vehicles, bus fleets and ambulances – but EV is a core part of the future.

Moving forwards

“There are ways to make petrol and diesel products more environmentally friendly in the interim, so the introduction of E10 will have a significant impact and also we’ve got HPO for diesel and it can also have an impact in the short term.

“We’ve the most advanced EV network through our strategic partnerships with ESB, Ionity and Tesla, but the single biggest leverage that Circle K has to any of our competitors is our Norway market, where we know EVs outsell the traditional combustible engine car at the moment.

“So we’re able to use that information and will be using that information as to how we transition in Ireland. Norway are years ahead of the transition to Ireland and we’re one of the biggest EV charging networks in Norway, so that can only support how we’re going to bring it into the island of Ireland.”

While Covid had an impact on business, Circle K adapted quite well, Derek says.

Adapting to Covid

“We saw that our larger motorway sites were more challenged. But where we have residential sites – and we certainly have a lot of them in Northern Ireland – we would have seen them perform quite well through the Covid period from a residential point of view because customers’ behaviours had changed significantly during that period as they were using more of the local shops.

“We’re seeing customers reverse back out of that, not all the way but I would say customers’ behaviours have adapted back to more normal ways of doing things. But we still see challenges with commuters who are not fully back into the office and we see that in Moira, Carrickfergus, Ballymoney. We have seen it vastly improve but we haven’t seen it fully recover to pre Covid times, that’s the reality – there’s more hybrid working out there.

“But we’ve recovered, and we’re back in normal times as such.”

Fuel supply

The biggest challenge at the moment is certainty of product when it comes to fuel supply, in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, but here again Circle K is at an advantage due to its global operation, Derek says.

“Circle K has a global reach and a global footprint and we have the ability to manage through this crisis, so being part of the Circle K global network is going to give reassurance to our local dealers – they’re talking to me, but they’re also talking to a business that has 14,000 sites, both in America and across Europe,” he says.

“Russia was only a small part of our global sourcing of fuel, so as a global company we were not reliant on Russia and would have looked to increase our supply of fuel coming from other parts of the world, whether that was America, the refineries in the UK or other parts of the world.

“But there remains a high level of volatility within the global market and this is driven by stronger fuel demand post Covid and the realignment of fuel sourcing following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. So as a result we are likely to see a continuation of fuel price fluctuations in the future wholesale market.

Volatility

“It’s important to point out that this volatility is something we’ve never experienced, and it’s twofold – it’s the post Covid recovery and it’s the Russian invasion – and the other point is there are further sanctions on Russian energy supply coming into effect in January 2023 so we are likely to see even further volatility.

“But it’s not just fuel prices, it’s everything, it’s the cost of living as a whole that has really suffered. We will see consumer spend contract – that’s going to be obvious – but fuel is not sitting out there on its own.”

Derek says his wish list for the future centres on growth, innovation and making things easier for the customers.

And his priority is to continue listening to Circle K’s independent dealer partners: “They’re in the local communities, and as Circle K we have to work with and listen to them.

“That’s what keeps us relevant and consistent, and keeps us able to adapt for the future.

Adapting to change

“There’s no doubt we’re going to be going through the single biggest transition period of our industry over the next number of years.

“But calling out the importance of our dealer partners is massive for me. They’re not shy about giving you information about what’s working and what’s not working and it’s important we listen to that. We’re lucky to have that.

“When you’re company owned, you can be very focused internally, whereas when you’re working with dealer partners it gives you a great insight into what’s happening in the local markets.”

To read the full feature in Neighbourhood Retailer, click HERE.

The post Easing that journey every day: Circle K’s Derek Nolan first appeared on Neighbourhood Retailer.

The partnership will give the leading food convenience retailer and wholesaler, whose brands include SuperValu, Centra, Mace, Musgrave MarketPlace and Drinks Inc, exclusive naming rights to the full race card on Friday 26^th August – the Musgrave Race Evening.

This is not Musgrave NI’s first foray into the world of horse racing as it has partnered with the racecourse for 10 years.

Down Royal Chief Executive, Emma Meehan said: “We are absolutely delighted to continue our partnership with Musgrave NI and are excited to welcome them and their retail partners and suppliers back to Down Royal on Friday 26^th August.

“Like Down Royal, Musgrave Group has a rich local heritage with a 146-year history. We are always looking to work with local brands who share our commitment to developing authentic and elevated experiences for racegoers.

“Through this renewed partnership we hope to enhance the race-going experience for fans and sponsors and make it a race evening not to forget.”

Retail Sales Director at Musgrave NI, Paddy Murney said: “We’re pleased to be partnering once again with Down Royal Racecourse for this final fixture of the summer calendar. The event is an opportunity for Musgrave to show appreciation to our retailer partners, whilst enabling them to take some time out of their stores.

“The sponsorship also provides an opportunity to showcase Musgrave to a diverse local audience whilst being part of an extremely exciting sporting weekend.”

For full details of the Musgrave NI Race Evening or to book tickets, please visit www.downroyal.com

The post Musgrave NI right on track for Down Royal Bank Holiday fixture first appeared on Neighbourhood Retailer.