Fifteen years later, Rooney Fine Foods has grown considerably, but the focus remains firmly on those same values which they started with, and for which they have now become known for.

Five years ago, the butchery moved from the farm into the new Moundview Eurospar in Dromore. Since then, the business has grown significantly with John now leading a team of 15 dedicated staff who help prepare their range of meats and products and look after their valued customers.

FAMILY BUSINESS

While John leads the business full time, the entire family are involved, either on the farm looking after the animals, helping in the shop, or taking care of the necessary business admin, explained John’s wife, Caroline.

“Our business has been built on quality and customer service.

“Because we rear our own cattle using traditional sustainable methods, then dry age our beef, we have earned a reputation locally for consistently excellent steak, and now, not so local, as we have customers who travel considerable distances just to get our steak.

‘Our business has been built on quality and customer service’

“As we have grown, we have had to source other meats and products from suppliers. We have sought out and established relationships with like-minded local suppliers who also focus on quality and provenance. We only source and use products from local suppliers who we trust and who we know will enhance our reputation for quality.

“This often means we may be more expensive than others, but we won’t compromise on the quality we know our customers expect, and we know we are also supporting our local food and farming sector in doing so.”

MEETING CUSTOMER DEMANDS

Since moving into their new shop in Eurospar, Rooney’s Fine Foods have developed an extensive range of freshly prepared oven-ready dishes using their quality meats and ingredients.

“This has been a new and important change in the business over recent years,” said Caroline.

“While we still have many traditional customers who prefer to order directly from our counter, we also have a new customer group who want convenience with quality. Our oven-ready range has been very successful, and we continue to develop it and incorporate new ideas and flavours based on what our customers are buying.

“We have also seen a new demand for gluten-free products from a number of our customers and we have developed a range of oven-ready products specifically for these customers.”

‘Word of mouth locally remains a very important marketing staple, and we often get new customers to our shop who have been recommended by friends’

While there are no plans to develop the business into the wholesale meat sector, there are local restaurants and convenience stores who purchase their meats directly from Rooney’s, as they “recognise the consistency and quality is there for their own businesses”.

In this age of technology, more and more businesses have turned to social media to help highlight their store services and offerings, using their social media channels to engage directly with their customers.

“We have used social media to promote the business since moving into the Eurospar. Our main platform is Facebook, but recently we have also begun using Instagram,” said Caroline.

“Our online marketing highlights our key attributes of quality, provenance, and customer service. We encourage and receive a lot of feedback from our customers on Facebook, particularly pictures of how they have cooked our meats. Our marketing is focused on our quality, rather than on offers and price.

RECOMMENDATIONS AND REWARDS

“While social media has been very effective in creating awareness of our business, it is the quality of our meats and our customer service that converts a new customer into a return customer.

“Word of mouth locally remains a very important marketing staple, and we often get new customers to our shop who have been recommended by friends, or who have tasted our meats at friend’s dinner parties.

“We get to know our customers and their families, and we take an interest in what’s going on in their lives. We also support our community’s various clubs and groups where we can.”

Last year Rooney’s Fine Foods were encouraged by friends and colleagues from Eurospar to enter the 2022 Neighbourhood Retailer Awards and Caroline said they were delighted to have been shortlisted in the Butcher of the Year category.

“We were delighted to have been chosen as a runner-up amongst such established and larger businesses. The awards evening was incredible and there was a real energy and enthusiasm throughout after Covid and lockdowns.

“We have often talked of submitting our steak and sausages for food awards, and after our experience with the Neighbourhood Retailer Awards, we are hoping to do this in 2023.”

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

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As a result, we are increasingly focusing our attention on developing and expanding our NGP portfolio, the predominant focus of which is vaping products.

The vape market is continually expanding as more consumers seek out alternative nicotine solutions. In the UK alone, the category is now worth around £1.2bn and is expected to reach £1.47bn in the next three years, with around 35% of current vaping volume sales taking place in the convenience channel.

‘Retailers need to ensure they are dedicating sufficient space in store for vaping products and stocking the right range for their customer base’

One particular area that is experiencing a huge amount of growth is the disposables category, which is currently worth around £132m, with the market share having doubled in size to 10% over the last year, up from 5% in 2021. To tap into this rising trend, retailers need to ensure they are dedicating sufficient space in store for vaping products and stocking the right range for their customer base.

MEETING DEMAND

With demand for disposables rising significantly, we recently announced our entrance into the market with the new blu bar vape range to help retailers cater for this trend in store. The new range offers a quality collection of disposable and ready-to-use vape products and each device features bright and vibrant bursts of colour, both on the device and on pack, to create great standout on the shelf and to help retailers with range navigation in store.

Each blu bar device has an MRRP of £5.99* and contains 20mg/ml of nicotine with 2ml of e-liquid providing up to 600 puffs. The range is available in six great tasting flavours, including Kiwi Passionfruit Mango Ice, Banana Ice, Peach Ice Watermelon Ice and Strawberry Ice, giving retailers the chance to provide their customers with a unique flavour experience every time.

We’re supporting the blu bar launch with a new dedicated website, blu bar Knowledge Hub,  to provide retailers with everything they need to know about the range, including useful articles, video content, quizzes and more.

*Based on ITUK RRP as at January 2023. For the avoidance of doubt, customers are free at all times to determine the selling price of their products.

TO READ TOM’S INDUSTRY COMMENT IN THE 2023 NEIGHBOURHOOD RETAILER YEARBOOK, CLICK HERE

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McAtamney’s currently has 14 stores across Northern Ireland, including the new express store at Hillcrest Eurospar, Portrush. You will also find their products in a large number of supermarkets/retailers across Northern Ireland, allowing their produce to be accessible seven days a week.

For many years, McAtamney’s has had two shops in Limavady and in 2022 the team were delighted when the opportunity to expand at a premises just a few doors down presented itself, allowing for the creation of their new look Main Street store.

EXPANSION

“This larger new store allows us to create a unique and modern space for our customers to shop, while also increasing our catering space for prep behind the scenes,” said Oran.

The store was officially opened in August 2022 at 61 Main Street by Oran, Mark and Declan McAtamney, alongside the team – to much excitement. On the day customers enjoyed browsing the new-look store while trying tasty samples, as well as goodie bags and giveaways.

“The store features our biggest ever butchers’ counter, allowing manager, Shane Doherty and the team to showcase their expert skills each day,  including our famous Butchers’ Specials and dry aged meats, alongside the full Gourmet Kitchen range.

“The new-look deli offers breakfast and lunch To Go six days a week, as well as freshly brewed coffee.”

‘One thing we will not falter on is our determination and guarantee to continue to provide locally sourced, great quality products for our customers’

All McAtamney’s stores carry the same range of locally sourced meats and products, such as their traditional customer favourites, dry aged steaks, Gourmet Kitchen dishes and sides, along with a range of local produce including Ballymaloe Relishes and sauces, Brioghter Gold Oils (Limavady based), local bread suppliers and most recently Belfast Coffee Co. to complement their own locally sourced offerings.

“As many of our customers know, Shane and the team at our Limavady store are very creative, you will find delicious specials on the counter each day that are perfect for indulging and creating a tasty meal at home with little to no prep,” said Oran.

AWARD-WINNING

Having been recently awarded Employer of the Future at the Causeway Coast and Glens People Award, McAtamney’s know their growing team is integral to their success each day. They currently employ over 150 members of staff across the business, from their team at head office, to expert butchers on their counters, as well as at their boning hall and chefs at the Gourmet Kitchen facility.

In late 2022, Oran was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Mid Ulster Business Awards, something which has been described as a “testament to his hard work and dedication to the business, his staff and the butchery trade”.

“As a company we realise we have to continuously adapt as trends and consumer requirements change, however one thing we will not falter on is our determination and guarantee to continue to provide locally sourced, great quality products for our customers,” he said.

MARKING 90 YEARS

For 90 years the McAtamney family has worked together to continually develop and grow the business and with Oran’s guidance, his sons Mark and Declan aim to continue this, with exciting plans and developments in place for the future.

Those exciting plans include big celebrations to mark an incredible nine decades in business, with lots in the pipeline for this summer.

“We don’t want to reveal too much now, but a Golden Ticket might feature and we plan to celebrate with our team and customers throughout our stores,” added Oran.

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

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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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There have been some significant shifts in consumer behaviour over the last couple of years. In 2021 when people were at home all the time there was a sizable switch to primal meats and a move away from ready meals and further processed products. Families were together and people had time to cook and were interested in cooking again.

Within that we also saw ‘premiumisation’ with people not just buying steak, but getting top tier steak such as dry-aged, Tomahawk and T-bone or from named breeds such as Aberdeen Angus and Hereford that are synonymous with quality.

During the majority of 2022 we were still seeing a strong trade in the steak market as people looked to maintain restaurant quality at home. They were used to buying a bottle of wine and having a nice meal at home, and it was up to us as a sector to produce that restaurant-style quality to keep them satisfied.

‘2023 will itself bring a new set of challenges and of course opportunity’

We are well placed in this respect having secured top awards for our products at the 2022 World Steak Challenge, which attracted entries from more than 20 countries. Five golds awards went to our West Country Choice PGI Beef and Rose County brands.

2023 will itself bring a new set of challenges and of course opportunity. The challenges we’re facing into are not specific to the meat industry and will be familiar to other companies in other sectors. They include the impact of the increasing cost of living on consumer spending, supply chain issues and the rising cost of doing business.

CHANGING NEEDS OF SHOPPERS

Shoppers’ budgets are now being stretched in ways many of them have never experienced before, but buying behaviour is showing it’s not simply a case of trading down or out of a category. Affordable luxuries are being sought and convenient restaurant quality food, such as our sous vide or slow-cooked products, are proving increasingly popular.

Dunbia is a division of Dawn Meats and the groups’ diverse product offering means we are well-placed to satisfy the changing needs of shoppers, whilst remaining committed to a future based around quality and sustainability.

As 2022 came to a close we announced our Plan Four Zero initiative to target net zero operational emissions by 2040 across the group. This net zero commitment involves an initial £90m investment across four areas of ambition – environment, farming, food and society – and takes account of the entire supply chain across Scope 1,2 and 3 emissions.

INVESTING IN THE FUTURE

Dunbia also invested in a multi-million pound project to measure the carbon footprint of its supplying farms across the UK and Northern Ireland by the end of this year. Taken together, this is a significant level of investment in what is obviously a key area for us, so we are focussed on ensuring we achieve results and that we can demonstrate the impact these initiatives are having.

Under the food ambition we are focused on ensuring consumers recognise the valuable contribution meat products make to human nutrition as part of a balanced diet and will continue to work with our retail and foodservice customers to explore new ways to actively raise awareness of the important role red meat plays in maintaining good health and wellbeing.

Dunbia were also recently part of a significant milestone for British red meat as the company exported the first consignment of British lamb to the US for more than two decades. This is an exciting development, and we are now working on promoting our quality lamb offering to this new market.

TO READ MICHAEL’S INDUSTRY COMMENT IN THE 2023 NEIGHBOURHOOD RETAILER YEARBOOK, CLICK HERE

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