Stores from all across the country had major celebrations last year, including Strabane, Islandmagee, Killylea, Ballymena, Ballymoney, Magherafelt, Omagh, Enniskillen and Carryduff.

All stores share a passion for their local communities, providing top quality products and services to their shoppers. Many of the stores are owned and run by families who have close ties to the communities they serve, creating a hub within their communities.

It was important to the stores to celebrate their milestone anniversaries alongside their shoppers, from special offers to giveaways, community fun days to charity fundraisers, the stores got their shoppers involved as a thank you for their loyalty over the years.

Many of the stores have had major refurbishments totaling over £5 million since opening, thanks to significant investments from store owners. They have expanded and developed their offering and services for their local communities, including Post Offices, PayPal, the popular Barista Bar Coffee on the go offering, hot food-to-go, installations of Delish deli counters, in-store bakeries and extensive ranges of fresh food and local produce.

During their service, the retailers alongside their shoppers have fundraised for a number of local charities including SPAR’s charity partner Marie Curie and EUROSPAR and ViVOXTRA’s charity partner Cancer Fund for Children. In addition, the store teams often go the extra mile to arrange their own fundraising activities, both instore and further afield, in aid of chosen charities which are close to their hearts, including Air Ambulance NI and Cancer Focus.

Two family run independent stores, Rooney’s EUROSPAR Enniskillen, which is owned and run by Martin and Angela Rooney, and McCann’s SPAR Belcoo, owned and run by Eugene and Brenda McCann, both celebrated the incredible milestone of 50 years in business.

Patrick Doody, Sales and Marketing Director at Henderson Group, said: “A focus on community is part of the SPAR, EUROSPAR and ViVO brands’ ethos, which is consistent across all stores. The dedicated store teams often channel their time and efforts into supporting local community groups, fundraising for charities and sponsoring their local sports teams.

“The stores go above and beyond meeting the needs of their shoppers and that is why they are successful, with so many stores celebrating impressive anniversaries of serving their local communities across the country.

“I want to congratulate all stores who celebrated milestone anniversaries last year, it is an amazing achievement and we’re very proud of every store and their team. We are all looking forward to marking many more significant anniversaries in 2024.”

The post Henderson Group stores enjoy 518 years serving local communities across NI first appeared on Neighbourhood Retailer.

The appeal, ‘Make Dreams a Reality this Christmas’, aims to raise money to support people living in extreme poverty around the world and will run until 31^st December 2023.

“I will always be grateful to those who saw and helped me reach my potential. Everyone should have the opportunity to make their dreams a reality – and as a mother, when I hear about parents whose dreams are to feed their children or keep their families safe, I feel compelled to act. That’s why I’m delighted to support the Make Dreams a Reality appeal this Christmas,” said Leah.

Chris Thompson, Tearfund’s Director in Northern Ireland, added: ‘Recently, the threats of climate, conflict and the cost-of-living crisis have left already vulnerable people fighting to survive. We see this across the countries in which we work.

“That’s why we are so grateful to SPAR, EUROSPAR, ViVO and ViVOXTRA staff and shoppers for their support: we know this has, and will continue to make, a tangible difference in the lives of many of the most vulnerable across the globe.”

POSITIVE IMPACT

Marking the 11th partnership appeal in aid of Tearfund’s work, the funds raised over the years have positively impacted up to 493,487 individuals living in extreme poverty around the world.

Bronagh Luke from SPAR NI added: “Understanding exactly how the money raised over the years has helped those receiving training and resources from Tearfund is a powerful testament to just how important this annual appeal is.

“I have seen first-hand how funds from our appeals have helped families in Uganda and Rwanda, helping them rebuild their lives post-conflict and in the face of some of the most extreme conditions. I’d like to thank our shoppers in advance for supporting our appeal as we know everyone is feeling the effects of the cost-of-living crisis, so every penny is so gratefully received.”

Shoppers can be assured that every £1 raised in-store will be matched by the retailers, up to an amount of £300,000.

‘Make Dreams a Reality this Christmas’ is now live, with donation boxes in SPAR, EUROSPAR, ViVO and ViVOXTRA stores throughout Northern Ireland, running until 31 December 2023.Shoppers can also donate online and find out more via tearfund.org/dreams

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The annual event, which is proudly supported by Barista Bar Coffee and Kingsmill, will see over 90 community supermarkets across the weekend of the 8^th to 10^th September hold a coffee morning in aid of their charity partner, Cancer Fund for Children.

While Cancer Fund for Children fundraise all year round, a special focus is placed on Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. This year the charity aims to grow awareness of childhood cancer, grow connections, collaborations and partnerships, and to grow their support services for hundreds of children and families living with cancer across Northern Ireland, such as Niamh Clarke from Castlewellan who says she’ll never forget how the charity is helping her young family.

“I will never forget the day I was told I had cancer. I’m a single parent of three children and my first thought was – ‘am I going to die, and who will look after my children? I am all they have’,” said Niamh.

“Cancer Fund for Children helped me in so many ways, from calling to my house for a chat, giving me lots of helpful information, and to helping me talk to my children about cancer, while being so kind to them.

“We were invited to Daisy Lodge at Easter and it was a weekend I will never forget. I felt a sense of calm come over me. We played games, we laughed and we ate amazing food. We met other families and shared stories and I am still friends with them.

“It is so important that people raise money to support places like Daisy Lodge and the Community Coffee Morning is a great way to do this. We will never ever forget what Cancer Fund for Children has done and are still doing to help us as a family.”

Phil Alexander, CEO at Cancer Fund for Children said: “I would like to take this opportunity to thank Henderson Group for their invaluable support. The EUROSPAR and ViVOXTRA Community Coffee mornings go from strength to strength every year and they are one of the highlights in our charity’s fundraising calendar.

“The coffee mornings bring local communities together whilst raising vital funds to help hundreds of families, ensuring they feel supported, connected and better able to cope with the emotional impact of cancer.”

Bronagh Luke, Head of Corporate Marketing at Henderson Group, which owns EUROSPAR and ViVOXTRA in Northern Ireland added: “We are so proud to have raised over £1.6 million for Cancer Fund for Children since our partnership began 12 years ago, and it is an honour to host the kick off events for September’s Childhood Cancer Awareness Month through our Coffee Morning.

“We have over 90 engaged EUROSPAR and ViVOXTRA supermarkets in Northern Ireland whose teams have dedicated their time and energy into initiatives like the Community Coffee Morning and made them a success for our charity partners and the many families they help throughout the year.”

Shoppers can visit any EUROSPAR or ViVOXTRA store throughout the weekend, including flagship stores, Creighton’s EUROSPAR Markethill, Swift’s EUROSPAR Lisnaskea, Smyth’s EUROSPAR Ballymoney, Mulgrew’s EUROSOPAR Carryduff, Lynch’s EUROSPAR Skeoge, Kelly’s VIVOXTRA Castledawson and Mulkerns EUROSPAR Newry, who are all hosting fundraising events on Friday 8^th and Saturday 9^th September,

For all the details on how stores are getting involved and to donate, visit eurosparni.co.uk/community/cancer-fund-for-children

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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 festive initiative runs from 26 September – 18 December, promising huge value deals on high demand products, including one week of double deals. Retailers taking part can be promised a significant spike in sales throughout the three months, with data from 2021 showing a 20% growth in sales from the previous year.

12 Deals of Christmas has become Henderson Wholesale’s flagship footfall and sales driving initiative for its stores, which sees the wholesaler invest around £1.7M to provide the cut price deals for retailers to offer shoppers.

Since its inception in 2016, retail sales have experienced growth of over 67% after generating over £5.9M sales in 2021.

The campaign takes on added significance this year as millions of households across Northern Ireland are feeling the effects of rising household costs, as the cost of living crisis continues to take a grip on the country.

Sara Murphy, Marketing Manager at Henderson Group says this was ever present when creating the campaign for 2022: “We have retailers in every city, town, village and community across Northern Ireland, whose shoppers rely on them to be trusted and provide value where they possibly can.

“This year we launched Mega Deals, where shoppers can take advantage of a vastly cut price, high demand product each week, which our research shows is helping shoppers with their essential shops through the week.

“Christmas is weighing heavily on consumers’ shoulders this year, so we are conscious that our deals will have quite an expectation to help towards that long shopping list for the festive season. 12 Deals comprises a total of 13 products across 12 weeks that can not only be stored away for Christmas but will also be useful for any day use in the run-up when budgeting is even tighter.”

Shoppers agree, with over 80% stating SPAR’s 12 Deals of Christmas campaign offers were better than supermarket prices*, with 71% saying the campaign would make them want to shop at SPAR, EUROSPAR and ViVO branded stores more often*.

Sara continued: “The direct feedback from shoppers, alongside the sharp sales growth over the past six years, shows this is a campaign that resonates and delivers for retailers. There is a deal for everyone, and the anticipation for the 2022 deals is great. We’re excited for them to land in stores in the run up to Christmas.”

Retailers will also benefit from a fully integrated marketing campaign, marking an investment of over £525,000 alone. TV ads will feature families who have gotten carried away with the deals, unable to resist a bargain, while adshels and 48-sheets will complement radio and social media activity, engaging with some of Northern Ireland’s most well-known faces.

Week one of 12 Deals of Christmas kicks off Monday 26^th September, with 10 and 12 packs of Coke, Diet Coke, Coke Zero, Fanta and Fanta Zero less than half price at £3.25. For more, visit spar-ni.co.uk.

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