Renowned for foodservice excellence, Casey Retail Group was a significant winner at the 2025 National Grocery Retail Awards, with no fewer than three of its six stores collecting major awards.
Casey Retail Group certainly had a day to remember at the 2025 National Grocery Retail Awards ceremony at the Radisson Blu Royal Hotel, Dublin, on Tuesday October 21st. The Group – founded by Gerry Casey in Castlebar in 1998 and now comprising an additional five outlets in Ballina, Limerick (two), Balla and Newbridge – were outright All-Ireland winners in two categories and finalists in three others.
Casey’s Londis Ennis Road, Limerick managed by Pauline Madigan was selected as ‘Ireland’s New Store of the Year’, while nearby Casey’s Londis Dock Road Limerick, managed by Joe Wheeler took home the prestigious ‘Ireland’s Best Deli Offering’ award.
“Quality Food is at the core of everything we do therefore being recognised in this way makes me immensely proud of the store and my team,” says Joe.
Pauline who joined the group in February added: “I knew I was joining an award-winning, market leading group but I didn’t expect to win these awards so soon. I am absolutely delighted.”
Meanwhile, Casey’s Londis Castlebar was runner-up in ‘Excellence in Fresh Food Retailing in a Forecourt Store’, while Ennis Road was runner-up in ‘Ireland’s Best In-Store Off-Licence’ and the Dock Road store was runner-up in ‘Ireland’s Best Food to Go Offering’.
Fitting recognition as the Casey team would describe themselves as foodservice operators with a shop and forecourt attached. “We take immense pride in our stores, staff, products and the service we provide each day to our customers,” comments Kathryn Maloney, Head of Foodservice.
“We aim to deliver a vast and varied range of breakfast, lunch, dinner and food to go options under one roof which appeals to all ages, at all times of day and to all different tastes. Congratulations to all three store managers and their teams on their success at the National Grocery Retail Awards.”
Gerry Casey was understandably pleased to have been so successful across no fewer than five categories at the 2025 National Grocery Awards: “We are delighted; it is a phenomenal achievement,” he told Grocery & Retail Ireland magazine.
“The National Grocery Retail Awards are one of the most eagerly anticipated and prestigious events in the Irish grocery retail calendar. These awards honour Irish retail businesses that have demonstrated exceptional performance, customer reassurance and increase brand awareness.”
As a business that prioritises and is renowned for its foodservice offering, it must be a great endorsement for Casey’s to be recognised for their fresh food (and beverages) service?
“Yes, recognition of our fresh food and beverage services is a significant endorsement for the business, it validates our focus on quality and will hopefully lead to increased customer loyalty and positive word-of-mouth recommendations. It reinforces the business’s brand identity and gives us a key competitive advantage.”
Best New Store is the icing on the cake – have Pauline, Kathryn and their team hit the ground running at Ennis Road? “Yes, we are very happy with the store; the customer reaction has been overwhelming. We introduced a state-of-the-art off-licence and have seen phenomenal growth. Our brand-new Deli offering is second to none.
“The feedback locally has been very positive, and we are delighted with the results after the full revamp.”
To what extent is Casey Retail Group’s success at these awards down to the wonderful team they have serving customers on a daily basis? “The standards have soared across the retail sector in recent years, and the commitment and ambition demonstrated by our team has provided the highest level of service to our customers,” Gerry acknowledges.
“Having a wealth of expertise across every department, we have a team who value one another’s contributions and skillset, while a mutual respect between the team and management helps us offer our customers the highest standards. We look for consistency across the group, which in turn drives standards.”
While Casey Retail Group has been setting the standards for coming up on three decades, there is much more to come from this progressive, growing, award-winning foodservice operator. “The future for the Casey Retail Group and its loyal customers involves deeper integration through innovation and increased customer advocacy,” Gerry promises.
“We aim to take a leading role in our sector through meaningful promotions, customer service, innovation, and a wholesome in-store food offering. We are continuously striving to improve our offering and to provide exceptional value to customers.”
The success of the Castlebar store has enabled Gerry – who strongly believed he could introduce restaurant quality food in a convenience shopping environment – to expand the group to six stores with a magnificent in-house team of 250 employees.
The Kitchen at Caseys and Londis Deli, led by Kathryn Maloney, are the heart of all six stores.
In 2017, they celebrated becoming part of the 100% Irish-owned Londis symbol group, with the business experiencing one of its most positive transformations to date. Their new-store design model has not only given all stores a welcome new look and feel, but the innovative layout has improved the shopper experience. All six stores are spacious, bright, well laid out and much easier to shop in, with a huge emphasis on fresh foods.
One of the Group’s most notable innovations has been the development of The Kitchen at Caseys, a new food service concept that provides an even better range of wholesome hot and cold foods, including salads and sandwiches, all prepared and cooked in-store.
Changing to the Londis brand has enabled Casey’s to introduce additional, quality Irish franchises like Chopped (in Castlebar) and Bewley’s to customers to complement their own wholesome in-store food offering.
They are also proud to have a Supermac’s franchise in the Ballina and Limerick stores, while during the summer of 2019 they added the Four-Star Pizza franchise to their Castlebar store.
Peter O’Dowd is Store manager at Caseys Londis Castlebar, which earned a Top Three finish in ‘Excellence in Fresh Food Retailing in a Forecourt Store.’ Castlebar boasts a vast state-of-the-art bakery, Chopped, The Kitchen at Casey’s, Londis Deli, Four-Star Pizza, a large sit-down area, ample parking, forecourt facilities and well-trained, empowered staff who pride themselves on excellent customer service. Caseys are constantly listening to their loyal customers to provide what they want and challenging their fresh food departments to develop new and exciting products and ideas.
‘Ireland’s New Store of the Year’ Casey’s Londis Ennis Road is the newest of six stores within the Casey Retail Group. Ennis Road was relaunched in July 2024 and has been extremely successful for the group to date. Purchasing the store in May 2025, Caseys took on a multi-million-euro project to bring it back to life and create an ultra-modern store with excellent facilities in the heart of Limerick.
The store now consists of a large Circle K forecourt facility, Kitchen at Caseys Deli, bakery, Bewley’s coffee, grocery, state-of-the-art off-licence, sit-down area, I Scream Soft Serve, ample parking and much more. The local community has embraced the changes wholeheartedly.
Caseys are extremely proud of our state-of-the-art off-licence. Initially the store had a wine licence with only two bays dedicated to this, but they now have ten bays of wines, three bays of free flow spirits, an extra-large beer fridge, a full section dedicated to non-alcoholic offerings and boxed beer.
Casey’s Londis Dock Road Limerick was one of the flagship 24-hour forecourt food to go convenience stores which opened 20 years ago. Casey’s famous flagship store in Limerick has experienced a variety of great changes in recent years. Joe Wheeler took up the position as store manager in 2000 having navigated through some difficult trading periods in that time to develop a busy bustling thriving site that is catering to customers’ needs 24 hours a day.
Significant investment in the store and forecourt has thoroughly modernised the entire area and keeps the store in good stead for trading long into the future. The customer toilets, dining area and exterior of the building have been upgraded in recent years as well as modernising the shop floor by adding brand new refrigeration, new shelving and a new spec in the off-licence so that the shop floor matches the new exterior cladding in offering a professional, sharp, detailed and most importantly a convenient and enjoyable customer experience.
The Kitchen at Caseys opens at midnight daily and trades up to 6pm, from which point Supermac’s trades until midnight, which ensures hot food is available around the clock.
The extensive breakfast option ends at 11.30pm and is replaced by Casey’s famous lunch offering including six freshly made in-store hot dinner options with all the trimmings, which is the foundation of Casey’s success as a food destination in Limerick. At 3pm, the offering is refreshed again with a fresh range of afternoon snacks.
Casey’s Londis Dock Road are constantly striving to innovate and deliver fresh concepts to customers across the 24 hours a day their food counters are open. Included in this are their latest additions: Hao Chi bar (Asian offering) and Senoritas (Burrito Bar), both proving to be very popular with customers.
Gerry says the signs for the future growth of the company are very positive and we will strive for more success in the years to come.
First published in Grocery & Retail Ireland magazine Vol 5 No 1, Spring 2026
