Operated by Musgrave Operating Partners Ireland since its takeover of Superquinn in 2011, SuperValu Swords Pavilions is a 30,000 sq. ft. store which employs 150 people, including store manager Ger Joyce who was recently named Large Supermarket Manager of the Year at the 2022 National Grocery Management Awards.
Behind every good manager is a great team and this is especially true of SuperValu Swords Pavilions where teamwork is everything.
“I’m very lucky to have a great crew around me,” Ger says.
“We have a fantastic team of duty managers and team leaders. Our assistant manager Lewis Mitchell and HR manager Teresa Byrne are top-class. We all pull together to make things happen. Everyone has great vision for the store. They take great pride in it and want it to be the best it can possibly be.
“Winning the award was a great honour for me personally, but it wouldn’t have happened without the support of the entire team. It made all those hard days and nights during Covid worth it. It’s great to follow in the footsteps of some of the previous winners. It’s very gratifying.”
In an increasingly competitive market, the role of the store manager has become key to a store’s success. Winning a National Grocery Management Award means more than just the recognition of your peers in the business. It’s also a valuable marketing accolade which can be used to profile your individual store, the retail name over your door and your corporate CV.
This year’s Awards returned to The Royal Marine Hotel in Dun Laoghaire on July 6 last after a two-year absence and were attended by over 300 guests. The Awards are Ireland’s premier scheme for recognising and honouring management excellence, and to win one is a high point in the career of many of Ireland’s best performing managers from across a variety of categories and at various levels of career progression.
A native of Clane, Co. Kildare, Ger began his retail management career in Superquinn, Naas in 1999. Since then, he has garnered a wealth of experience and has managed SuperValu Swords Pavilions since April 2019.
The Large Supermarket Manager of the Year accolade comes at an exciting time for the Swords store which is currently undergoing a full revamp that is expected to be completed this side of Christmas. The revamped store will incorporate the Donnybrook Fair and The Happy Pear brands. Donnybrook Fair will be bringing the very best in fresh food and gourmet ingredients, chef-created meals, bakery treats, deli savouries and salads along with a wide range of premium cooking sauces and snacks to the store.
The Happy Pear is renowned for its vegetarian cuisine and delicious plant-based products.
The new-look SuperValu Swords Pavilions will also feature a Moo’d handcrafted Irish ice-cream stall as well as a new seating area, in-store production kitchen, deli and hot pizza bar. All of this will compliment the store’s existing range of everyday staple goods along with top-quality fresh foods. The store prides itself on its fresh produce, exceptional service and commitment to local jobs. Its mission is to provide customers with the best quality and prices as well as an enjoyable shopping experience.
All fresh meat, fruit and vegetables are locally sourced and can be traced back to the farm where they were produced. Unlike many other big supermarket chains which operate in this country, SuperValu is Irish-owned and enjoys a wonderful relationship with its customers. At SuperValu Swords Pavilions, staff are on first-name terms with many of their customers.
“Our customers are both local and transient because of our location in the Pavilions Shopping Centre. We’re anchor tenants alongside about 100 other retail shops and restaurants, an 11-screen cinema and 2,000 car parking spaces. The Pavilions is a big attraction for people from across North Co. Dublin and parts of Meath and Louth also,” Ger explains.
“We cater for everyone, from those who grab-and-go to foodies and wine experts. We have craft bakers and butchers. You name it, we have it.”
Online shopping and ‘click and collect’ have become a key part of the operation since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic in March 2020. SuperValu Swords Pavilions now has eight vans providing home deliveries seven days a week throughout the locality.
“Our home delivery service became essential during the pandemic. It has grown from there,” the affable store manager continues.
“The pandemic brought out the best in our staff, despite the huge challenges it presented. Everyone stepped up to the mark to serve the community and showed tremendous resilience. It took our team spirit to another level.
“I keep saying that our core is our staff. Customers trust them. They were greeted with a smile and a friendly, authentic experience during the pandemic, and that has always been the case.”
As proud long-standing sponsors of the GAA Football All-Ireland Championships, SuperValu is committed to inspiring the next generation of GAA stars. Through this sponsorship, SuperValu and the GAA bring together in true partnership two of the country’s most community-focused organisations. SuperValu Swords Pavilions and the GAA share common values through focusing their approach on relationships, honesty, hard work, achievement and community identity.
“We support our local GAA clubs Fingallians and St Colmcille’s, and worked hand-in-hand with them during the pandemic when the ‘Club Together’ initiative was in operation. This was a coming together of SuperValu and GAA club members to assist the elderly who were dependent on the goodwill of others for their food shopping needs.
“SuperValu also sponsors the National Tidy Towns competition and we are proud to support Swords Tidy Towns, which is chaired by Ken Duffy. We have also worked closely with local schoolchildren as part of SuperValu’s ‘Save the Bees’ campaign. We try to support local community groups as much as we can.”
SuperValu is celebrating 21 years in the Pavilions Shopping Centre, having started life as a Superquinn outlet on the Main Street, Swords in the early 1980s. Here’s to the next 21 years!
SuperValu Swords Pavilions
The Pavilion Shopping Centre,
Swords Demesne,
Swords,
Co. Dublin,
K67 R266.
Telephone: 01 8907074.
First published in Grocery & Retail Ireland magazine Vol 1 No 1, Winter 2022
