Named as Ireland’s Best In-Store Off-Licence at last year’s prestigious National Grocery Retail Awards, SuperValu Pavilions Swords is a veritable mecca for fresh food and beverages, all provided with premium levels of service. We touched base with store manager Marc Flanagan to find out more.
Extensively revamped and relaunched in 2022, SuperValu Pavilions Swords is one of the flagship stores in the magnificent network of 223 SuperValu stores nationwide. Owned and operated by the Musgrave Group – Ireland’s largest grocery and food distributor – this fresh and vibrant supermarket epitomises SuperValu’s core values of consistently delivering unbeatable fresh food quality, value for money, support of local producers and unrivalled customer service.
Capturing the Best In-Store Off-Licence award at the 2023 National Grocery Retail Awards was no fluke, as SuperValu Pavilions Swords places a major emphasis on its alcohol offering, dovetailing perfectly with its wonderful fresh food department. Indeed, the fresh food and off-licence aisles are very much to the forefront of what SuperValu Swords is all about, as meticulous store manager Marc Flanagan acknowledged when reflecting on the superb success at the National Grocery Retail Awards:
“We were absolutely delighted with that award and it was great for the store because we had just gone through a major six-eight-month revamp and had only relaunched before Christmas 2022, to go into the new year with a brand new store incorporating a very exciting brand new off licence. To win this award within our first year of trading as a newly revamped store was brilliant.”
Already firmly established as a fresh food mecca, the goal of the major reimagining and transformation of the stunning SuperValu store in Swords Pavilions Shopping Centre was to strengthen this reputation for fresh food excellence in line with an enhanced alcohol offering. To say that this is not a run-of-the-mill off-licence would be an exercise in understatement:
“We are known near and far for our alcohol offering, including premium spirits, premium wines and craft beers, all provided with expert knowledge and a personal touch” Marc confirms. “Traditionally, Remi Ciutys has managed the alcohol department and has done a wonderful job. Remi is still here and is a huge asset.
“We had a guy working out on the shop floor, Gavin O’Leary, who is a craft beer enthusiast, and we brought him into the alcohol department alongside Remi. Gavin [winner of Off-Licence Manager of the Year at the 2023 Grocery Management Awards] is an expert in craft beer and is very influential in the success we’ve had in taking our in-store off licence to the next level. He links his Irish Beer Dad Instagram page up to ours and his passion for craft beer means we always have a great selection
“We’ve put more refrigeration into our off-licence department than any supermarket in Ireland has ever had. Every drink is chilled and there are 19 doors of chilled beer from 20-bottle boxes to four-packs.”
Nothing is left to chance, from the selection of premium drinks to the premium level of customer service provided around the clock. “We’re using headsets in the store and every manager has a headset connected,” Marc states. “The off licence is always open and if there is no staff member there, customers can press a button and it will alert the staff through their headsets. So the alcohol aisle is effectively always manned.”
Gavan has worked closely with a number of local breweries to ensure that SuperValu Pavilions Swords stocks a comprehensive range of beers – including some exclusive brews! “Hope Beer Brewery have so far brewed two exclusive brews just for us. The first of these was Caislean, with a depiction of Swords Castle on the label. The first batch was 30 cases of 24 cans and these were sold out within nine days – which is impressive considering that exclusive brews are not cheap. These ones retailed at €5 per can.
“We then went onto our second brew – The Jacko, which is the nickname for a local area in Swords along the River Ward, where a lot of the locals would have hung out when they were kids. This brew was also very popular and we got in second and third batches. At the moment, they are working on another specific brew for us.
“We have the largest selection of craft beer in any supermarket in Ireland. We have ten full doors of those alone. Orders were up 35 per cent last year, which is some achievement considering that they were also up 25 per cent the year before. The performance is fantastic and especially when you bear in mind that these drinks don’t come cheap. Craft beers are more exclusive than your traditional known brands and you pay for what you get.”
Clearly, the industry-leading, award-winning off licence has been a big part of the reimagining of SuperValu Pavilions Swords. “Fresh food and the off licence are what we said we were going to be best in class for and how we would give ourselves a point of difference,” the proud store manager notes. “As one of the flagship Musgraves stores, fresh food is what directs a lot of people in and alcohol is the ‘wow’ factor at the end.
“Since we relaunched, it has been a case of so far, so good. We are hitting all our KPIs. We’re into year two now since the relaunch and the store performance right across the board has been great. Fresh food and the alcohol offering are a big part of that.”
The store manager is joined by 160 colleagues at SuperValu Pavilions Swords and says his co-workers are a “huge part of the puzzle”: “Pre-revamp, we worked with our core members to get their input and we also brought everybody else on board by bringing them to safaris and making sure every team member was part of the relaunch. They were a huge part of it before we even broke a brick.
“Without our team, we would have nothing. There is a strong base of colleagues who have been here long-term and who are extremely passionate about our store. Indeed, many of them would have worked in the original Superquinn store on the main street before we moved into the pavilion and they help keep us firing.
“Likewise, a lot of our customers have been coming here for years and many of them are ex-Superquinn customers who have stayed with us on this journey and they love the fresh element to the store. We’re still seeing them and of course there is a constant battle going on to win and retain that trolley shopper.”
Looking to the future, Marc concludes: “Structurally, we are in a strong place as we are only 18 months in the revamped store. The performance levels are where we want them to be and we have to keep thinking about new ideas and following things up. In retail, there are a lot of factors outside your control, so the key is to make sure you control the controllables inside the store, look after the customers you have through variety, value and service, and strive for constant improvement so that you can bring in even more customers.”
SuperValu Pavilions Swords,
Pavilions Shopping Centre,
Swords,
County Dublin.
Tel: 01 890 7074
Email: [email protected]
Web: supervalu.ie
First published in Grocery & Retail Ireland magazine Vol 3 No 2, Autumn 2024
