What a twenty-four months it’s been within the Casey Retail group! With a full retail brand change, an extensive revamp in all stores completed, the successful introduction of their own foodservice brand, Kitchen @ Casey’s to all stores, opening three Freshly Chopped, adding two Four-Star Pizzas, introducing their own bakery to Castlebar, and all this in addition to the existing two Supermac’s franchises.
The Casey Retail group started out 21 years ago in Castlebar with two men, Gerry Casey and Terry McShane who believed they could change the face of forecourt retailing and introduce restaurant quality food in a convenience shopping environment. They set out on a mission to provide a great food service offer and have since opened five successful sites in Castlebar, Ballina, Galway, Limerick and Newbridge. Castlebar started out at 2000 sq. ft and now the group operates 25,000 sq. ft of ultra-modern fresh food and hot beverage led forecourt convenience shopping outlets. The past two years have been very busy for the group with the company implementing significant change in order to develop the business and protect it into the future. Having re-evaluated their offering and considering the rapidly changing consumer demands, they realised it
was time to extend their fresh food offering. The Casey Group knew it had to reinvent itself. In bringing innovative new concepts to the market designed to cater for the busy, changing lifestyles of its customers, Casey’s has been recognised at many industry awards as the ultimate in convenience shopping. The stores have been completely transformed with the new look template for the group, introducing the Kitchen @ Casey’s offering a vast range of hot & cold, breakfast, lunch and dinner menus prepared by the expert in-house chefs under the new company brand.
Co-director Terry McShane explains the reasoning behind implementing so much change: “I wanted to give our customers and staff a brand and concept they could be very proud of. We as consumers align ourselves to strong brands that fulfil our needs and foodservice within the Casey group is no different. It’s not just a name, it’s a look and feel, it’s an ethos, its passion for what we do, and all involved understand and buy into this ethos. Everything we do in-store is to support the food offer.
“I don’t see my managers as forecourt convenience store managers, they are restaurant mangers first and foremost. Our food and service take precedence over all else”.
Now that the introduction of the brand is complete to all stores the results have been remarkable with a 10 percent rise in turnover over the past year experienced through the Kitchen @ Casey’s and a five percent rise in achieved margin, all this received form an already existing high base. Also new is the Freshly Chopped franchise which greatly adds to the overall food experience and offering within the stores.
“The healthy lifestyle and healthy eating trends are on the up and up each year and I wanted our customers to have this need satisfied,” says Terry. Just very recently Casey’s have added Four Star Pizza to Castlebar and Galway in order to maximise the evening and late-night offer for consumers.
“The online delivery aspect of the pizza business was something new for us but all going well, and the products and service have been very well received from our customers so far,” says Terry.
Now employing over 200 people, Terry reveals that Casey Retail Group would not be the success it is today without its staff creating an experiential visit for each customer.
“The new dynamic of youth and experience, the exuberance of youth and the assuredness of age gives the stores a fun-filled atmosphere in which shoppers can enjoy their experience on each and every visit. The customer is king is an old cliché but it is a principal the business was built upon and each shopping experience must be exactly that, a wonderful experience for the customer where quality and value are received through the warm friendliness of the teams in store.” After an exciting few years, one might assume that Casey’s Retail will be taking it easy for the time being. However, Terry reveals that the recent appointment of David Tarrant as managing director to oversee the day-to-day business will ignite further innovation within the company. Having been employed as operations manager from January 2017, working alongside Terry for the past thirty months, David is well versed in the company ethos and is ready to oversee the development of further concepts and new ideas. “I look to forward to working closely with Gerry and David over the coming years to grow and strengthen the business. “We have many plans to develop both within our own store footprint and add additional sites in the next few years, so watch this space!” Terry concludes.
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