We need your help now
Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.
You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.
If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.
Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
By continuing, you are indicating that you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
A NEW RETAIL strategy by Irish-owned company MACE aims to see 1,200 new jobs in place by 2016.
The company said today that its new retail strategy targets 100 new stores, and will see a focus on Irish suppliers as it works on a 20 per cent growth in MACE own-brand products. MACE is Ireland’s oldest convenience brand, and opened its first store in 1960. It currently has 240 stores across the country.
MACE said it plans to add 100 new stores to its network by 2016, an expansion which will see retail turnover at the group increase by 20 per cent.
The new plans were unveiled at the MACE convention at the Ritz-Carlton, Powerscourt, Co Wicklow. According to Willie O’Byrne, Managing Director of BWG Foods, operators of MACE:
Our figures show that MACE is outperforming the market and is now the fastest growing brand in Irish convenience retailing.
In 2012 we bucked the industry trend by opening 28 new stores, and our new retail strategy is designed to harness that momentum, leading to the creation of more than of 1,200 new jobs in towns and villages right across the country.
O’Byrne said that MACE’s partnership with Maxol, which was renewed last year, “has seen the MACE group establish itself as Ireland’s largest forecourt symbol brand”. He said the company’s next phase of growth will focus on working with both partners and suppliers to “firmly cement MACE in a leadership position in Irish retailing”.
The new strategy will also see additional investment in MACE own-brand, with the company predicting a 20 per cent increase in the range of own-brand products available in MACE stores this year.
According to Willie O’Byrne:
Significant investment in our fresh and chilled supply chain last year has allowed us to offer a wider range of product options to both our retailers and our end consumers.
Demand for high quality, competitively priced own-brand alternatives has never been greater, and the next phase of growth will be in fresh and chilled produce – presenting a real opportunity for local Irish suppliers.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Are these 100 ‘new’ stores or are they 100 stores changing to the mace franchise?
My thoughts exactly, they will just rebrand shitty local shops and pop in a deli, just a bit of pr by mace.
Ultimately it’s the same when Tesco announces new stores opening creating hundreds of new jobs. The stores are opening and smaller independents closing and their staff moving over to Tesco, no job creation there, just a monopoly!!
Kilrush a perfect example of Michaels point with Tesco closing every shop in a 20m radius.
Congratulations to Mace for bucking the trend and doing to well in this recession. My only hope is that they buck the other trend of only employing foreign workers in their new stores. None of these outlets seem to like hiring young Irish students and unemployed. Good bit of news though.
Weren’t these the “jobs Irish people don’t want to do” only a few years back?
Maybe so but unfortunately things change over time, there wasn’t thousands emigrating a few years ago either. My son of 18 cannot get a part time job for love nor money and its not for the want of trying either. He wouldn’t be too fussy what sort of part time he got, all most teenagers want is a few bob.
The mace beside me employs mainly foreigners I have no problem with this. I do however have a major gripe with the fact new jobs are never ever advertised in local newspaper or online. It seems that relations or friends of employee’s have first refusal on jobs.
@Phil, exactly.
@ Phil. Employing anyone is a risk. The fact is most people get their job through a referral. Why would any company go to the cost and time involved in advertising a position, when they can just go to a current employee who they know and trust ‘do you know anyone’. Networking is the key to finding a job.
Yeeeeeah! Dey Took aur Jawbs!
Thay took his jawb!!!
Where are all these extra convience store jobs coming from? I know peoples shopping habits are changing, there shopping more often and local to avoid wastage but the market share of big payers (tesco, dunnes, supervalue) hasen’t declined much and the discounters (lidl and aldi) account for a lot of that decline. They seem to have pinched a bit of market share from Delis, coffeeshops, off licences.
It seems their all just ramping up the fight over the same market that’s only grown slightly. In which case there will eventually be a looser and these jobs will go.
More jobs for foreign nationals
Yeah I’m sure foreign workers are just overjoyed with their careers stocking the shelves in mace. Your hostility towards foreign nationals is immature and narrow minded.
Wait till the get your job, all this kind of crap comes from people unaffected by these people.
They durk our jobs!!!
Grow up genius. This is a market economy, if some other fella gets a job instead of you, that’s your problem not his.
Blaming everyone else for your problems. Its amazing I managed to keep my job in my local offee for 7 years with all these foreigners taking peoples jobs.
What I don’t understand is We proudly announce the Irish built America, They built London, Manchester, and even in IT world in LA ,Japan and Hong Kong The great Irish. Yet people on this site feel Irish living here are not good enough to work in a Mace Store and happy endorse Non Irish workers. Never understanding that most of their wages leave the country returning to there own country’s. Unlike the Irish abroad who spend and Live. Shame on you all. Irish workers are the best here or abroad. And if that not to your PC likings, Bite me.
Genius.. your comments and ppl like you makes me sick with your narrow minded one dimensional views.. if the world was to look at employing ppl the way you look at it the there would be an awful lot more of us irish ppl at home on unemployment benefit of some sort because there would be no point of us going anywhere abroad trying to find work with your “let them stay home in their own country and not be coming over here taking our jobs” attitude.. You’re comments are pathetic to say the least !!
If someone is living in this country and are entitled to work why would you stop them from working. What about all the it jobs where you need a second language.who will do them if we didnt have people from different countries
Use precise geolocation data. Actively scan device characteristics for identification. Store and/or access information on a device. Personalised advertising and content, advertising and content measurement, audience research and services development.
These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. They are usually only set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in or filling in forms. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not then work.
These cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.
These cookies enable the website to provide enhanced functionality and personalisation. They may be set by us or by third party providers whose services we have added to our pages. If you do not allow these cookies then these services may not function properly.
These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not be able to monitor our performance.
Cookies, device or similar online identifiers (e.g. login-based identifiers, randomly assigned identifiers, network based identifiers) together with other information (e.g. browser type and information, language, screen size, supported technologies etc.) can be stored or read on your device to recognise it each time it connects to an app or to a website, for one or several of the purposes presented here.
Advertising presented to you on this service can be based on limited data, such as the website or app you are using, your non-precise location, your device type or which content you are (or have been) interacting with (for example, to limit the number of times an ad is presented to you).
Information about your activity on this service (such as forms you submit, content you look at) can be stored and combined with other information about you (for example, information from your previous activity on this service and other websites or apps) or similar users. This is then used to build or improve a profile about you (that might include possible interests and personal aspects). Your profile can be used (also later) to present advertising that appears more relevant based on your possible interests by this and other entities.
Advertising presented to you on this service can be based on your advertising profiles, which can reflect your activity on this service or other websites or apps (like the forms you submit, content you look at), possible interests and personal aspects.
Information about your activity on this service (for instance, forms you submit, non-advertising content you look at) can be stored and combined with other information about you (such as your previous activity on this service or other websites or apps) or similar users. This is then used to build or improve a profile about you (which might for example include possible interests and personal aspects). Your profile can be used (also later) to present content that appears more relevant based on your possible interests, such as by adapting the order in which content is shown to you, so that it is even easier for you to find content that matches your interests.
Content presented to you on this service can be based on your content personalisation profiles, which can reflect your activity on this or other services (for instance, the forms you submit, content you look at), possible interests and personal aspects. This can for example be used to adapt the order in which content is shown to you, so that it is even easier for you to find (non-advertising) content that matches your interests.
Information regarding which advertising is presented to you and how you interact with it can be used to determine how well an advert has worked for you or other users and whether the goals of the advertising were reached. For instance, whether you saw an ad, whether you clicked on it, whether it led you to buy a product or visit a website, etc. This is very helpful to understand the relevance of advertising campaigns.
Information regarding which content is presented to you and how you interact with it can be used to determine whether the (non-advertising) content e.g. reached its intended audience and matched your interests. For instance, whether you read an article, watch a video, listen to a podcast or look at a product description, how long you spent on this service and the web pages you visit etc. This is very helpful to understand the relevance of (non-advertising) content that is shown to you.
Reports can be generated based on the combination of data sets (like user profiles, statistics, market research, analytics data) regarding your interactions and those of other users with advertising or (non-advertising) content to identify common characteristics (for instance, to determine which target audiences are more receptive to an ad campaign or to certain contents).
Information about your activity on this service, such as your interaction with ads or content, can be very helpful to improve products and services and to build new products and services based on user interactions, the type of audience, etc. This specific purpose does not include the development or improvement of user profiles and identifiers.
Content presented to you on this service can be based on limited data, such as the website or app you are using, your non-precise location, your device type, or which content you are (or have been) interacting with (for example, to limit the number of times a video or an article is presented to you).
With your acceptance, your precise location (within a radius of less than 500 metres) may be used in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
With your acceptance, certain characteristics specific to your device might be requested and used to distinguish it from other devices (such as the installed fonts or plugins, the resolution of your screen) in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
Your data can be used to monitor for and prevent unusual and possibly fraudulent activity (for example, regarding advertising, ad clicks by bots), and ensure systems and processes work properly and securely. It can also be used to correct any problems you, the publisher or the advertiser may encounter in the delivery of content and ads and in your interaction with them.
Certain information (like an IP address or device capabilities) is used to ensure the technical compatibility of the content or advertising, and to facilitate the transmission of the content or ad to your device.
Information about your activity on this service may be matched and combined with other information relating to you and originating from various sources (for instance your activity on a separate online service, your use of a loyalty card in-store, or your answers to a survey), in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
In support of the purposes explained in this notice, your device might be considered as likely linked to other devices that belong to you or your household (for instance because you are logged in to the same service on both your phone and your computer, or because you may use the same Internet connection on both devices).
Your device might be distinguished from other devices based on information it automatically sends when accessing the Internet (for instance, the IP address of your Internet connection or the type of browser you are using) in support of the purposes exposed in this notice.
The choices you make regarding the purposes and entities listed in this notice are saved and made available to those entities in the form of digital signals (such as a string of characters). This is necessary in order to enable both this service and those entities to respect such choices.
have your say