A record €23 million worth of sales was reportedly generated for exhibiting suppliers at BWG Foods retail trade event in the Citywest Hotel Dublin last week.
More than 1,000 independent retailers from the across the country attended the event.
“The significant increase in sales generated by grocery retailers at this year’s BWG Trade Show is indicative of improving consumer demand. A number of factors, including the recent warm weather, have all contributed to an increasingly positive retail climate," said Leo Crawford, Group Chief Executive of BWG Group.
"From our analysis, with the World Cup tournament to look forward to among other things, we expect the buoyant consumer demand to continue into the second half of 2018.”
Over 200 indigenous and multinational suppliers, spanning categories including health and wellness, fresh food, pre-prepared meals, chilled produce, beverages and confectionery, received exclusive access to approximately 3,000 retail representatives across the Spar, Eurospar, Mace, Londis and XL retail brands, who together have combined annual retail sales of approximately €1.8 billion.
Seven Irish Start-ups
Seven Irish start up food businesses won the opportunity to showcase and sell their products at the one day retail trade show.
To coincide with this year’s event, BWG Foods created a brand new programme supporting Irish food innovation in partnership with Dublin Food Chain, and the seven chosen suppliers have now become official listed suppliers of the Group.
As part of the programme, which has been ongoing for several months, BWG Foods shortlisted fourteen suppliers, giving them the chance to pitch in a ‘Dragon’s Den’ style competition where it was whittled down to the final seven.
© 2018 Checkout – your source for the latest Irish retail news. Article by Donna Ahern. Click subscribe to sign up for the Checkout print edition.
