Ulster Grocer

The glittering occasion that is always the annual Ulster Grocers’ Ball provided the perfect backdrop for the presentation of the 2008 Ulster Grocer Marketing Awards, this year sponsored by Elevator Promotional Marketing and presented in four categories ­ Best In-store Consumer Sales Promotion, Best New Product Launch/Re-launch, Best CSR Initiative/Charity Partnership and Best Marketing…

James Mathers is Operations Manager of local cereal processor White’s. White’s portfolio of brands includes the products Toasted Oats, Only Oats and Speedicook. He is based at the White’s Mill in Tandragee, which is one of Ireland’s oldest operating oat mills.

For the first of this month’s retailer profiles, Kathy Jensen drove through (and over) the heart of the beautiful Sperrins on a gloriously sunny Easter Tuesday to meet up with Pauline Cooper, who owns the SPAR store in the pretty village of Eglinton, just outside Derry.

Having had several retailers extol its products to her recently, Kathy Jensen decided to pay a visit to Cloughbane Farm, just outside Pomeroy, where she met up with mother and son, Lorna and Richard Robinson, to find out more about this rapidly growing farm-based enterprise.

Elevator Promotional Marketing is delighted to be sponsoring the 2009 Ulster Grocer Marketing Awards. We all know this is going to be a tough year commercially and everyone involved in Northern Ireland’s grocery business will be challenged in a variety of ways, as will their consumers.