Musgrave wins store design awards
New store concepts for its SuperValu and Centra banners have seen Ireland’s Musgrave Group bag two prestigious design awards.
At GlobalShop 2016 – held in Las Vegas in March and billed as the world’s largest annual retail design show – the retail group walked away with the A.R.E. (Association for Retail Environments) gold design award for Best Supermarket, for its flagship SuperValu store, in Blackrock, Dublin, and another for Best Convenience Store, for its Centra store in O’Connell Street, Limerick.
In a press release, Musgrave said the awards recognise the very best in international retail design, “so we were up against some serious contenders on the global stage.”
“The SuperValu and Centra projects complemented the conference’s big focus on customer experience design and what it means for retail.
“The store concepts were acknowledged for responding to the new food trends on the rise, improving the in-store experience and truly differentiating themselves from competitors.
“Our SuperValu ‘Food Festival’ concept was recognised for celebrating the shared joy of food, with the renewed energy that champions quality, people, local and freshness,” it said.
According to design consultancy Household, among the features of the SuperValu store in Blackrock is the juice bar in the fruit and vegetable section, which it described as “another standout service experience where customers pick their own produce to be blended in-store.”
Household said Centra has shifted from ‘convenience store’ to ‘convenient eating destination’ with the new format store in Limerick.
“Centra had successfully held its own through the recession in Ireland, but as the economy improved the brand wanted to rethink its high-convenience (or ‘Hi-C’) format stores. Centra needed to compete for the new customer who has more money to spend and is interested in healthy living,” it said.
