Maxol Reveals Excellence Award Winners for 2025

• 8 stores crowned winners including Store of the Year as Cork sweeps leaderboard
• Winners show ‘commitment to customers and communities,’ says CEO Brian Donaldson

Maxol has announced the winners of its annual Excellence Awards with County Cork dominating the scoreboard, winning six of the eight awards. The winners were presented with their awards at a gala dinner during Maxol’s Retail Conference, which was recently held at The K Club.

The annual awards programme promotes and rewards excellence in station and store standards, customer experience, and community engagement across Ireland. The accolades are presented to both company-owned and independent dealer-owned service stations and standards are stringently assessed through a combination of audits by external assessors, site audits by regional managers, the team from head office, and mystery shopper visits.

In addition, each store’s community engagement for Maxol’s nominated charity partner, Irish Guide Dogs for the Blind is included in the assessment of the overall programme.

The 2025 Excellence Awards winners in the company-owned network were:

• Maxol Carrigaline in Cork, operated under licence by Shane Cantillon, who took home the top prize: the highly coveted Overall Store of the Year 2025Award – making it a hat trick for this year.
• Maxol Clonakilty in County Cork, operated under licence by Shane Cantillon, was awarded Excellence in Standards, following on from the site’s success as Store of the Year in 2024.
• Maxol Wilton in Cork, operated under licence by Ruaidhri O’Hare, was awarded Excellence in Customer Experience.
• Maxol Ballinrea in Cork operated under licence by Shane Cantillon, had a well-deserved win receiving the Excellence in Community Engagement Awardfor raising over €3,000 for Irish Guide Dogs for the Blind as part of Maxol’s PAWsome Fresheners campaign.

In the independent dealer network the winners were:

• Danos Maxol in Mallow, awarded Overall Store of the Year, operated by Donal O’Mahony.
• Coleman’s Maxol on Millstreet awarded Excellence in Standards,operated by John & Mary Coleman.
• Sheahan’s Maxol on the Muckross Road in Kerry awarded Excellence in Customer Experience,operated by Aisling Sheahan.
• In Kilkenny, Eivers Maxol, won Excellence in Community Engagementfor the second year, operated by John Eivers.

Brian Donaldson, CEO of The Maxol Group, said: “Every year, the Excellence Awards allow us to shine a light on the incredible standards, customer service and community spirit delivered by our retailers, and this year’s winners have truly raised the bar again. From exceptional standards on the forecourt, and in-store experiences to meaningful local engagement, our dedicated retailers and their teams continue to demonstrate what the Maxol brand stands for.

“It is particularly encouraging to see such strong performances across our company-owned and independent dealer networks, and I want to congratulate all our winners, especially those in Cork, who enjoyed remarkable success this year. Their commitment to their customers and communities is something at Maxol that we are extremely proud of.”

LIST OF WINNERS

Company-owned winners

• Excellence in Standards: Maxol Clonakilty, Cork Operated by Licensee Shane Cantillon
• Excellence in Customer Experience – Maxol Wilton, Cork, operated by Licensee Ruaidhri O’Hare
• Excellence in Community Engagement: Maxol Ballinrea, Cork, Operated by Licensee Shane Cantillon
• Store of the Year: Maxol Carrigaline, Cork, Operated by Licensee Shane Cantillon

Independent Dealer network winners:

• Excellence in Standards: Coleman’s Maxol Millstreet, Cork, Operated by Independent Dealers John & Mary Coleman
• Excellence in Customer Experience: Sheahan’s Maxol, Muckross Road, Kerry, operated by Independent Dealer Aisling Sheahan
• Excellence in Community Engagement: Eivers Maxol, Kilkenny, operated by Independent Dealer John Eivers.
• Store of the Year: Danos Maxol Mallow, Cork, operated by Independent Dealer Donal O’Mahony