Three men, all dressed in dark clothing with their faces covered, entered the forecourt on the Antrim Road and threatened staff with knives on Friday December 1.

A staff member forced the men from the shop but was injured in the struggle. The theives made off empty-handed from the scene on foot.

The PSNI statement read “It was reported shortly before 10pm that three men, all dressed in dark clothing with their faces covered, entered the shop and threatened staff with knives. No money was handed over and after a short struggle, a male staff member forced the men from the premises. The men then made off from the scene country-bound, on foot. The staff member sustained a cut to his hand as a result of the incident and was also left very shaken.

“Detectives would ask anyone with any information about this incident or who may be able to help with the investigation, to call them at Musgrave on the non-emergency number 101, quoting reference number 1770 01/12/23. A report can be submitted online using the non-emergency reporting form via http://www.psni.police.uk/makeareport/ or you can contact Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111 or online at http://crimestoppers-uk.org/.”

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Nicholas McSharry (25) received a three-month suspended sentence for carrying out the assault and damaging a PSNI vehicle.

Belfast Magistrates’ Court heard he was arrested for causing annoyance to others at the service station on the Crumlin Road in the early hours of August 30.

A Crown lawyer said McSharry threatened to kill himself and “blow the place up” while smoking a cigarette.

As the defendant was being taken into custody, he pulled a door panel off the police vehicle.

He then declared that he was going to “kick off”, lunged at the constable and attempted to bite him on the arm, the court heard.

McSharry, of no fixed abode, admitted criminal damage and assault on police.

Defence counsel Michael Boyd said: “He apologises for his behaviour which was caused by drunkenness.”

The barrister added that his client is also seeking to address mental health issues.

Giving McSharry credit for pleading guilty, District Judge Mark McGarrity decided to suspend the prison term for two years.

Mr McGarrity also ordered him to pay the PSNI £200 in compensation.

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Landscape Filling Station on the Crumlin Road in Belfast opened in mid January following a lengthy seven-year gestation and is already proving hugely popular.

It’s a sign of its appeal that even the builders who completed the work are now coming there for their lunch while they work on another project in Belfast.

The forecourt launched by The Wall Group, which owns four SPAR stores in the North Belfast area, has been built on former Housing Executive land and replaces a much smaller forecourt across the road, which is destined to provide social housing for the area.

Helen Wall explains: “Part of the deal was that we had to build houses as well. So we’ve built six social houses behind the new shop and when the other shop is knocked down we have to build another four. That was part of the deal – it’s like the redevelopment of the whole area.”

She’s hoping that this new forecourt will be at the heart of a wider redevelopment. “If somebody would get the hotel (at Crumlin Courthouse) up and running, somebody else is talking about doing a hub with offices, the whole bottom of the road could be changing, and hopefully we will have a Post Office coming soon.”

First foray

The old Landscape filling station was the first foray into convenience stores for Helen and her husband Gavan, founders of the Wall Group.

“It was 468 sq ft and we had rented it out to somebody else to run. So we started off with that, and then we went up to the Ardoyne store and then we got the Whitewell store and we got Rathcoole – they’re all SPAR stores,” she says.

“The original Landscape store was really a glorified sweet shop with a petrol court. We did so many sweets, fizzy drinks, cigarettes and petrol, whereas our new store has 15 dairy fridges, six freezers, it’s got a deli, a Nugelato ice cream concession – it’s everything the other shop wasn’t.”

Helen herself is a qualified accountant, who has worked with everyone from Winemark and Musgrave before finally joining her husband Gavan in the family business four years ago. Before that, she says, former barrister Gavan changed careers and took on retail as a full-time role 13 years ago when they encountered some difficulties with the leaseholder of the old Landscape station.

He decided to run the station himself, much to Helen’s shock at the time.

She explains, laughingly: “I said ‘What, I’m eight months’ pregnant and you’re going to leave the Bar’ – and let me tell you, he had a fabulous practice at the Bar. You’re joking! But he said No, I’ve always really wanted to do it … and he did.

Start of an empire

“He started it and it was doing something like £9,000 a week, and when we left it was doing over £60,000. We did it, we opened 24 hours a day, 365 days a year and we partnered with Hendersons.

“Then a year and a half later, they said to him ‘Look we’ve another one just up the road, now Ardoyne is coming on board, do you fancy that’ and Gavin went ‘Yeah why not’ so then he took that one on.  And then he bought another out on the Whitewell Road and then Rathcoole came along.”

About four years into running Landscape, the Girdwood redevelopment came on the radar and there was a sense of things happening in North Belfast – and it spurred Gavan to put plans in place for a bigger and better version of the Landscape station.

“Even though he’s not from north Belfast, Gavan went to school in North Belfast and always loved it,” Helen says.

“He said this whole area needs to be redeveloped and someone’s talking about doing the Courthouse and Girdwood Barracks, they’re making it into a recreational centre. I’m going to try and get a new petrol station – this road is crying out for it.

“It took him seven years to get planning passed and he got planning passed in the middle of Covid, in lockdown. We got planning sanctioned in April and we started building in May.”

Brilliant team

Helen pays tribute to the team who got the impressive new 5,000 sq ft store up and running so quickly, including builders Cleary Contracting, architects Ashley Lamont and Conor McCavitt from Whittaker + Watt, WH Stephens, Dougan Contracts and Martin Food Equipment.

“We touched lucky, we had a really good team behind us – they were fabulous,” she says.

The site is over five times the size of the previous site and boasts an eight-pump Go Fuel forecourt with 22 car parking spaces – it will open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

With The Wall Group’s bespoke ‘foodvenience’ offering, shoppers can pick up the SPAR Enjoy Local own-brand fresh food range, alongside food-to-go counters, including the Nugelato brand, the dailyDeli and Barista Bar coffee machines.

“We’ve got a complete fresh concession, with 15 fridges and six or seven freezers,” Helen says.

“We’ve put doors on all our fridges to keep our energy costs down and conserve energy and we don’t have any of the 5p plastic bags as well.”

State of the art tech

Meanwhile, the team have gone for state-of-the-art when it comes to store tech, investing in many of Henderson’s most up-to-the-minute developments.

“Each checkout has got the new Glory system attached to it so our staff never have to touch cash which was very beneficial during Covid,” Helen says.

“So if you came in and you wanted to pay and it was £18 you can either tap your credit card or if you put in £20 it will shoot you out your £2 change. It’s all facing you as a customer so there’s no cash touched by our staff.

“And we’ve gone for the electronic shelf edge labels, the ESELs. When you think of all the paper and the ink you’re using for all the ordinary SELs, hopefully that will be a move that we will make through all our stores eventually and put in the electronic SELS.

“The benefit of ESELS should be realised at promotional change-overs. Staff members can utilise their time in a more productive and value adding activity.

“We’re still trying to find our feet on it, but hopefully we will and it’s certainly something I would put in the other stores, so it doesn’t take half a day every time there’s a promotional change.”

It should also help with the familiar dilemma that arises when Trading Standards comes to tell them that something advertised at 58p has actually cost £75p, she says.

“Everything like that should match because it’s the back-office press of a button that sends all the prices, and what comes through the tills goes straight on to the electronic SELs. So hopefully it’s not only increasing labour productivity and saving on paper costs, but it will make us more compliant for Trading Standards – otherwise things can get missed.

“I’ve done it now in this store because we wanted as much high tech that we could put into it to see if it works. We need to see, does it do what it says on the tin.”

Onboarding system

The company has also invested in an HR system called OBBI which provides an onboarding process for every new employee that is recruited. It records the age of the employee, their details and whether they’re able and trained to sell cigarettes or lottery tickets: “It will ensure that we’ve got every member of staff trained to the right level and compliant with all the legal obligations that we’re meant to do within the store.”

The Wall Group has a culture of promoting from within and this system should help fit staff to the best posts and assist with succession planning, Helen says.

“It means we can ask Colin, who is the manager that we promoted to  a role encompassing Training, People Development, Compliance and Audit, ‘Who do we know in stores who have got x, y and z’ and he should be able to pull up and say ‘Helen, she’s able to do x, y and z’ – will she be beneficial down here, this is what we need.”

The Wall Group are proud of their organisational structure which allows them to respond quickly when anything unexpected comes along.

Data at fingertips

Helen pays tribute to their full-time accountant Ruairi who has put in place a portal that allows them access to regular information on the performance of each department.

“Ruairi has implemented a whole new system, the Wall Group Portal where we can monitor our KPI’s on a daily basis.

Our Operations Director, Kieran and his team ensures that all our stores deliver on sales, margin and excellent staffing. He ensures the smooth running of our four Spar stores and our Subway outlets.

“We’ve set up the systems and procedures, so if we get another store on board, we literally just lift these tools and put them over to the next site.”

Helen says that while they’re still on the look-out for more stores, they are hugely proud of the one they’ve just opened.

“It’s magnificent. It’s a £3 million spend – we decided from the start that we would build a beautiful store – fantastic lights and even from the front, it looks really good.

“Mind you when the first electricity bill came in, it was three times what I thought it was going to be with the way utilities are at the moment! But it looks really, really well. I’m so glad that we did it and I’m really proud of how it looks.”

To read the full article, visit Ireland’s Forecourt & Convenience Retailer magazine.

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Landscape represents a £3 million investment by The Wall Group and has created 30 new jobs, taking the total number of staff to 50 at the new store.

The new build store, which stands at 5,000 sq ft – more than five times the size of the previous site adjacent to the original store – also boasts an eight-pump GO Fuel forecourt, 22 car parking spaces and will open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Landscape will also bring SPAR NI’s signature fresh credentials to the area, with bays of fresh and everyday essentials, boasting an impressive range of locally sourced products by Henderson Wholesale.

With The Wall Group’s bespoke ‘foodvenience’ offering, shoppers can pick up the likes of the SPAR Enjoy Local own-brand fresh food range alongside various food-to-go counters, including the Nugelato brand, an exciting new addition to The Wall Group for 2022.

Helen Wall also hinted that there will be more surprises for shoppers to look out for in the coming weeks; “Our niche ‘foodvenience’ offering is why our stores are so popular – we are delivering unique experiences that are completely different to our competitors. We’re excited to announce what else is to come for our new Landscape store!

“We are starting the New Year off as we mean to go on, and providing even more value, choice and convenience to the people of North Belfast with our latest SPAR store. It is the fourth SPAR store to open within The Wall Group, and we are proud to bring 30 additional job opportunities to the area.

“We strongly believe in nurturing talent, and with the difficult times the world has seen in the past couple of years, it is great to be able to focus on enhanced local services, which we know our teams provide throughout all our stores and brands, whether in SPAR, Subway, Post Office, dailyDeli or Nugelato.

“Shoppers can expect the signature Wall Group welcome at Landscape Filling Station, where they can top up on fuel and all other utilities on their doorstep, as well as browse our range of fresh foods for tonight’s tea. Once again, we’re excelling at providing food-to-go in a safe, user-friendly way and have Barista Bar coffee machines, a Nugaleto Ice Cream concession serving all flavours and toppings, not forgetting their famous Nuggy Pots, and of course, the dailyDeli.”

Fresh options

Landscape will house the latest dailyDeli concept from SPAR which includes the grab and go chicken bar, alongside a range of fresh options for sandwiches, salads and wraps and hot food such as fresh, homemade chicken curry.

Paddy Doody, Sales and Marketing Director at Henderson Group which owns SPAR in Northern Ireland, congratulated The Wall Group in their latest venture: “Once again, The Wall Group has taken the SPAR concept and made it their own to work entirely for their target demographic in the wider North Belfast area. The striking Landscape Filling Station is a fantastic addition to Crumlin Road and the Lower Oldpark area, providing vital employment and growth opportunities, driven by a hugely dedicated team.

“We wish Gavan and Helen the best of luck as they continue to grow their SPAR portfolio in Northern Ireland.”

Landscape Filling Station will partner with Marie Curie as the official charity partner of SPAR across the UK, while also supporting local schools, groups and organisations including the Lower Oldpark Community Association whose support has been critical in delivering the new store, and additional housing on the site.

Helen said: “We are in the heart of the community here and believe in supporting those who support us. Providing funding and essentials for schools and community groups in the area is how we give back, and we look forward to connecting even more with the communities of Crumlin Road and Lower Oldpark, and wider North Belfast.”

Caption: Colin Cunningham, Helen and Gavan Wall and Emma Morrow from The Wall Group officially declare the £3M Landscape Filling Station SPAR NI store open on the Crumlin Road, Belfast. The store has created 30 additional jobs for the local area, bringing the number employed by the store to 50 in total.

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