A new M&S Food “shop-in-shop” will initially be available in five Applegreen locations and will feature the best of M&S Food, including fresh fruit, sandwiches and salads, dinner for tonight and a selection of other M&S favourites, alongside Applegreen’s existing product range. 

The first Applegreen location to launch M&S Food will be Mountgorry, Swords, Co Dublin in November, followed by Booterstown, Co Dublin shortly afterwards.

Three more locations will open in the first quarter of next year – at Celbridge, Co Kildare, Kinsealy, Co Dublin and at the M11 services area at Cullenmore, Co Wicklow. Applegreen currently has almost 200 locations in the Irish market. 

This new partnership will complement Applegreen’s leading store proposition and will also bring M&S Food to a broader Irish customer base. Research shows that Irish customers view M&S Food products as being special, trusted and tempting.

Applegreen Ireland Managing Director Fiona Matthews said:  “We are absolutely delighted to be partnering with M&S, a strong and trusted brand for high quality food.

“As a proud Irish business, we believe this partnership will complement our market-leading offer of choice, quality, value, and a great experience to our customers on the road. We are constantly improving to give our customers more choice and a better customer experience, and this agreement with M&S is part of that evolution.”

M&S Trading Director for Ireland Eddie Murphy said: “This partnership will expand our footprint in Ireland and help bring delicious, great value M&S Food to even more customers. Applegreen is a fantastic Irish brand, and we are hugely excited to be partnering with them in this market.

“M&S has built great heritage with Irish customers since opening here almost 43 years ago. Whether it is picking up lunch or dinner on the move, buying snacks on a journey, or doing a convenient week’s shop, customers will find a wide range of M&S Food in new convenient locations across the country.”

This partnership with M&S is the latest step in Applegreen’s continuous evolution to bring the best customer experience on the road to Irish customers. It follows recent innovations such as the launch of Braeburn coffee, which is now available in more than 40 Applegreen locations and is continuing to roll out across the country. 

Irish owned and founded Applegreen opened its first service station in Ballyfermot in 1992, and now operates almost 200 locations in the Irish market. Applegreen also has a significant business overseas, with operations in Britain and the United States, and a total of 620 locations and more than 700 branded food offers across its global network. 

The Applegreen business currently employs over 15,000 people and has further plans for growth in its major markets. Its expansion plans are focused on acquiring and developing new sites in the markets in which it already operates, as well as upgrading and rebranding its existing locations.

M&S Food has a proven track record of strong franchise partnerships in the UK, where its products are available in more than 300 roadside, rail, and airport locations. 

Marks & Spencer has been trading in the Republic of Ireland for almost 43 years, having opened its first store in Dublin’s Mary Street in November 1979. M&S Ireland has 18 stores in the Republic of Ireland, employing 1,800 colleagues. 

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With more than 50,000 B2B customers, Ireland’s only 100% Irish-owned national wholesaler Musgrave MarketPlace launched a new ecommerce platform earlier in the year, and are launching their Extended Range, supported by leading enterprise SaaS platform, Mirakl.

Alongside a core range of over 14,000 products, Extended Range is a specially curated range of products which trusted suppliers can sell on the Musgrave MarketPlace ecommerce platform – everything from artisan Irish food and beverage products to restaurant furniture, packaging and equipment.

With an ambition to have more than 12,000 Extended Range products by 2024 alongside the core range, Musgrave MarketPlace customers will be able to get everything they need to run their business in one place – a true one-stop-business-shop.

As the proposition develops, ‘Extended Range’, will allow Musgrave MarketPlace to offer tens of thousands of products to their customers, and support small Irish producers to market, as well as providing innovative new food and non-food products without having to add to their physical footprint.

Customers can order ‘Extended Range’ products from these trusted suppliers via their Musgrave MarketPlace account and products will be delivered on behalf of Musgrave MarketPlace directly from the supplier, with dedicated customer service on hand to support.

At a global level, B2B eCommerce is expected to continue expanding at a rapid compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 18.7% from 2021 to 2028¹. In recent years, B2C shopping habits have influenced the way businesses purchase.

B2B buyers have come to expect the same efficient online shopping experience they have as B2C consumers; they are now demanding a simple, digitally-enabled, aggregate buying experience, putting pressure on wholesalers to offer more products across more categories than ever before.

To meet this customer need for all their product requirements in one location, Musgrave MarketPlace partnered with Mirakl, the industry’s first and most advanced enterprise marketplace SaaS platform.

Mirkal have supported more than 300 of the world’s most trusted brands, including Astore by AccorHotels, Carrefour, Changi Airport, Debenhams, The Kroger Co., Leroy Merlin, Maisons du Monde, Metro, Superdrug and Toyota Material Handling, to create their marketplace SaaS platforms.

Michael McCormack, Managing Director, Musgrave MarketPlace, said: “As part of our digital transformation, we wanted to offer our customers everything they could possibly need for their business through one website, bringing our range from 14,000 core products to over 26,000 Core & Extended Range products in under 2 years.

“Through our Extended Range platform, powered by Mirakl’s industry-leading technology, we plan to become a true one-stop-shop and are proud to be the first company in Ireland to create this type of platform for B2B customers.

“Using international and customer insight, we will develop a full range which makes life easier for our customers because they will be able to get everything they need to run their business in one place.

“And as a 7^th generation Irish family-owned business, supporting local really matters to us. Extended Range will provide a route to market for local suppliers, I’d encourage those local suppliers to sign up and take advantage of the opportunity to become an Extended Range trusted supplier.

Marc Teuliéres, Executive Vice President, Customer Success B2B at Mirakl, added: “Musgrave MarketPlace is a true pioneer in the Irish B2B wholesale sector with a strong digital vision and strategy, which combined with our technology and expertise, will enable them to meet and exceed their customers’ demand for an extended range sold via one central platform.”

Registration is now open for suppliers to create an account and begin selling their products. Suppliers interested in selling via Musgrave MarketPlace Extended Range can e-mail extendedrange@musgrave.ie or visit www.musgravemarketplace.ie/page/extendedrange

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