Slane leads the way in Retail Excellence list
FOR a village with a population of around 1,500, Slane has an abundance of quality retail outlets, with no less than four local businesses appearing in the Top100 stores in Ireland by Retail Excellence, the country’s largest retail industry representative body.
Two retailers from Drogheda have also made the prestigious list, the only businesses in Co Louth to appear.
The Slane Craft Collective, George’s Patisserie, Inside Out and The Muttonhead Butcher all feature on the list, with Best Menswear in Scotch Hall Shopping Centre and Esquires Coffee in Drogheda also making the cut.
The Top100 stores are part of the Retail Excellence Awards in partnership with AIB Merchant Services, which were established in 1997 to promote best practice and encourage high standards in the Irish retail industry and are now the largest and most prestigious of its kind in Ireland.
“This year we were delighted to have received over 500 store entries from every retail sector for our national retail awards, “said Lorraine Higgins, Chief Executive of Retail Excellence.
“The quality of customer care and excellence throughout these entries made selecting the Top100 stores an extremely difficult task”.
As part of the Top100 selection process, all store entrants were visited by a mystery shopper, with those exceeding service and standards criteria making it into the Top100 stores.
The Top100 will now be invited to a private briefing with Echochamber, a creative retail agency who track global retail trends, on August 15 in AIB Bankcentre.
Here the attendees will be presented with the 10 pillars of Retail Excellence and will be given time to prepare a submission showing evidence they meet those 10 pillars. Echochamber will then consider the submissions and will proceed to selecting the Top 30 stores which will be announced on Wednesday 19th of September.
All the businesses have a chance to become finalists at the glittering awards will take place at a black-tie event on Saturday, November 10th in the Malton Hotel in Killarney.