SuperValu Blanchardstown’s Jamie Caffrey named GMAs Supreme Champion 2020

Jamie Caffrey of SuperValu Blanchardstown has been named 'National Retail Grocery Manager of the Year 2020'

Virtual ceremony celebrates frontline heroes who in the words of Minister Simon Harris, "got up every morning and looked after us"

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Now in their 15th year, the ShelfLife Grocery Management Awards have once again recognised individual management excellence in the grocery sector. A total of 15 awards were presented at yesterday’s ceremony, honouring the best in the many departments that make up local convenience stores and supermarkets, culminating in the grand prize of ShelfLife National Grocery Retail Manager of the Year.

Supported by platinum sponsor Bank of Ireland and carried out in association with Excel Recruitment, the National Grocery Management Awards scheme is independently judged and seeks out best management practice among those who carry responsibility without ownership in the grocery retail sector.

While the standard of entrants was as high as ever, this year’s ceremony marked a break from tradition. Broadcast virtually, live from the RDS, our audience tuned in from work and home to watch MC, RTE’s Karina Buckley, announce all the winners and find out more about them and their teams via an online link here at www.shelflife.ie.

After a challenging year like no other, the virtual event was an excellent occasion to celebrate our industry’s hard-working retail managers who have shown tremendous dedication to their customers and colleagues during the outbreak of Covid-19.

The nation’s gratitude to our retailers for their huge efforts everyday to keep local convenience stores, forecasts and supermarkets running smoothly and safety was expressed at the ceremony in a special foreword by Simon Harris, Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science.

“I wanted to congratulate you on your achievement but I also wanted to thank you,” Minister Harris said. “Thank you for all that you have done throughout 2020. This year has been one like no other. It has been a year full of challenge, full of stress, full of uncertainty. But at a time when many of us stayed at home to keep ourselves and our families safe, you got up and you went to work. You and your staff continued to stock our shelves, continued to provide us with food and supplies.

“So I want you to know when we thank the frontline heroes throughout 2020, that includes the people working in grocery, that includes the people working in our petrol stations, in our convenience stores, in our supermarkets. The people who got up every morning and looked after us. Thank you so much for all you have done.”

The Minister also commented on the importance of promoting the retail sector as one which offers real career progression and fulfillment.

“As Minister for Further and Higher Education,” he said. “I also want to work with your sector to make sure that we can promote it as a sector in which people can have a very promising, rewarding and fulfilling career. I’m really excited about how we can engage on that in the weeks and months ahead.”

Our Supreme Champion for 2020, Jamie Caffrey of SuperValu Blanchardstown, Dublin, also commented on her love for her job and her pride in how her colleagues and the wider grocery retail industry coped with all the many daily challenges presented by the Covid pandemic.

“I think it’s great that our industry is now being shown for what it is,” she said, speaking from her home via a live link. “We were able to cope with what we had to cope with; it was just completely out there, it was like an out-of-body experience some days but we coped with it all because that’s what we do best as retailers – we cope under pressure. I think everyone around the country can see that now.”

The judges were full of praise for Caffrey and her achievements at SuperValu Blanchardstown, noting: “Our winner has spent the last 18 months making the store more customer friendly, more profitable and a more enjoyable place to work. When she joined the store, she spent two weeks in every department getting to know her colleagues and their challenges and then set about doing everything to increase morale across the business.

“Jamie Caffrey is described by staff as safe, reliable, fair and someone who takes time to connect with them,” the judges added. “These traits have led to incredible successes in-store.” They summed up the National Retail Grocery Manager 2020 as “a trailblazer in the world of grocery retail,” having started in the retail trade at only 16 and at only 23, having already been promoted to store manager.

On behalf of all the team at ShelfLife, we would like to thank everyone who entered the awards this year, and say a huge congratulations to all 15 deserving winners, outlined below. We would also like to express our heartfelt gratitude to our platinum sponsor Bank of Ireland and all the sponsors highlighted below, without whom the ceremony simply would not have been possible.

The full list of winners and sponsors at the ShelfLife Grocery Management Awards 2020 is as follows: 

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