The shortlist for the 2013 International Convenience Retailer of the Year has been announced and it includes one from Ireland.

Following months of online voting, the shortlist has now been reduced to 12 retailers from 5 continents in pursuit for this top award. They have been selected from 20 retailers vying for the 2013 award by our online readers.

Maxol has transformed its Sandyford Road service station in Dublin with a brand new design and the latest Maxol Mace store concept. Maxol is one of the most recognised fuel brands in Ireland, with a network of 225 branded service stations, and is still a family-owned business.

You can view full details on Maxol Mace, Sandyford Road, shortlisted entry online at: http://www.globalcstorefocus.com/awards/Maxol-Mace

The retailer entries attracted thousands of page views from more than 80 countries. Now the judging will be handed over to our expert panel to deliberate and determine the overall winner.

The 2013 International Convenience Retailer of the Year will be announced at the 2013 Awards Dinner in London on the evening of 25 September 2013. We wish the very best of luck to everyone at Maxol Mace, Sandyford Road, in their deserving quest to win the 2013 International Convenience Retailer of the Year award.

Ireland features in Global Convenience Store Focus

Separately, elsewhere in the current edition of UK-based Insight Research, they have a focus on the global convenience store edited by Fiona Briggs. and from that, here are the thoughts of Noel Dunne, Centra convenience store owner in Dublin.

Noel Dunne: reducing ambient space and developing food offer.

So the long summer is coming to an end and we head into early, dark nights and cold, drab days. This changes not only the mood of our customers but also the mood of our store. The layout and product range will always reflect the season, especially in a high convenience store; and this affects the look, feel and ambience of both the store and customer experience.

We have to reflect that change in mind set with switching the store focus onto different categories after summer. We will see more emphasis on hot rather than cold sandwiches; coffee will feature more than soft drinks and the routine staples will return to ambient as the schools and colleges reopen.

We slightly change the look and feel of the store at this time every year to deflect the customer focus onto the more relevant seasonal offer. I want to focus more on food to go, through both deli and a cafe-style offer this autumn, so we are fine tuning our ambient category to generate more space across the store.

I want to reduce the clutter at the tills and create a smoother customer flow throughout the shop floor. A recent customer survey revealed clutter and difficult to navigate aisles is the number one reason a shopper will avoid a convenience store. They will actually avoid going down an aisle altogether if it looks too cluttered. Maybe less is more!

If we can create a more relaxed and easy to browse experience, we should see more sales in the areas that really matter to the convenience retailer: deli, coffee, soft drinks and impulse food for later. The recent polls suggest Centra is the convenience store of choice in the Irish market, which is very encouraging for us; but we have to constantly get into the minds of the convenience shopper in the present climate, given the choice of formats and extraordinary value for money messages they are bombarded with every day.

We have reduced our ambient space by 20%, opening up our fresh food and deli area. While we have always focused on food to go in Parnell Street, we are going to push this even further in Q4. I want to develop a fresh food offer that brings good food for now and later in our store.

There is a real emphasis on good food across the city and this has created an expectation among a large percentage of consumers who want a little more than a chicken baguette at lunch time. This is a real opportunity for the convenience retailer to differentiate themselves from other retail formats and take share of the cafe/street food market.

We, as I have said before, can bring this to life as well as anybody else, but in a real value for money context.

Talking about change, fresh thinking and new ideas, there is no better place to soak up all three than at the Insight Future of Convenience Conference in London later this month. It is always great to step back from the business and listen to how other entrepreneurs have developed their format or service. You will always get some great ideas or inspiration if you go with an open mind and the intention to get fully engaged with the wide range and scope of the international presentations. Look forward to seeing you there.