Help for community from Tesco Chamber news
Chamber welcomes Grafton Recruitment and McGrigors as new patrons
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nown locally worldwide, Grafton Recruitment is Northern Irelandʼs only global recruitment provider. Established in 1982 Grafton
Recruitment offers clients bespoke permanent, temporary, managed service and vendor managed recruitment solutions to organisations across local and regional markets. With 16 branches throughout Northern Ireland, Grafton offer something truly unique, a global network that is considered local, in each and every market they operate in. Grafton provide unrivalled local market insight combined with best in class people, process and technology to deliver unrivalled service excellence across Northern Ireland and beyond. This they believe is as much to do with how they do business, as where they do business.
Their portfolio of total employment solutions can be tailored to fit both the smallest and largest organisations. For further information as to how Grafton can provide you with a comprehensive end‑to‑ end or adhoc recruitment solution to your business or organisation, please contact Gale Sergeant on 9024 2824 or email
gsergeant@graftonrecruitment.com Grafton believe in mutually beneficial partnerships and hope to demonstrate this level of commitment to servicing your needs and develop an open, honest and confident working relationship.
Grafton Recruitment is part of the Grafton Employment Group; The Grafton Employment Group provides Contingent and Executive Recruitment, Recruitment Outsourcing and HR Consultancy services across a Network of 70 wholly‑owned offices in 16 countries.
Grafton Recruitmentʼs local business presence is also supported by a local CSR policy that is focussed on employability and building capability in the communities in which they operate.
www.graftonrecruitment.com
cGrigors LLP is one of the UK's most dynamic law firms. Following their merger with L'Estrange & Brett in October 2009, McGrigors are Northern Ireland's first major law firm to offer national reach. This brings a new depth and breadth of legal expertise to Northern Ireland and access to specialist and sector‑focused
M advice.
McGrigors have a team of over 700 people working from offices in London, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Belfast, Aberdeen and Manchester – making them the only firm to operate in all three UK jurisdictions. Their work covers the full range of practice areas and they are specialists in a range of sectors including energy, infrastructure and professional and financial services. McGrigors act for 35 per cent of the FTSE100 and 40 AIM‑listed companies. They work with everyone from multinationals to government and local authorities as well as ambitious SMEs in the public and private sectors.
Their clients describe them as practical, innovative and approachable. They focus on their commercial goals and take the most pragmatic, no‑nonsense approach to achieving them – and are not afraid to try something new to get there.
www.mcgrigors.com
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Chamber member Tesco, the UKʼs biggest retailer, has invested over £500 million in building new stores, upgrading existing ones and in its state‑of‑the‑art distribution facilities since acquiring the Stewarts Group in 1997.
This hugely impressive investment by Tesco, now Northern Irelandʼs biggest private sector employer with more than 9,100 employees, includes £25 million in its distribution facilities, a depot in Antrim and a chilled centre in Belfast. Much of the work in developing these modern stores and depots has gone to local contractors including many smaller businesses that have provided expertise, hardware and essential supplies. Tesco, the worldʼs third biggest retailer with a presence in 14 countries, joined the chamber as part of its commitment to the local community and also to benefit from the access that membership provides to both central and local government.
The retailer makes a huge contribution to the well being of the agri‑ food industry, now the regionʼs biggest manufacturer, as well as rural communities across Northern Ireland. Currently, Tesco spends £480 million annually in buying almost 2,000 food and drink products from 92 local suppliers.
These suppliers include the Foyle Food Group in Londonderry, a major supplier of beef, dairy firms Dale Farm, which has plants in Ballymena and Cookstown, and Fivemiletown Creamery in Tyrone, as well as pork from Vion in Cookstown, vegetables from Comberʼs Sparky Pac and healthy snacks from Kestrel Foods in Craigavon. Tescoʼs technical team works alongside existing and potential suppliers in developing new products, packaging and labeling that meet the needs and aspirations of customers and are also in line with environmental issues.
This sharp focus on local suppliers benefits upwards of 3,000 farmers here who supply the company with quality beef including over 750 who supply farm quality assured Tesco Finest Aberdeen Angus Beef to the retailerʼs meat counters.
It will be demonstrating its support for local food and drink at the forthcoming Taste Northern Ireland Garden Party event in conjunction with Belfast City Council at Botanic Gardens this September. The scale of Tescoʼs commitment to Northern Ireland was outlined by Colin Hampsey, the regional corporate affairs manager, who hails from Cookstown and admits to having retailing in his blood. “Our engagement within Northern Ireland is driven by a dedicated regional office here. This enables us to reflect local customer preferences, to support stores and to engage local suppliers. It is also at the heart of our longstanding support for local schools and community bodies. “Local schools have received over £1.5 million worth of computers equipment through our annual Computers for Schools Initiative since 1997. Last year equipment to the value of £323,450 was provided here through Schools for Sports and Clubs.”
More than £2,500,000 has been raised by staff for local charities. Partnerships in the past two years with Marie Curie and Muscular Dystrophy have raised more than £500,000 for local causes. Tesco currently has 45 stores – 30 superstores, one Metro and four Extra stores as well as 10 Express convenience stores in Northern Ireland. Two new stores are planned this year, a replacement at Craigavon and a new one at Crumlin. “We are also pioneering the development of new low carbon stores. These will feature solar installations along with combined heat and power units, as well as other innovative green technologies. These reflect our commitment to become a completely carbon neutral business by 2050,” he adds.
As well as assisting the growth of local companies, Tesco contributes to the regionʼs base through an extensive programme of staff development including opportunities for employees to gain the University of Ulsterʼs Retail Foundation degree and to progress through its established and flexible career structure. “We are a people business and therefore depend heavily on the quality of all those who work for us at every level. We actively encourage and support our employees to gain relevant qualifications. Our company ethos is based on trust and respect for employees and, of course, our customers throughout Northern Ireland,” Mr Hampsey says.
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