A more sustainable way to shop local
Gerry Doherty (fourth from left) with his sons Kevin and Shane and some of the SuperValu team in Carndonagh
A taste of the future has come to Carndonagh this week with the finished eco-refit of the town’s Canny and Doherty SuperValu store.
The five-month project has positioned the store as one of the most eco-friendly and energy efficient supermarkets in Ireland.
“The end result is the most modern shopping experience anywhere in the country,” says owner Gerry Doherty, “What we have here in Carn is the absolute latest in our industry.”
The store has also increased the variety of products available – there’s something available for every discerning taste.
“Our new shopping experience grew out of a carbon efficiency refit of the store.”
“We now have the most sustainably efficient refrigeration system money can buy,” he said. “Refrigeration is a huge element of any supermarket business. We’ve reduced the energy these use by 75 per cent.”
Since 2018 the store has had solar panels on the roof which now provide 40 per cent of the store’s total energy requirements.
The shop has been fitted out with energy saving LED bulbs – which use 60 per cent less energy than standard bulbs.
Factor in a 100 per cent electric-powered delivery van and you can already see the positive impact this will have for the environment.
“We now have 59 per cent less CO2 emissions as a direct result.”
“Those figures aren’t a future ambition – they are fact right now. There are other environment friendly measures in place too such as package reduction.”
“We all have a duty to operate in a sustainable way. What we’ve done here is what the future looks like from an environmentally sustainable perspective,” he said.
Shopping experience
The revamped store also gives its customers a new shopping experience with plenty of variety.
There’s a new freshly baked in-store range, a newly expanded off-licence, an expanded food-to-go deli range, a new butcher and fishmonger section, a new gourmet coffee-to-go station, and a new upmarket Donnybrook Fair range.
It’s along way from the business John Canny and Gerry started in Malin Street in October 1983.
“It’s as different as day and night when it comes to the mechanisms of the supermarket industry. The one thing that hasn’t changed over those 40 years is our commitment to our customers and the community,” Gerry said.
“Not alone do the management and staff here support local organisations and events, we’re active participants ourselves. The same approach applies to local produce – some of our biggest suppliers are local. We’ve had that approach from day one.”
“We support everything local,” he said.
He has one simple business motto – you have to keep evolving; “He who survives in life is the creature that continues to evolve.”
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