Ken Allan new Head of Beverage at Musgrave MarketPlace
From left: Musgrave MarketPlace’s John Hardiman and Ken Allan with Emily Kirby from Budda Bar in Galway at the launch of the new initiative.
Ken has over 17 years’ experience in the on-trade. Before joining Musgrave MarketPlace, he worked in senior roles with Diageo Ireland, Diageo Africa and Brandhouse South Africa, subsequently being appointed Managing Director of Counterpoint here in Ireland. He returned to South Africa to lead KWV Wines & Spirits before his present appointment and the new additions to the Musgrave MarketPlace On-Trade Beverage team.
“It has been a difficult 18 months for the industry which has created unimaginable hardships for our business community across the country,” said Ken, “As we now begin to emerge from heavy restrictions placed on our industry, we will work with customers to help them reboot their business with our improved on-trade alcohol and soft drinks offering. My focus as Head of Beverage will be to continue the successful growth of our on-trade beverage offering and to use my experience to guide our talented team to help our customers capitalise on the opportunities ahead.”
This significant expansion of the on-trade beverage team forms part of Musgrave MarketPlace’s plans to increase the number of on-trade beverage customers it services from 45% of the market to become the leading on-trade supplier to the Irish market.
The announcement follows recent news that Musgrave MarketPlace will expand its own on-trade alcohol range by 34% to 382 beverage lines by this September. The new alcohol lines will include 75 new wines, beers and ciders, with 40% of the range being produced in Ireland.
To ensure it can deliver its expanded alcohol and soft drink lines from Monday to Friday, 08:00-17:00, MusgraveMarketplace has invested in new trucks and recruited drivers across its nationwide branch network to form part of the dedicated team to service on-trade customers. For their convenience, Musgrave MarketPlace customers will now also be able to get a top-up shop using their account in their local Musgrave MarketPlace branch which will be open seven days a week from the 6th of June.
