Malachy has over 20 years’ experience in the Irish and UK supermarket trade with a love of fresh foods especially.
His food business career started early, selling home-made toffee to classmates in the school yard and spending his summers working in a local horticulture business, growing salad vegetables, summer fruits and bedding plants.
Malachy’s analytical nature and roles as a food technologist helped him to more effectively understand food production and the value chain. It was an excellent foundation for a career in supermarket buying and marketing.
From 2014 to 2016 Malachy was the Fresh Foods Commercial Category Director at Tesco Ireland, successfully turning around the business decline and re-positioning Tesco as the market leader through a volume led, private label strategy.
Malachy also worked as a Buying Director and Marketing Director at Aldi Ireland. He led range development across a variety of categories including fresh, frozen and non-foods. He launched Premium Tier ranges with particular success in fresh beef. He also led several key strategic marketing campaigns, successfully step-changing perceptions of Aldi’s product quality and provenance and helping to grow from <2% to >10% market share.
Since 2017 Malachy has been advising the supply base on retail insights, negotiation skills and strategy development.