Diary Dates
Awards and learning together at Shannon 2025
The Health Stores Ireland family returns to Shannon, County Clare on January 26th for what has now become their annual conference and awards event.
Under the banner of “Putting Our Best Foot Forward”, health store owners, their supplier partners, training and service providers and selected artisans and innovators will gather to discuss trends and possibilities with an eye on the year ahead.
Health Stores Ireland Chair Leroy Smith says, “The event has become a special fixture on the events calendar for natural health sectoral partners. It’s far more than an exhibition and has developed into a unique boutique hybrid event with networking and socialising at the core.”
Event organiser Alan McGrath says, “My brief is to build a weekend that taps into the knowledge of experienced suppliers and showcases some new product developments, local artisans and innovators”.
A key part of the weekend is the New Natural Business Retailer Awards, where business owners are recognised for excellence on a range of categories like community engagement, training, environmental initiatives, digital marketing and merchandising. An inaugural “store of the year” award will be presented at this year’s gathering.
For the first time, store nominations for awards were made by brand and company field reps and product trainers. Health Stores Ireland decided to acknowledge the hard work and extensive travels by a key element of the industry who have a unique “eyes on” view of the network.
Speaker slots will be formatted as panel discussions. The morning session is titled “Sustainable Heroes – learning outcomes for retailers” when a panel of successful entrepreneurs will talk about their business journey and how they retain authenticity and integrity while building profit and a successful brand and service.
The afternoon session will focus on the challenges for both brand-holders and retailers around the growth of multiplatform selling.
Time for Fair Trade
2025 Fairtrade Fortnight takes place March 3-16. In 1997, Lady Marion Fraser, Chair of the charity Christian Aid, launched the first Fairtrade Fortnight in the U.K. The campaign turned out to be an instant success and it has grown bigger every year. Fairtrade.org.uk