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Scally’s prides itself on its fresh food
factors. At the same awards, Scally’s Centra also won the Gold Award in its size category of 2,000 to 4,000 square feet and the award for the Best Frozen Foods Department in the ShelfLife CStore Awards. The store was also a finalist in the 2010 Excellence Ireland National Hygiene Awards. For the past number of years, Scally’s has regularly featured in the Top Ten of the Centra Store of the Year Awards, being the overall winner for 2011, and is an annual recipient of the Excellence Ireland Supreme Hygiene Award. Other accolades include the ShelfLife Gram Award Manager of the Year for Scally’s long-time store manager Fiona Leavy in 2011. In September 2012, Ben Scally received the Business Person of the Year award from Tullamore Chamber of Commerce. A month later, Scally’s Centra was once again shortlisted for ShelfLife’s National Convenience Store of the Year for 2012. It was also nominated in the Best Fresh Foods and Best OffLicence Department categories. And last October, Scally’s Centra was runner-up in the ShelfLife Under 5,000 square feet Store of the Year category. In addition, the store has achieved the highest standard for Food Safety and Hygiene (Emerald Q Mark) for the past number of years. “That’s a very important award for anyone in the food industry to have. It
covers everything from hygiene to food safety to quality of service,” Ben explains. Scally’s location on the Kilbeggan side of Tullamore, coupled with the fact that Ben is a proud Kilbeggan man himself, means he has always enjoyed great support from the people of the south Westmeath town. “Some of our best customers are from Kilbeggan. We have very solid support from the Kilbeggan area. We are conveniently located for anyone coming from that direction. It’s only a 10-minute drive between the two towns and Kilbeggan people have traditionally looked to Tullamore for their shopping, banking and other such needs,” he says. As a former Kilbeggan footballer, Ben still has a close affinity to the club. His brothers Pat, Dan, Seamus, Joe, Dominic, Brian and Tom also wore the maroon and white jersey, with youngest Tom being captain when Kilbeggan last contested a Westmeath SFC final in 1980 (they were beaten by The Downs).
To coincide with the Kilbeggan Knighthood Festival, a reunion for Kilbeggan’s 1965 and ’72 junior championship winning teams took place at Kilbeggan Racecourse on Sunday, June 2 last. Refreshments were served and the Guests of Honour were each presented with a framed photograph of the team they were on. Ben, who was on the 1972 team, thoroughly enjoyed the event which afforded him the opportunity to meet up and reminisce with his old teammates, some of who he hadn’t seen in over 40 years. “It was a good old day,” he smiles. “It was great to meet up with the lads from the 1972 team again. Some of us didn’t recognise each other it’s been so long since we were last together. The
Best Wishes & Continued Success To Ben Scally, From
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