Professional development in the retail industry tends to happen in an ad hoc fashion but BWG Foods says its new Academy will change all that. Peter Donohoe, group HR director, BWG Group, talks to Maev Martin about aligning their brand strategy with a people strategy.

On 6 November BWG Foods launched what it describes as a ‘pioneering employee professional development initiative’, entitled the BWG Academy, which is designed to provide a wide range of self-development and support programmes for over 22,000 retail employees across BWG Foods’ SPAR, EUROSPAR, Londis, MACE and XL store networks.

BWG Academy’s dedicated centre is located in Dublin’s North City Business Park and features a practical training facility, which includes a high-spec kitchen, food preparation and food display fittings, along with auxiliary study rooms for theory education.