Key Summary
- Henderson Group's 2024 turnover rises, driven by strong store performance and strategic retail investments.
- Wholesale arm grows, aided by key new supply contracts across Ireland.
- Profit dips £6m to £63m due to investment in pricing, staff, and retail expansion for long-term gains.
Henderson Group, Northern Ireland’s leading food group, has posted a turnover of £1.389bn for 2024, an increase of 3.8 per cent on 2023.
The report published on Companies House says the increase in turnover is driven by solid like for like performance in both independent and company owned stores, supported by Group company investments throughout its retail estate, including acquisitions by Henderson Retail.
The Group also attributes the positive results to its continuous focus on customer service, as well as more frequent missions by shoppers who wish to minimise waste, while warehouse facilities, strong stock availability and the Group’s investment in wholesale pricing makes them an attractive wholesale partner.
Henderson Foodservice, which supplies to over 4,500 customers throughout the hospitality, education and healthcare sectors across the island of Ireland posted positive growth of +10.8 per cent to £250 million compared to 2023, thanks to its exclusive new contracts with K&G McAtamney Wholesale Meats, Premier Wholesale Produce and Koffmann’s / The Food Heroes.
The company’s retail coffee-to-go brand experienced significant growth and now has over 800 Barista units in 620 retail sites across the UK.
Profit before tax for 2024 was £63 million, approximately £6 million lower than in 2023, largely due to the Group’s strategic investment in wholesale and retail pricing, as well as continued investment in staff remuneration plus a wide range of other initiatives designed to improve colleague engagement.
Neil Gamble, Chief Financial Officer at Henderson Group commented, “The grocery market remains highly competitive, therefore in 2024, we concentrated on investing profits back into the business to maintain our competitive position despite various economic challenges.
"Our co-investment strategy with retail partners has been key to establishing a best-in-class portfolio of supermarkets, forecourts and convenience stores, which has facilitated the strong sales performance across all our brand formats.”
In total, the Group invested over £26 million across new and existing retail and property locations in 2024, while also renewing its partnership with Maxol to continue to supply 30 Henderson Retail operated service stations with branded fuel, with Henderson Wholesale continuing to supply to Maxol’s company owned service stations under the SPAR brand for the next five years on an exclusive basis.
Henderson Retail opened five EUROSPAR supermarkets in 2024, ahead of celebrating the brand’s 25th anniversary in Northern Ireland this year. The year ended with the company operating 110 SPAR and EUROSPAR stores in Northern Ireland.
Gamble continued; “The impact of inflation, higher interest rates and general deterioration in consumer sentiment made for a more challenging start to 2024.
"The directors continued to invest in retail and wholesaling prices to deliver better value for both retailers and shoppers, while our store refit, development and new openings, logistics, IT infrastructure and people development investments built a good foundation for future sustainable growth, which we are maintaining at a satisfactory level of profit so far in 2025.
"We are encouraged by the volume growth that we have experienced in 2025 reflecting growing popularity with the consumer for our proposition.”
The Group’s employee numbers at the end of 2024 reached 5,354, with a wage bill of £147m and almost 20 per cent of employees engaged in Payroll Giving.
Henderson Group continued to fundraise for key charity partners in 2024 including Marie Curie, Cancer Fund for Children, Age NI, Tearfund, FareShare, Action Mental Health, NI Children’s Hospice, PIPS and Jack & Jill Children’s Foundation, raising approximately £1.7 million.