Sam has been been part of Greenman’s Distribution team since August 2019, covering the Munster and Galway region. Take a moment to read the interview with Sam and learn more about him, his experiences working in the industry and his views on how the grocery market in Ireland is developing.

Hi Sam, can you tell us a bit about yourself!

I joined Greenman in August 2019 and cover the Munster and Galway region. I love the outdoors and especially the west coast of Ireland. I used to play rugby, winning a couple of All-Ireland leagues with my old club Clontarf RFC, and now I coach my local rugby team Mallow RFC. Now that I am retired I have dabbled in a bit of running, completing the Berlin Marathon in 2022 and lately taken up trail running. It seems like I can’t get enough of the mud!

I am a fluent Irish Gaelic speaker, and very proud of it, and my wife and I are raising our daughter through Irish.

What do you enjoy about working in the financial services industry?

I really enjoy going to all to different towns and cities across the South and West of Ireland to meet financial advisors – visiting places I normally wouldn’t. It’s amazing to see how there is a need for financial advice all across the country and not just in the large cities. I get a kick from introducing people to the Greenman OPEN fund, which is a fairly unique product in the Irish market, and for it to solve an investment need for investors.

The industry is very collaborative and welcoming to new joiners. When I started with Greenman I received great support and guidance from life company broker consultants and financial advisors.

You travel to Germany quite a lot working with Greenman and there’s quite a distance between Cork and Berlin – do you see any synergies between grocery-anchored real estate and the grocers in the two countries?

Well I’m not sure about synergies but I do see developing similarities between the 2 countries. For decades now in Germany there has been a clear divide between the full-assortment (Edeka, REWE, Kaufland) and the discount (Lidl, Aldi) food-retailers, to the point that they are not really seen as competitors but are more complimentary to one another. I believe something similar is happening here in Ireland now with SuperValu’s store concept having a focus on local producers, organic and artisan produce. So rather than competing with Lidl and Aldi, SuperValu and Dunnes Stores are seemingly looking to offer a different shopping experience with more choice and more quality food.