Love Sligo Gift Card sales hit €300,000 milestone

Following a festive push to encourage Sligo businesses and consumers to choose local, over €300,000 of Love Sligo Gift Cards have been sold since October 2023, with over €200,000 of sales down to organisations using the local gift card for Christmas rewards and incentives.

As a prepaid Mastercard, the Love Sligo Gift Card can be spent with any of the 214 registered businesses in Sligo, including national brands and independent businesses.

Mark Cunningham, Love Sligo Programme Coordinator, has been driving the Love Sligo Gift Card in the town and says both consumers and businesses have embraced the initiative:

“There’s a huge amount of positivity around the Love Sligo Gift Card both from a consumer and corporate perspective with over 50 businesses choosing to use the card this year for their corporate rewards. These are local businesses who are in turn supporting other local businesses, and that creates a feel-good factor in the town, alongside a growing realisation that the Love Sligo Gift Card has to be spent in Sligo. It cannot leave the local economy.

“What has been achieved by businesses in Sligo working together with the gift card over the past few months is phenomenal. 214 businesses are now part of the Love Sligo Gift Card and sales are increasing by the day. The €300,000 we’ve already locked into Sligo over the past 3 months is fantastic but if every Sligo firm made the decision to use our local gift card for staff rewards, imagine the impact we could make on the local economy.

“We’re already confidently looking towards 2024 and how we can make the Love Sligo Gift Card even bigger and better. We would ask that any Sligo business who already had the box ticked for their 2023 rewards to consider the Love Sligo Gift Card for 2024. This is a card that benefits every single one of us.”

Riverside Hotel, Compupac, Rosses Point Golf Club and Arrotek are four of the corporate firms who are investing in Sligo by choosing the town’s local gift card for festive rewards in 2023.

Connie Ballantine, HR at Riverside Hotel Sligo said the gift card has been well received by staff:

“Riverside Hotel is an independent hotel, bar, restaurant and café. Our staff are brilliant and as a management team, we decided that instead of the One4All vouchers as a bonus for Christmas 2023, we’d use the Love Sligo Gift Card because we want to support local and see Sligo grow. Staff received an amount depending on an average of their summer hours, up to €500, at the end of November.

“The great thing about the Love Sligo Gift Card is the variety of stores and businesses that accept it locally, so staff don’t have to travel to spend it, we even accept it ourselves. One staff member said they’d spent their Love Sligo Gift Card on a full tank of oil. Others have used their gift card with Sligo restaurants and bars. It has gone down really well with our team and they’ve enjoyed spending it.

“We also appreciate that there are no costs for businesses to be a part of the Love Sligo Gift Card and no commission for businesses to accept it. Choosing the Love Sligo Gift Card will help to grow our local economy because it supports a number of sectors. Many Sligo businesses are family run and have been in the town for hundreds of years, it’s down to us to keep them open.”

Garth McManus, Sales Manager at Compupac said the gift card is essential to helping the region to grow:

“Compupac is a leading family-run managed services provider founded in 1983. For staff rewards in the past, we’ve given staff three options; a voucher for Certa, Tesco or One4All. This year, the logical thing for us was to use the Love Sligo Gift Card because it ticks all the boxes. It supports local, it gives our staff choice of over 200 businesses, and it’s easy. After ordering, I had my delivery in 3 days and we were able to get them out to staff quicker, so they could spend before Christmas, when it’s needed.

“Staff were very happy with the Love Sligo Gift Card because they know supporting the town is important, and they can still buy their food and fuel, but with lots of other options too. It’s also easy for us as a business, because we’re not having to ask staff which card they want and order from different companies. Another plus point is that we can gift staff the Love Sligo Gift Card tax free, using the small benefit exemption scheme. A cash bonus would be subject to tax.

“From our point of view, it’s essential to grow the region for the benefit of us all, and a simple way to do that is choosing the Love Sligo Gift Card for staff rewards.”

David O’Donovan, General Manager at County Sligo Golf Club (Rosses Point) said:

“With 1000 members and welcoming 12,000 visitors each year, Rosses Point is a world-famous 18-hole championship golf course. We chose to use the Love Sligo Gift Card to reward our hardworking staff because it’s about Sligo supporting Sligo, keeping money in Sligo and supporting jobs in Sligo.

“After coming through the pandemic, we’re very conscious that local businesses in Sligo need our support, and by encouraging staff to enjoy and spend with the huge number of businesses who are part of the gift card, we can show tangible support for these businesses. Ordering the Love Sligo Gift Card for our staff was seamless, and I encourage all companies to consider using the card.”

Another business using the Love Sligo Gift Card for staff rewards this Christmas is medical device design and development firm Arrotek. Deirdre Caheny from Arrotek said:

“Arrotek has a sports and social club which almost all employees are part of and we use the budget from the club to treat members to vouchers or gifts. This year, we decided to keep it local and use the Love Sligo Gift Card.

“The gift card is fantastic because it supports the local businesses who are the backbone of our community. It also provides an extra layer of support for our employees in the cost of living crisis because they can use the card in a way that’s useful to them, such as a bite to eat with their family in a local pub. We’ve all had gift cards and not used them, or spent them on something for the sake of it, but with over 200 businesses part of the Love Sligo Gift Card, we know they’ll be put to good use by our employees.”

New independent businesses joining the Love Sligo Gift Card over the last month include Action Boutique, Bonus Beds, Nicola’s Hair Salon and Right Price Tiles. New nationals include Aldi, Lidl, Tesco and Sports Direct.

The Love Sligo Gift Card is part of the Town & City Gift Card concept from Miconex, active across Ireland. Davin Doherty is Client Success Manager for Ireland at Town & City Gift Cards and said:

“From our work in Carndonagh with the Carndonagh Gift Card, we know that if Irish firms have the chance to support local, they take it, and that has certainly been the case in Sligo too with organisations switching to the Love Sligo Gift Card for their rewards. At this time of the year, our focus is on fulfilling orders as quickly as possible, so that firms are able to reward their staff at Christmas. But the Love Sligo Gift Card isn’t just for Christmas, it’s a card that can be used for all kinds of incentives throughout the year, not only for staff, but for clients, customers and service users too.”

The Love Sligo Gift Card is available to purchase online at www.lovesligocard.com and in person at the Sligo Tourist Information Centre and Mullaneys. ‘Grab and Load’ cards can also be picked up and loaded with value at 6 locations in Sligo: Centra, Sligo Credit Union, Conway & Sons, Healthwise Pharmacy, Ward’s Pharmacy and Centra Castle Street.

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