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Extra.ie
8 hours ago
- Business
- Extra.ie
Lidl scores again with return of legendary Irish soft drink
A beloved Irish soft drink is set to return to Lidl shelves – just in time to celebrate the Ladies' Gaelic Football season and the upcoming All-Ireland finals. McDaid's Football Special, the iconic beverage from Donegal, is making a highly anticipated comeback to Lidl stores nationwide. Last time it appeared in stores, it sold out rapidly, and now it's back, but you will have to be quick as it's only available for a limited time. LGFA player Carla Rowe. Available from June 26, Football Special will be sold in 1-litre bottles for €1.79, featuring special edition artwork that highlights the achievements of female Gaelic footballers. For the first time ever, it will also be available in 330ml cans priced at €1.19, carrying the drink's traditional label. Kevin Duffy, Chief Commercial Officer at Lidl Ireland, said: 'Football Special is a perfect example of how a local Irish producer can benefit from Lidl's Kickstart programme and achieve real success. It's great to see such a well-loved local drink score new fans right across Ireland and we're expecting another sell-out run when it returns to stores this summer. LGFA layer Carla Rowe with buyer Eoin Slevin (left) and supplier Seamus McDaid (right). 'At Lidl, we're hugely invested in supporting and advancing female sport through our flagship sponsorship with the Ladies' Gaelic Football Association (LGFA). As part of our 'Get Behind the Fight' campaign, we're focused on elevating visibility of female players to fill every seat at every game. 'Our partnership with McDaid's to produce a special edition artwork bottle putting female players in the spotlight is another tangible example of how we can continue to promote LGFA and its players and drive further engagement and support amongst our shoppers and communities across the country. We're thrilled to relist this popular product just as the LGFA season gets into full swing and leading up to thrilling All-Ireland Championship Finals in August.' McDaid's Football Special is produced by a family-run soft drinks company based in Ramelton, Co. Donegal. First created in the 1940s to celebrate the victories of local football club Swilly Rovers, it earned its name from players who would famously 'fill the cup' with the fizzy, non-alcoholic drink in honour of their wins. With its nostalgic taste and loyal following, this limited-edition return is expected to fly off shelves once again, so fans will need to act fast to nab a bottle!
The Guardian
10-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Save the chicken-wire Mr Darcy! The push to preserve the fantastical works of ‘Wigan's Gaudi'
Kevin Duffy's fairytale was born on a dumping ground. Nobody else could see it, but to him, the overgrown remains of a 1920s bowling green promised untold potential. It was there he spent the last decades of his life creating castles, characters, and crude Tudor facades from chicken wire, cement, and anything else he could salvage, across the land surrounding his Wigan bungalow, spilling over into the family garden centre. Not many people have heard of Duffy – who died in September at 79 – or his work, all housed at his now-closed family business, Rectory Nurseries. But first reactions are often the same: bewilderment followed by unbound wonder and curiosity. After four decades, Duffy's kingdom is full of nooks and pathways, chapels and dens, monsters and myths – each discovery promising another just around the corner. The Rectory features not just its own miniature pub, but a lion's den as well as a stalactite-encrusted cave of sirens. One section hosts a small Tudor village, another a crowded antique shop where none of the items are for sale. It's like wandering into a theme park. Iain Jackson, a writer and architect who interviewed Duffy for an outsider art publication called Raw Vision in 2008, admits Duffy's work couldn't be shown in a gallery, but says, 'he still did it; he still had something to say – he was the real deal'. Yet along with his legacy as a much-loved outsider artist, Duffy has left a 1,200 sq foot property full of sculptures, found objects and oddities that nobody is quite sure what to do with. The land that the Rectory sits on is being forced into a sale, leading many locals to ask why Duffy's work can't be given protection. An idiosyncratic ground-floor rented flat in Birkenhead known as Ron's Place became what was thought to be the first outsider art to get Grade II-listed status last year. But today the Rectory lies stagnant; the gates closed to the public, as vines and trees encroach the Renaissance follies like a post-apocalyptic Portmeirion. 'Eccentric' is the word Duffy's nephew Chris uses to describe him. Duffy variously performed in a husband-and-wife musical duo, worked in a cotton mill, had an encyclopedic knowledge of gardening, and played the left-handed banjo. In the evenings when his family gathered, wearing his cowboy's neckerchief, he would drink and play music long into the night, outpacing even his most spirited nephews. His eldest sister, Sheila, says he had been a charismatic child, but other than an appreciation for architecture, he wasn't an obviously creative type. Instead, Duffy grew up to be a grafter, his hands tough like old leather. In around 1978 he started leasing the ground for £1 a year and cleaning it up, eventually building his bungalow in 1991, while selling cuttings for plants and slowly building up his nursery business. Duffy – who has sometimes been called 'Wigan's Gaudi' by visitors to the site – only started making art after Boxing Day in 1994, when his wife, Pat, died suddenly. A stone monument was erected in the garden in her memory, and decades of unrelenting creativity followed. Grief and remembrance feel enshrined in the Rectory. The all-faith chapel – which was originally built tongue-in-cheek from old lavatory bricks with an altar made of scaffolding planks – became a genuine place of reverence and, judging by the amount of touching prayer messages pinned up, was giving the 17th-century Holy Trinity church down the road a run for its money. Duffy's works weren't built to stand as individual pieces – instead he used his home-cum-garden centre as an ever-changing exhibition that people, and mostly himself, could enjoy. Layer after layer of strange objects created a magnum opus in over a hundred intertwined sections: a hand-sculpted Mr Darcy; the gravestone of a 58-year-old donkey; a shrine to his late wife and only son Carl, who died aged 56 in 2023. The creations were tied to whatever materials were freely available (or donated) at a given moment. Like the seedlings that fuelled his business, Duffy had a knack for creating something from nothing – 'building a lot without buying a thing' as he put it. He once said in a video made about him: 'Is it art or is it just a pile of rubbish?' Regardless of the answer, Duffy's wonderland may yet end up in the bin, and his work is just the latest in a long history of outsider art under threat. From paintings mistaken for trash to artworks being saved from skips and ending up in the Saatchi, the preservation of outsider art often depends on the taste and perseverance of a tenacious few. The loss of its creator looms over the Rectory. 'The fact that Kevin is no longer with us is hard enough,' says Sheila, 'but having to sell all his years of work just as a commercial venture is very sad.' The family, who don't own the land, hope that someone will buy the property and keep at least some of Kevin's work. Ideally they'd like it all preserved, but they're being realistic. After all, as Chris explains, perfection and preservation was never his uncle's goal. In fact, Duffy enjoyed the look of ivy creeping across his faux battlements, which undoubtedly inflicted structural damage over the years. His bottomless reserves of energy meant the layout of the Rectory could change on a whim of creative inspiration. A greenhouse easily became a village, a potting shed became a chapel. Without Duffy, the Rectory is still changing, as nature begins to reclaim it. Conifers invade the boundaries and ivy multiplies, while sculptures gradually forget their painted colours. It's a stark reminder of time's passing, and photos from 10 years ago show a tidier, prouder environment. To some, a bid to conserve Duffy's visionary environment may be a folly of its own. 'I don't think we have to preserve absolutely everything,' says Jackson. 'It existed for a moment. And those people that saw it had the luck and the privilege and that authenticity. There's a risk of it becoming museum-ified.' But Chris is hopeful about his uncle's legacy, even so. 'No matter what happens to the garden in the future, our Kevin has left his own unique mark on the world and the pictures and memories will be forever.'
Forbes
03-04-2025
- Business
- Forbes
NordicTrack Rolls 50 Years Of Exercise Technology Into An Ultra-Luxury Fitness Product Line
Nordictrack Ultra 1 treadmill Courtesy of iFit NordicTrack is raising the bar in the home fitness equipment market. It is introducing the NordicTrack Ultra 1 treadmill, the first in a planned line of fitness gear that blends the performance expected from high-end exercise equipment with a design inspired by luxury furniture, making it fit for the most elegantly furnished home and office. It'll set you back $15,000, but then, it's the Ferrari or Lamborghini-class treadmill in an industry dominated by virtual $2,000 Chevy or Ford models everyone else is running on. After pioneering in the home fitness industry 50 years ago and outlasting every other brand in the business, NordicTrack continues its category-defining mission. The Ultra 1 is so revolutionary that it was launched at the Art Basel Miami Beach show in December, followed by its European introduction at the Paris Maison&Objet home decor and interiors fair. 'NordicTrack created Ultra 1 to celebrate its 50th anniversary and to fill a void in the high-end market. It's the perfect combination of form and function,' shared Kevin Duffy, CEO of iFIT, NordicTrack's parent company, along with the popularly priced Pro-Form product line and Freemotion serving the commercial market. Unlike other NordicTrack and other iFIT products that are widely distributed internationally and domestically through Dicks Sporting Goods, Best Buy, Amazon, Costco, Fitshop and others, the Ultra 1 will only be available directly from iFit. It is taking pre-orders now in advance of shipment starting in May. There is something to be said for a brand that has outlasted the competition in a home fitness market that has had its share of ups and downs over the years, most recently downs. In the early days of the home fitness industry, it was all about the hardware with NordicTrack's skier machine one of the first that was followed by treadmills and cross trainers. Then the industry was bolstered by the digital revolution combining the equipment hardware with digital content and virtual interactive training software. It came just in time for the pandemic lockdowns that kept people out of the gym. The Sports and Fitness Industry Association reports that in 2021 the home fitness industry posted a remarkable 16% growth rate that year as the rate of at-home workouts rose from 24% in 2019 to 36% in 2021. The trend has continued to increase as at-home convenience won out, and digital engagement substituted for personal training. However, after people equipped their home gyms, the industry quickly settled back to its more or less usual 4% growth rate, going from $11.2 billion in 2022 to $11.6 billion in 2023, while the players geared up for continued heady growth. BowFlex, formerly known as Nautilus and also owner of Schwinn, filed for bankruptcy in early 2024 and was acquired by Johnson Health Tech for $37.5 million in April last year. In 2020, Lululemon made a major $500 million investment in Mirror fitness device and digital app but couldn't make it work. Lululemon shut if down in 2023 and went with Peloton as its interactive fitness partner. And Peloton has had a rough ride too, dropping nearly 4% to $2.7 billion in revenues in 2024 and down 6% through the first six months of fiscal year 2025. While iFIT is private and doesn't reveal financial results, it is backed by L Catterton, which invested $355 million in 2022. At the time of the investment, managing partner Marc Magliacano said the company's brands and iFIT integrated content platform transcends 'venues, channels, product categories and geographies,' making it positioned 'to win on a global scale.' Magliacano is now a member of the iFIT board. Kevin Duffy joined iFIT shortly thereafter, taking over from long-time CEO Sam Waterson who remains on the board. Duffy previously was CEO of Sound United, a consumer technology company offering premium audio and home entertainment brands. His team includes chief operating officer Matt Bush, who previously was with the Samsung Harman brand, chief product officer Keith Hartsfield, formerly with iRobot, and chief subscription officer Jeremy McCarty tasked with growing the iFIT subscriber base. He honed his subscription bona fides in the wireless, telecom, and smart home industries. Besides having a content library of over 10k fitness and wellness courses, iFIT has also introduced an AI Coach to provide more personalized workouts suited to an individual's fitness level and goals. Plus the iFIT app supports users without the company's hardware. And through AI, it's translated its full content library into ten different languages. The new NordicTrack Ultra 1 fills a void in the home fitness market that iFIT aims to dominate. 'The fitness industry is filled with a lot of functional products,' Duffy explained. 'But there aren't any products that you want to take out out of the third bedroom or garage. That was the inspiration for the Ultra 1: to be both aesthetically beautiful and super functional.' It's crafted in wood and comes equipped with speakers and full body fans to keep users comfortable while navigating the virtual terrain during workouts. For example, you can virtually experience a Mt. Everest base camp run that automatically adjusts to the inclines and declines on the trail while enjoying the scenery. 'The controllers have been completely redesigned,' he continued. 'They look like the throttle on a F15 airplane.' And it comes with a commercial-quality gym deck that provides significantly less impact on the knees. It even invites you to workout with a sensor that slowly begins to glow as you approach the machine. I asked if an Ultra 1 customer could trade in their old equipment to knock a bit off the $15,000 price tag, but if it catches the right buyer's eye, they probably don't need it. However, they will get full white glove delivery service and their old treadmill can be taken away for recycling if desired. 'Our rebuying rate is relatively high,' Duffy explained, saying that about 15% of new purchases come from its existing client base, who want an upgrade to new equipment, 'much like when Apple comes out with a new iPhone.' Or the customer purchases a 'complimentary modality,' like the new Tour de France indoor bike, the first and only officially licensed stationery bike that allows users to virtually ride alongside some of the world's leading cyclists while enjoying the tour's French country landscapes. After NordicTrack's 50 years as an industry leader and with iFIT behind it, the company keeps earning kudos. It was just named as one of the most innovative fitness and wellness companies of 2025 by Athletech News. And it continues to innovate by crossing over into the gaming industry in partnership with Ergatta to make cardio workouts on rowers, treadmills and bikes 'feel more like playing than exercising.' Looking to the future, Duffy sees AI as being the ultimate game changer as people take control of their health and wellness journey. 'The connected fitness, health and wellness industry is probably the best market to be in over the next ten years. Just look at the Consumer Electronics Show where so many self-monitoring health devices were featured. That gives people the information needed to be proactive about health rather than reactive as in the past. 'And within the health and wellness ecosystem with a lot of verticals, such as nutrition and sleep, fitness is the most crucial. Being ahead in AI for fitness is one of our unique advantages,' he concluded. See Also:
