Pictured – John Moane, Managing Director, BWG Wholesale; Patricia Carroll, Joint Executive Producer of Ros na Rún; Paul Mc Cluskey (aka Vince de Búrca, Owner of An Siopa in Ros na Rún) and Mali Uí Chlochartaigh, (aka Annette Ní Dhonnchú, actor in Ros na Rún); Siobhán Ní Ghadhra, Joint Executive Producer of Ros na Rún, and Colm Fitzsimmons, XL National Business Development Manager
TG4 and BWG Foods, owners and operators of the XL brand in Ireland, have announced a new sponsorship agreement to open an XL store on the set of Ireland’s only Irish language soap. The three-year agreement, will see the introduction of a newly branded XL local “Siopa” to the Ros na Rún streetscape in the coming weeks.
The new shop will be unveiled in episode 6 to be broadcast on 21st September and new storylines are being developed for the series around the opening of the new store.
Executive Producers of Ros na Rún are Siobhán Ní Ghadhra and Patricia Carroll and Series Producer is Déirdre Ní Fhlatharta. According to Déirdre: “BWG’s ethos for their XL shop brand prides itself on serving local communities nationally and has a large percentage of its almost 250 retail outlets located in Ireland’s Gaeltacht regions. We’re delighted that BWG foods have chosen our fictional village of Ros na Rún, in the Connemara Gaeltacht to locate their latest Siopa XL with our colourful character Vince behind the counter. We’re very excited about the partnership, which we know will grow and flourish. As with all developments on Ros na Rún, Siopa XL will no doubt be the location for much drama in the season ahead. Let’s see who’ll be pushing the XL shopping trolly!”
Ros na Rún is the largest independent TV production in Ireland and employs up to 160 people at its production base in Spiddal. It is a co-production between EO Teilifís and Tyrone Productions. Ros na Rún boasts a dedicated audience around the country and internationally with weekly viewership in excess of 150,000.
John Moane, Managing Director, BWG Foods Wholesale, operators of the XL brand said, “XL is celebrating its 20th birthday this year so this new partnership with Ros na Rún is a nice way to mark this and have our presence in one of the best known local towns on Irish television. We’re delighted to have reached agreement with TG4 on what is an exciting sponsorship for Irish television – one that will bring the XL brand directly to over 150,000 viewers across Ireland twice a week.”
XL has nearly 250 stores nationwide, providing employment to almost 2,500 people. The XL brand has achieved significant growth in recent years, outperforming the market year after year, while consistently expanding its nationwide footprint.
Ros na Rún airs two episodes each week on Tuesday and Thursday evenings at 20:30 on TG4 with an Ollchlár (or omnibus edition) on Sunday evenings, from September to May.
