By Business & Finance 
Pictured (L-R): Imelda Hurley, Coillte, presenting Rosemary Garth, Communications Director of Tesco Ireland, with the Environmental, Social & Governance Award at the 51st Annual Business & Finance Awards 2025 in association with KPMG, Honouring Excellence in Irish Business.
At the 51st annual Business & Finance Awards, Tesco Ireland received the Environmental, Social & Governance Award, in association with Coillte. The award recognises the company’s strong commitment to sustainability, responsible business practices, and positive community impact.
By Héloïse Chaudot
Geoff Byrne is Chief Executive Officer of Tesco Ireland. He began his career with the business while still at school at Quinnsworth, which later became Tesco Ireland. Over a 37-year career, he has held a wide range of roles across the organisation. These roles built deep operational and strategic expertise and led to his appointment to the senior leadership team. He is also a member of the Ibec Council.
Byrne reports to Group CEO Ken Murphy. He is one of four Irish members of the Tesco Group Executive Committee, which comprises 11 members in total.
What was the biggest challenge your organisation faced this year, and how did you overcome it?
Retail is an incredibly fast-paced business, and the Irish market is highly competitive. The past year has been challenging for grocery retail on multiple fronts. We have continued to invest to help offset rising food prices for consumers. At the same time, we have dealt with the impact of extreme weather events such as Storm Eowyn. We have also managed a growing regulatory agenda, particularly around ESG. At the same time, we have started tackling the more complex actions needed to decarbonise our business, from farm to fork. Doing the right thing for all our stakeholders has been a guiding principle in managing all of this.
How does this award reflect your current strategic priorities, and how will it shape your next 12–24 months?
Sustainability is embedded in our core purpose of serving our customers, communities and planet a little better every day. Winning this award will really invigorate the team to continue the brilliant work they’re doing across the four pillars of our plan – Planet, Health, People and Communities – as we aim to become net zero across our full value chain by 2050.
What role does innovation play in your success, and can you share an example from the last year?
Innovation is an important part of what we do at Tesco – we’re always looking for new ideas to ensure we anticipate and respond to our customers’ changing needs. Whoosh, our new rapid delivery service is an example of this. As the market leader in grocery home shopping, we saw demand from customers and an opportunity for the business. We aimed to complement our existing online grocery service with faster, more flexible delivery. Whoosh began rolling out across Irish cities in 2025 and has been a real success. In partnership with Deliveroo, customers can order through our online platform and have their shopping delivered in just 45 minutes.
How do you see your organisation contributing to the broader Irish business landscape and community now that you’ve received this recognition?
Playing a positive role in local communities and contributing more broadly to Ireland’s social, environmental, and economic success is something that we take very seriously. Tesco is one of Ireland’s largest private employers, with over 13,500 permanent colleagues across 190 stores, our distribution centre, head office, and customer engagement centre. Overall, the economic impact of Tesco in Ireland is worth more than €3billion annually. We’re proud to work with over 500 local Irish suppliers and to be the world’s largest retail buyer of Irish food and drink. We also invest heavily in community programmes that support children, helping them get stronger starts in life, such as our Stronger Starts Food and Stronger Starts Cooks initiatives.
What has been your most effective sustainability action this year?
Sustainability is embedded across Tesco, and we continue to make strong progress toward our goal of becoming carbon neutral in our Group operations by 2035 and net zero across our full value chain by 2050. This year’s rollout of solar panels on our store roofs marks an important step, with solar installed at 24 of our larger stores to generate clean, renewable energy on-site. It’s a key part of our wider decarbonisation plan, alongside investments in more efficient lighting, heating, and improved refrigeration.
How do you engage customers and suppliers in your ESG vision so it extends beyond your own operations?
As a leading retailer in Ireland, we recognise our responsibility to address major social and environmental challenges. Real progress requires collaboration, and we work closely with over 500 local suppliers who are engaged in our ESG agenda. Many now track and publish their food waste, follow our lead on reducing packaging, and remove non‑recyclable materials. We also support customers by offering soft‑plastic recycling in stores, encouraging participation in social and charitable initiatives, and helping households make more sustainable choices around food waste and recycling.
Read more:
Highlights of a spectacular 2025 Business & Finance Awards, in association with KPMG Ireland
