Life Module – Applegreen Innovation Challenge Launch

This week, Dublin City University Business School was delighted to welcome Applegreen’s Chief Commercial Officer, Fiona Matthews, and Maria Cassidy, Director of Braeburn Coffee, to campus.

They joined our first-year students on the LIFE (Learning Innovation for Enterprise) module, led by lecturers Dr Catherine Faherty and Dr Colette Real, to share insights on innovation at Applegreen – and to launch our annual DCU- Applegreen Innovation Challenge.

Fiona shared an inspiring and refreshingly honest career story – one that began in her family’s retail business in Mullingar. After studying International Business & Languages at DCU, she joined Glanbia’s graduate programme, spent several years in the US gaining international experience, and went on to roles with Kepak and The Walt Disney Company Company before joining Applegreen in 2019. Today, she combines her passion for retail, hospitality, entrepreneurship and innovation to help drive Applegreen’s continued growth.

Students also gained valuable insight into Applegreen’s culture – from simplifying strategy onto a single page everyone can understand, to maintaining a focus on values, innovation, and execution. With a diverse portfolio of food brands and coffee, partnerships such as Marks and Spencer Food, Chick-fil-A Corporate Support Center and Taco Bell, as well as a rapidly expanding EV charging network, innovation remains central to Applegreen’s success.

Maria brought students deep into the world of coffee innovation. With more than 20 years’ experience in the coffee and beverage industry – including working with Bewley’s and across the international coffee sector – she now leads the Braeburn Coffee brand at Applegreen. Maria spoke about the importance of speed of execution and reminded students that when you have a strong idea and a solid business case, you have to back yourself.

Both speakers left our students with powerful takeaways:

1. Relevance is not permanent – you have to earn it every year.

2. Failure is not fatal, but failure to change can be.

3. Small ideas can grow into butterflies.

4. Innovation doesn’t always have to be big.

Applegreen is a true Irish success story – proudly Irish-owned and founded. From its first site in Ballyfermot in 1992 to a global network of 600+ locations and 17,000+ employees, the company continues to grow and innovate.

As part of their visit, Fiona and Maria also launched the DCU-Applegreen Innovation Challenge, giving students the chance to apply their learning to a live business project.

A huge thank you to Fiona Matthews, Maria Cassidy, as well as Niamh O’Brien at Applegreen for sharing their time, energy and insights with our students. You showed that careers aren’t linear, innovation takes many forms, and that backing yourself really does matter.