Nisa Clandeboye Stores

It’s been almost three months since a new Nisa Local outlet on the Clandeboye Road opened its doors to shoppers – and business has been so strong that targets set for the first quarter have already been broken.

Known as Clandeboye Stores, the new venture is owned by veteran Belfast wine and spirits merchant, Jim O’Neill, who will be familiar to many in the trade through Botl, his well-established drinks wholesale business on the Boucher Road. Jim also owns ABV, a cash and carry supplier to the licensed trade that’s located in premises adjacent to the new Nisa outlet at Clandeboye.

The new 1485 sq ft c-store opened its doors in early March this year following an extensive month-long re-fit which saw the premises – formerly an off-licence – thoroughly transformed.

Speaking to Neighbourhood Retailer recently, store manager, Alan Crawford, explained that they had continued to run the business as a drinks retailer for the first couple of months of this year while they laid plans for the move to convenience.

“We’d conducted some market research to discover what it was that the local community wanted to see here and what came back to us was very clear,” said Alan.

“A lot of people said that they would come here to get their drink, then they would have to cross over the busy road to get their milk and bread somewhere else. That’s a four-lane road, there’s a lot of traffic and people don’t want to have to cross it.

“Also, from our own point of view, stocking a premises of this size full of alcohol, from a commercial perspective, didn’t make sense. Our drinks section in the new store is a quarter of the size yet we are very happy with the way that it’s performing.”

The new outlet also offers an ATM, Paypoint facilities, newspapers and magazines, a Robert Roberts coffee machine and a comprehensive grocery offering. It will shortly be stocking National Lottery scratch cards and a range of hot food, which will be bought in and sold from a heated display. A delivery service for customers will also be launched. “We think that the offering from Nisa is really good,” added Alan.

“The three-weekly promotions are excellent and the prices are comparable to supermarkets, in fact, sometimes better…Our drink sales have also actually increased. I think that’s because we’re getting a different type of customer coming into the store now, the mother with kids, for example, who is coming in to get her groceries and then deciding that she’ll have a bottle of wine as well.”

Establishing good relationships with the community around the new store is seen as crucial for its long-term success. The official opening in June will be performed by a local youngster whose name will be chosen from entrants in a recent colouring competition.

“This is also why we have brought in a whole range of local suppliers, including Heatherlea Bakery and Sunflower Sandwiches,” added Alan. “These are businesses that are based in Bangor and we are supporting them by buying from them rather than from others based who knows where.”

But this isn’t the only retailing challenge that Jim O’Neill has taken on this year. He has also just acquired a small unit at Sandycove Holiday Park in Bangor which has been fitted out as convenience store to sell grocery, drinks and ice-cream to the holidaymakers. It’s only a quarter the size of the new Nisa at Clandeboye, but Alan Crawford is confident that the new venture will be a success.

“It’s done very well so far and we think that it will do brilliantly once the summer season really gets underway,” he remarked.

The Nisa Local at Clandeboye employs 12 full and part-time staff and looking forward, Alan said that the focus would be very much on driving up sales while ensuring service levels were maintained.

“Looking further into the future, perhaps a couple of years and depending on how the business goes, I think we will have very much branched out on the food side of things. Food-to-go is going to be very strong for us because we have the space for it and the demand is there.

We’ll either do something substantial ourselves or we will rent out the space to someone else, we are looking at all the options, but there is plenty of room for units here.

“By that time, we also want to have built up a good reputation for offering competitive pricing on drink and we will probably have devoted more space to the alcohol side of the business.”

Alan also predicted that ABV next door would eventually become part of the Clandeboye Stores business.

* Pictured top is Nisa Clandeboye store manager, Alan Crawford