The future’s bright for Bells
From its establishment 11 years ago, Bells of Crossgar has become a core part of the community, and thanks to sustained and consistent growth, is planning for an exciting future.
Having marked a decade in business in September 2024, the last 12 months have proven to be an exciting time for Bells of Crossgar, including a fuel forecourt transformation to Texaco.
With a long-standing family connection to the area, the Bell name is a well-known and respected one across Crossgar. Store owner, Gabriel’s father once owned an Esso station and car dealership at the site, while Gabriel and his two brothers also owned a Spar in another part of the town.
Following many successful years in business together, the brothers decided to sell the shop and go their separate ways, with Gabriel subsequently building and opening the SuperValu store at the Downpatrick Road site near to the original car dealership.
As store manager, Darren Fitzpatrick explained, Gabriel wanted to bring a modern and essential service to the local area.
“He wanted to provide something for the community with a bit of a bigger convenience store, something that would entice the customer in and have everything under one roof,” said Darren.
The store stands at 6000 sq ft and boasts free car parking, a Post Office and Texaco forecourt. Now approaching their 11th year in business, Darren revealed they have exciting plans in the pipeline.
“We are hoping to submit plans shortly to extend out at the back of the shop. Gabriel has acquired land at the back of the site and we are hoping this will give us more space on the shop floor and allow us to increase our storage capacity,” said Darren.
“Storage is at a premium for us and over the years, as we’ve added onto elements of the store and our offering, we need to increase the storage we have on site.”
Over the course of the last 10 years, a lot of work has been done to improve the store’s offerings with the Post Office arriving in 2015 and an expansion to their off licence.
“There was an opportunity for us to see how well the sales were doing in certain areas, and our off licence was probably under spaced, so we extended it as well as our grocery offering,” said Darren.
“We doubled the size of our off licence. Our sales were very strong there from day one and we looked at it and worked out what we could do to improve the size of it.
“We also wanted to keep some more of the products chilled, and so we introduced another fridge into the off licence. We now have two walk-in fridges, they are obviously not unique to us, but they have certainly helped to drive sales.
“We sell the take-home kegs and we keep them chilled and we have had very good feedback from customers on this. We have had customers coming to us from all over, including one who buys the kegs and takes them to his son in Derry, as he said they’re the best ones because they’re chilled.”
The expanded off licence has added significant value to the store’s offering, which in addition to the Post Office and their grocery, fresh food and frozen ranges also boasts a hot food deli, Frank & Honest Coffee, a butchery, Moo’d Ice Cream and is also a National Lottery retailer.
Additionally, they have been working to improve their ‘green credentials’ with the introduction of sustainable practices to the store, including solar panels.
“We were one of the first shops to open with doors on fridges, but we did also have a lot of spider fridges which we have recently changed to all running on plant.
“It’s about moving forward with the environmental aspect and also the element of cost savings, it does all have an impact.”
While eager to move with the times and expand the convenience offerings to their customers, Bells have been conscious about what up-to-date concepts they introduce in-store and have kept their loyal customers front of mind when making some of these decisions.
“An emotive topic for us was the self-scan tills,” said Darren.
“We had nearly put them in but then decided not to. We consulted with our customers and they said they would not like them as they would miss the conversations with staff.
“It’s those loyal customers who are coming in here two or three times a day. We were very close to putting them in and had paperwork signed, but for us it was a personal decision not to put them in, in the end and I do not think it has done us any harm.”
READ THE FULL FEATURE ON BELLS OF CROSSGAR IN THE SEPTEMBER ISSUE OF NEIGHBOURHOOD RETAILER HERE
