A golden age for Mulkerns marking five decades in business
Five decades ago, Paul Mulkerns bought his first shop, a modest few hundred square foot in size. Now, 50 years later his son, Terry has completed a significant refurbishment of the store as they mark their 50th anniversary.
Originally known as ‘Paul’s, the first shop – a short distance from the current store – was one of the first stores to offer much-needed convenience and choice to the local community near Newry.
Paul’s values of quality and freshness, shaped by his 25 years at Liptons in Dundalk (which covered all of Ireland) including a lengthy tenure as Area Manager, and his friendly community ethos have shaped the business into what it is today – a large, thriving EUROSPAR store. Fifty years on and quality, freshness and community are still the central focus of the business.
Paul grew and developed the original store continuously over those early years, adding a butchery and deli counter in the 1970s, while a Post Office was added later.
By the end of the 1980s, Paul was keen to grow the business and bought a site on the main Forkhill Road outside Newry, where they are still based today. Approximately 2500 sq ft with a forecourt, the small supermarket was the next phase in the growth of the business, which has been incrementally developed to where they are today.
Terry was a young child when his father bought the shop and he has been involved in the business for the most part, proudly working as director of the business today.
“I went to college to pursue a career in IT and came back to the business around 2005, which coincided with a big development including moving from SPAR to EUROSPAR,” said Terry.
“At that point, my father was at the stage he wanted to step back and retire and I was plunged into the middle of it all from then. At that stage the store was about 4000 sq ft in size, so in 2015 we doubled the size of the store to its current size.
“As times and demands have changed, we have changed. We have grown the store to suit; it’s a continued work in progress and constantly evolving.”
Continuing their focus on a fresh offering, Terry said this remains a core part of the business. Additionally, they wanted to improve energy efficiency at the store, something that has also been a driving force behind developments over the years.
“We were looking at our refrigeration and it was getting quite expensive to run,” said Terry.
“We modified, got new refrigeration, new closed doors for energy efficiency; we also installed new lighting to brighten up the store which has had a great impact. New signage was installed and we also increased the size of and did a complete refurbishment of our in-store off licence, including a walk-in beer fridge.
“Overall, we wanted to bring in a more modern feel to the store. We also updated the forecourt and outside footprint of the store. We opened up the car park, reconfiguring it and gained about 15 to 20 additional parking spaces.”
Having started the work last October, it took approximately six months to complete and represented an investment of over £0.5 million. Terry said the response from their customers has been great.
“The feedback has been very positive; they are all very pleased with what’s been done. It’s about making it convenient for the customer; they are the important ones!”
