Widely renowned for their traditional breads and hugely popular birthday cakes, The Village Bakery has established itself as the go-to bakery for families celebrating those special occasions.

Marking some of their own special occasions, the second-generation family bakery is now 42 years in business, with Joe McMahon at the helm back in 1984. Now sons Adam and Jason are running the business together, building upon a trusted reputation throughout County Armagh.

Since then, Joe and his wife, Linda have worked hard, dedicating themselves to creating a much-loved and tasty business serving a loyal customer base.

As Adam told NR, what started off as a small bakery with two people has risen its staff numbers to 13 and established a wholesale arm.

“Over those 40 years, the business has grown and developed; we have extended the bakery and developed a very good wholesale business too,” said Adam.

“We have the shop on the main street in Markethill, which serves the public five days a week, but the wholesale side has become a bigger part for us now. We deliver to stores within a 15 to 20-mile radius of the bakery, to towns and villages including Keady, Tandragee and Laurelvale, Hamiltonsbawn, and of course we supply to stores including Hunters and Hills here in Markethill.

“We are a small bakery and consumers have so much choice out there now, so for us, it’s about making sure the quality and freshness of the products is there and only using the best ingredients. We cannot make the products as cheap as factory bakeries, so you need to make sure you build a loyal customer base.”

Known far and wide for their jam and cream sponge birthday cakes, The Village Bakery has indeed built up a very loyal customer base, with Adam revealing they have customers travelling from Belfast and as far away as Enniskillen when wanting a special cake for that special occasion.

“You need a good team and staff around, then you need to look after and retain them and that all makes a difference. We have two employees that started straight after high school and both have worked here for 40 years, so we can’t be that bad to work for!” said Adam.

With a typical early start in the bakery business, Adam and the other bakers start at 5am each day, with the ovens, which are on a timer, already warmed up for that first early batch of fresh products.

“When the wholesale team come in at 7am, the products are already cooling and we stock the shop with freshly baked products each morning too. Our wholesale orders come in the day before, so we start baking them fresh. It can be a bit of a guessing game making sure you have enough baked for wholesale and for the shop!”

While Joe retired from the bakery a few years ago, stepping back and letting Adam and Jason take the helm in baking and running the business, The Village Bakery continues to be a proud family business, with the brothers overseeing the baking and running of the bakery, while mum Linda looking after administration.

READ THE FULL FEATURE ON THE VILLAGE BAKERY IN THE OCTOBER ISSUE OF NEIGHBOURHOOD RETAILER HERE

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Representing community retailing at its finest, The Wall Group, founded by Gavan and his wife, Helen, has established itself as a top-of-the-range retail group providing a fresh, modern retail experience.

The reopening of their Springfield Road store – their eighth site – follows on from their purchase of the store in September 2025 and subsequent investment of £1 million on an internal refit. A further £2 million will follow on redeveloping the forecourt and external amenity in the coming months.

The EUROSPAR store stands at almost 6000 sq ft and has been through a complete overhaul, with a new ceiling with linear lighting, new flooring, new shelving and new refrigeration all incorporated. As Gavan Wall told NR, the creation of a modern store is an important factor for today’s consumers.

“We purchased it in September 2025, it was a good quality site but I believed it was a sleeping giant and that it had big potential,” said Gavan.

“We introduced our own Wall’s Foodhall & Butchery, it is our own in-house brand. We have a brand-new deli with a new Subway counter and we moved the tills to the other side of the shop to create better flow.

“I believe we also have the widest first aisle in the country, with lower-level table displays and a wider gangway. This transforms the customer experience! We have totally changed everything inside entirely.”

The site also has a forecourt, which Gavan explained is a “small, cramped site” but he is passionate about redeveloping this and creating an exciting forecourt facility – phase two of the redevelopment plan.

“I had a dilemma about which to do first, as we wanted to do both the shop and the forecourt, however with planning permission required for the forecourt, I ultimately completed the internal refurb first and went through the planning process for the forecourt at the same time,” said Gavan.

“When you spend £1 million these days when margins are so tight, if you do not get the uplift, you are in trouble. I had to be really on top of the planning permission for the external work, but it’s looking like things are moving in the right direction.”

The refurbished store boasts everyday essentials, own-brand fresh ranges, an increased selection of SPAR Bakery and local suppliers as well as increased offerings of both dairy and fresh produce. There store also operates an off licence, a Barista Bar coffee machine and an internal and external ATM.

A key differential for the store is its increased opening hours, now operating on a 24-hour basis, with an open-door policy.

“This does bring its risks, but we have also been doing this at our Landscape Filling Station site,” said Gavan.

“We get night-time deliveries and have full-time staff on with headsets and someone on the floor, so there is nobody on their own. We are near the Royal Victoria Hospital and have noticed a lot of the night-shift workers coming in and they have been very pleased they are able to come into the shop and get what they need during the night.”

Gavan added they have also noted a lot of customers come to purchase their fuel at night, when the forecourt is quieter.

“We have tried to keep the fuel as competitive as we can price-wise and currently have pre-pay pumps. Our new forecourt will make such a difference for us, people have no idea the impact it will have. I have seen what we can do when we transform something like this. It’s really exciting for me and the whole team,” added Gavan.

Having purchased his first store – Landscape Filling Station on the Crumlin Road – back in 2008, Gavan has a wealth of experience in what his customers want and has a keen foresight on new and exciting initiatives he aims to introduce across his businesses. Committed to benefiting areas with a wide range of offerings and services, he has seen how a shop can transform places.

READ THE FULL FEATURE ON THE WALL GROUP’S SPRINGFIELD ROAD STORE IN THE OCTOBER ISSUE OF NEIGHBOURHOOD RETAILER HERE

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The genesis of Kitchen Bakes stems back to the mid-1970s when Harold and Gladys McCullough, both bakers by trade, owned a home bakery shop in Portadown.

With a passion for baking and making bakery products, the couple soon became a trusted business in the local area. And while they had to close the business due to redevelopment in the area, they maintained the desire to bake and were soon looking for a new location to reopen their business.

In 1986, they saw an opportunity to make frozen apple tarts and sausage rolls with the aim of selling them in the shop for people to take home and bake in their own homes, and Kitchen Bakes was born.

Renting out a small unit in Lurgan, they soon employed an apprentice to help them out, with Mark Porter joining the company the following year. As Dean told NR, Mark is their longest-serving employee, having been with the company for 39 years and is now production supervisor.

“Through time the business grew and people were taking their bakes home to bake them and over time my parents went onto acquire our current premises in Mahon Industrial Estate,” said Dean.

“As the business grew and with the advent of programmes such as Great British Bake Off and hot food and deli counters in shops, the business developed further and we were able to supply sausage rolls in catering packs.

“We started to develop a range of fresh and ambient products, so we now have two arms to the business: the frozen unbaked products and the fresh traybakes and ambient products.”

Growth and diversification are the name of the game, and as his parents approached retirement age, they asked Dean if he was interested in joining the business. He now marks his own anniversary of 30 years with the company and has enjoyed seeing it grow and develop over that time.

“Thankfully from then, we have been able to continue to grow. We have seen year-on-year growth as far as sales and our customer base goes,” said Dean.

“We now supply about three quarters of Northern Ireland’s retail industry, independent convenience sector shops.

“While we still of course have the same range of products with our frozen sausage rolls and tarts and the fresh products, over the last 10 years, we have also moved into the food service industry and supply traybakes into that, and we now have an account in the south of Ireland.”

While the original staff were Harold and Gladys and then Mark, the company now employs 26 people across the business, from production to delivery, with four delivery vans servicing over 120 accounts on a weekly basis, and three admin staff. Dean said it was a credit to his parents that the company continues to be a success.

“I put it down to the quality and consistency of our products. We hope and believe that our customers know that when they buy our products, they know it will be something good,” said Dean.

“It has always been our philosophy to get the product in as good a condition as possible, from production to purchase. We always want them to buy our products again. As owners and staff, this is something that we would buy ourselves and we hope to achieve that through the quality of our products.”

Across the last 40 years there have been a host of changes and developments within the sector, with Dean bearing witness to many in his tenure, but he believes that consistency and recognising a work-life balance are important in running a business.

“Thankfully for us, staffing has not been an issue. We have managed to keep a number of staff here for a long time, our general manager has been here for 30 years and others have been here for 20 years and more,” he said.

“We have also had a philosophy that we are family-owned and believe that people have to have time with their families. We have a five-day working week and family time at the weekend, and this makes it easier and more attractive to people.

“Our staff finish at 12pm on a Friday. I have gone through it with my own kids in the business and now two of my sons work in the business, so those family values are something we have always believed in and try to protect.

READ THE FULL FEATURE ON KITCHEN BAKES IN THE OCTOBER ISSUE OF NEIGHBOURHOOD RETAILER HERE

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As with so many when they take their first step into employment, William’s working life began in retail when he was a student, working in Dunnes Stores in his late teens.

Subsequently going onto work in the construction industry, he later set out on his own to work in the hospitality sector.

Having run a number of bars and restaurants for several years, at one time William was responsible for overseeing the running and organisation of five bars and restaurants. Now running one pub in Larne, he realised he wanted to concentrate his focus within his own community.

“I wanted to invest and consolidate myself a bit more in the area and so looked into setting up a new business,” said William.

“I saw the business for sale and it was timed nicely with wanting to get into another business and so I made contact about the sale and after that it was a very fast turnaround, a bit of a baptism of fire!”

While the shop was already branded and established in the area, William knew he wanted to take his own approach and put his own stamp on it and so began the process of seeing what options were out there and ultimately led to him getting in touch with the team at Nearby.

“I took it over in March this year and I have to admit the first two months were a bit crazy, but the guys at Nearby have been absolutely amazing,” said William.

“They have been amazingly supportive. They came in and were able to get exactly what I had been looking for, even down to a specific till system. Once we got the till system in, a couple of days later they came down and started working on merchandising the shop.

“The shop had been operating as normal throughout this time, so there was no downtime at all. They sent a team down who looked at the shop layout and we flipped some things around into different areas. We have streamlined the products to tie in with this and we now have an extra 300 to 400 products available from when we took over.”

And although it is still early days for William, he has been very impressed with the changes made to the shop and what this means for him as a retailer and also for his customers.

“I felt it was important that we had some sort of identity and one with a symbol group,” added William.

“Their service levels and the regular deliveries are fantastic. The extended range of products and the promotions they run are also really good; there is a three-week cycle of promotions giving customers a better range of value and promotions.

“One of the other things I have loved about Nearby is their own product range – Go Local. We have done quite a bit of that in the shop and this has also given our customers more options and cheaper options. Their range includes all ambient products, such as tea, coffee, sugar, jams as well as soda water, tonic water, diluting juice and dog and cat food. It’s quite an extensive range and has given that added variety and more affordable options for our customers.

“The response so far from customers has been excellent. They are pleased with our levels of product availability, how the store is easy to shop in and the fact there are new options to choose from with new products, ready meals and a butchery range which is produced locally. People are really buying into it,” added William.

With a four-pump Nicholl Fuels forecourt at the site, Nearby Curran Road offers a stand-out position for themselves, as they are the only filling station in the Larne area which opens 24 hours a day with prepaid pumps in operation.

Another perk of working with Nearby for William is the opportunity to source a wide range of products from a variety of local producers and suppliers.

“They do not push anything at you, there is a full service there if you need it, but I can also go anywhere else to get new and local suppliers if I want,” said William.

“We are very big in confectionery and soft drinks, they are the real big sellers for us. We also have your everyday essentials, including bread and bakery products, and we have a local bakery in, Ann’s Pantry which is proving popular, and Rowandale Milk, which has a returnable bottle scheme in place. We have increased the numbers of that quite distinctively; it’s becoming more and more popular for us and is a big seller.”

READ THE FULL FEATURE ON NEARBY CURRAN ROAD IN THE AUGUST-SEPTEMBER ISSUE OF NEIGHBOURHOOD RETAILER HERE

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With a well-established background in the bakery industry and a wealth of experience ranging from Dublin Airport to Australia via Skinny Batch Bakery, Thomas Roffey was not short on eagerness, determination and drive to open his own business.

As a head pastry chef in Australia for a time, he realised this was something he wanted to do himself, with a dream to open his own bakery. In 2024, he returned home to do just that, establishing Gullion Bakery with his father.

And despite a somewhat rocky start, Gullion Bakery is thriving and earlier this year, Thomas and his father opened a second outlet, in Newry city – Golden Fold. As Thomas told NR, he set out to do achieve something his competitors weren’t.

“What we are doing is different from our competitors, we are doing deliveries seven days a week and we are making seven days a week. We are making all our products fresh each day and we can bring those directly to our customers every day,” said Thomas.

All products sold in Gullion Bakery and Golden Fold are handmade, using fresh ingredients, with Thomas and his team making the pastry from scratch each morning.

“There is nowhere within 50km of us doing anything like that, so it’s very unique,” added Thomas. “That is a really good selling point for us.

“People are pleased with the quality of the goods we are baking; they are getting used to what we are doing, which is trying to disrupt people’s habits.”

Building up a core customer base and establishing an ever-growing list of wholesale clients, Thomas acknowledged the very early days left him unsure as to whether he had made the right decision.

“It was really hard and difficult to get set up. We had a limited budget and we did as much of the work ourselves as we could to the best of our ability, and they were long hard days at the start.

“People tell you it will be hard, but they were 15-16 hour-days, six days a week. It really does test you, but after a while it makes it all worthwhile and it is paying off.

“At the very start after we opened, we were very quiet, nobody really knew we were there and I remember sitting with my dad looking at an empty shop on a Saturday afternoon and wondering if we had done the right thing. But soon people started to get to know us and discover what we do, we have built up that customer base, but it does take time to build your name and reputation.

“It is quite daunting to do something like this. It’s scary to take all your savings and try to set something up,” he added.

“You are wondering if people are going to come and for the first while they didn’t come, but we are very busy now and it was all worth it. We are very busy now supplying a lot of wholesale goods, coffee shops are wanting to buy fresh, top-quality items and we can deliver those to them every day.”

Having set up in 2024, Thomas couldn’t have foreseen what was to come in the Autumn Budget, with SMEs particularly hard hit with increasing National Insurance contributions and rising wage bills. With a dedicated team of 16 staff employed, he told NR he has tried to take on those challenges as best he can.

“Rising wage costs are certainly difficult and something that I was not ready for when I first opened Gullion Bakery. It is going to be the smaller businesses who are going to take the hit with those wage bills,” he said.

“It is an easy way for the government to raise money, and the tough part of that is the National Insurance contributions, it makes the difference between everything going well and being just above water.”

With a commitment to focusing on fresh, quality products, Thomas added that he always has a close eye on the latest trends or hits in the food sector.

“Trends move so fast, but I would love to lead the charge with pastries. We have more different products and we are trying to make it a bit more special.”

Having attended and took part in IFEX earlier this year, Thomas said it was an experience he really enjoyed.

“It was something different. I am not used to being in front of the camera like that, and I have to say I would love to do something more like that in the future. It was also good for the business as I could show those attending the quality of what we are doing.

“We recently just hit our maximum capacity in terms of what we can make for our wholesale distribution,” he added.

“It is great for the business and great that our name and reputation is out there now but that does mean working 16-17 hour-days, six days a week for two to three months, which a lot of people do not see going on behind the scenes. So, I have just hired someone to take that load off me.

“People don’t see the 2.30am starts and the work that has been done before you even open your doors. Social media does help with that as we can show some of what we do. But it’s still quite frustrating, as we do have people coming in and asking where we get our pastry from. We are showing them this way that we can making it fresh ourselves every day, we want them to see the process step by step and to appreciate that.”

READ THE FULL FEATURE ON GULLION BAKERY IN THE JUNE-JULY ISSUE OF NEIGHBOURHOOD RETAILER HERE

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