Mullans mark Monaghan Road milestone
Marking an impressive 20 years in business gave store owners, Stephen and Donna Mullan the opportunity to reflect on their successes and achievements, while also thanking customers and staff for their continued support.
With a prime location on the fringes of Armagh City, Mullan’s Foodstore’s Monaghan Road has excelled in establishing itself as the trusted store for its loyal customer base, priding themselves on their fresh food offering as well as convenience.
In May this year to mark their 20th anniversary, they took the opportunity to give back to their customers with a special fun day at the store, repaying the community with giveaways and freebies both big and small.
The family-run business has become a well-known and reliable name within supermarket convenience in the Armagh area, with further stores in Markethill and Killylea Road cementing their status within the retail industry.
As we all know, the pressures and stresses of the industry do not lend themselves to stopping and taking stock of achievements made, but as Stephen explained, the fun day was a chance see things from the customers’ perspective.
“It was lovely to actually stop and celebrate and see what we have achieved. The last few months in particular have been so busy, so it was good to stop and think about how long we have been in business and really think about how much time has passed,” said Stephen.
“It even lifted all the staff morale too and it was a great boost for them.”
Having started from scratch in May 2005, Stephen and Donna were a young married couple with a young child when they ventured into retail. With backgrounds in social care and a mechanic, neither had any previous experience in retail, but were ambitious and eager to give it a go.
“We had the site and because of the location and where it is, is a very busy junction, we thought it would be a great site for a shop and filling station,” said Stephen.
“The early days were tough, you are grappling with a lot of debt and in a new business that you did not know anything about. We got on with it and you learn very quickly when you have to.
“We were young and ambitious and kept at it. We were building a business from zero, there was no customer base and plenty of competition, it was a big steep learning curve.”
Over the years, Stephen and Donna have made significant investments into the store, totalling over £3.5 million. These investments have allowed for three major refurbishments to bring top quality services and products to shoppers. The refurbishments also included the introduction of solar panels and high efficiency refrigeration.
When it opened in 2005, the brand-new store was approximately 2400 sq ft, employing 15 people and following recent expansion and development, it now stands at 4200 sq ft and employs 36 people from the local area.
“The building itself was large but we developed the whole upper floor of the building with a new suite of offices, training room, canteens and built a whole new production kitchen,” said Stephen.
“All back-of-house is now upstairs and that allowed us to maximise the entire downstairs for retail.”
Significantly, they opened an off licence in the store, which has been received very positively by customers.
“We always wanted one in the store and the customers were looking for one. In a store of this size, they are all expecting it. There are so many hoops you have to jump through, but we got it and the customers are extremely happy and it’s doing very well.”
A critical part of the expansion was to enable the growth of their fresh food offering. A key part of the store and what it is widely known for, Stephen and Donna sought to grow this area of the business further.
“We used the expansion to massively increase our fresh offering – our deli cabinet is much bigger, as well as our fruit and veg and meat – the extra space was all given to fresh, while about 10-15% of our grocery lines grew.
“This is a high fresh store – it would really be about 60% of the business, so it’s very very important to us,” added Stephen.
With their own brand – Mullans Foodstore’s – in the deli, they aim to run their new kitchen as an almost separate unit in order to supply their own shops. With an extensive range of prepped items, ready meals and deli counter products, Stephen and Donna are delighted with how it is going.
READ THE FULL FEATURE ON MULLAN’S MONAGHAN ROAD ARMAGH IN THE JULY-AUGUST ISSUE OF NEIGHBOURHOOD RETAILER HERE
