A head for business

You need to have an enterprising spirit to get ahead in business today. Luckily for Mayo man, Vincent Kelly, he has no shortage of that

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Foynes is situated about 40 minutes drive from Limerick city along the mouth of the Shannon estuary. It’s a pretty little town with a population of around 800 people and a vibrant port operating year round. Kelly’s Costcutter is situated in the centre of the village, perfect for catching all the passing trade on the way to the seaside in Ballybunion during the summer.
Vincent has been living and working in the area some thirty years but his retail career actually came about by chance. As a youth he was a talented GAA player. Unlike many of his schoolmates he shunned the option of moving abroad when he finished school in order to play for his local club and county. “All my mates went off to America and England but I didn’t go because I was playing GAA for Mayo Minors and Under 21s. I got a handy job in a local supermarket so I could  work hours that suited me to do my training and play matches,” he says.
“When I left college I went to work with H Williams in Dublin. They were the biggest supermarket in Dublin at the time with19 stores. That was 1973 and I was 21. By the time I was 24, I was a manager. I was the youngest ever appointed manager at that time.”
While working in Dublin, Vincent met his wife, Breda. He subsequently left H Williams and relocated to Foynes as his two brothers had moved there and set up business.
“I left Dublin in 1980. We moved to Foynes and opened a shop on the main street and have been here ever since,” he says.

Spar no more

The shop was under the Spar brand for 21 years until Vincent had a falling out with the group over a rebate in 2001.  “I was after spending all this money in 2000 on the revamp and I was due my rebate the following February. By the April I realised my refund wasn’t coming. They withheld my cheque because they said I was buying outside the system. I had a second business- shipping, and I had to be competitive because there were two ship chandlers in the town. Once I found out I definitely wasn’t getting my rebate I came out and smashed the Spar sign. I started holding meetings with the other groups and I finally opted to go with Costcutter.”

Since the changeover to Costcutter the shop has been trading well and Vincent says he is very happy with the relationship he holds with Costcutter. “Spar were charging me 6% service charge yet I had to collect all my stock from Limerick. With Costcutter I am buying at the same price but it is 6% less. For the first time the shop started to make money whereas before the shipping business was holding up the shop.”

He has just recently completed a revamp and says that it has brought new life to the store. Managing to not close throughout the renovations was down to the help he received from the Barry Group team.  “The technical people we had were excellent. Chris McGuire, the developer from Barry’s was great. We also received a lot of help from Barry’s merchandising and planning the shop.”

Engaging in a revamp is a stressful thing to do at the best of times but during a recession is could be described as a bold move. Vincent was undeterred but says you have to keep a tight hold on your bottom line. He maintains staff costs at 11% and says you can’t allow wages to surpass 12%. With six full-timers and four part-timers the shop opens from 7.30am to 9pm everyday. “All my staff finish at 6pm so we cover evenings ourselves,” he says.

Increasing your offering

Although times are considered tough Vincent believes it is still a far cry from the hardship people experienced in the late 80s. “The fallout now is about 10% and that’s not critical,” he says. “Luckily we have a core of customers built up over the last 30 years and they are still shopping with us.” He has introduced some new offerings over the past couple of years to add value. “We never sold fuel before-coal or briquettes. There is no one selling coal as cheap as I am now. We sell at €7.90 and it’s €10 up the road.”

When he realised the meat trade in his shop was reducing he approached all the locaI hotels and restaurants to see if he could supply meat for them. “We have a butchery and we weren’t as busy as we could have been. We went out looking for new business and managed to get a few big accounts. We have now actually surpassed what we had been doing before.

You have to chase business. It’s not going to come to you.”
Trisha, his daughter, is qualified as a chef and runs a catering business from home which generates two/three different functions a week so between all the different facets of the business, the family are kept very busy. 

Sticking with the group

Even though Vincent is a well seasoned retailer he still would not consider going it alone and is very adamant that you need to be affiliated with a group to make a success of your business. “I can’t imagine the amount of time you’d have to spend buying and supplying and you’d miss out on the special offers. People are so tuned into value now that you have to have special offers. Costcutter promote new offers every three weeks. An example of a recent offer was six cans of lucozade for €2.”
He thinks the symbols really need to look after its retailers in tough times.
“The groups need to mind the retailer as they are at the bottom of the ladder dealing with the customer and it costs a lot more to gain somebody new than to hold on to the person you already had,” he says. Luckily for Vincent, Barry’s is providing the support he needs to run his business successfully.

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