Centra store profile

Donal Hickson, owner of the Centra store in Kilmeaden speaks to Fionnuala Carolan about the revamp he has completed on this store which was wholly inspired by his customers

Ihate to break it to you but Kilmeaden Cheese is not made in Kilmeaden and hasn’t been for about 15 years. However the much loved cheese brand is available in-store and very much part of this story; Hickson’s Centra store was in fact an old co-op which local farmers sold their dairy produce to, and as it expanded, a general store was opened in 1920. In 1964, all of the co-ops in Waterford amalgamated, and a cheese factory was established across from the store. However, production of the cheese ceased at the Kilmeaden plant in 2005, and moved to Ballyragget, County Kilkenny. In the same year Kilmeaden cheese won a gold and bronze medal in the World Cheese Awards in London.

Recently the old co-op has been transformed into one of the most state-of-the-art shops you will find in the country and its owners, Donal and Ailish Hickson are thrilled with the result. “Kilmeaden is a great success story for us,” says Donal.

Background

Having spent some time in Russia in the early 90s working as a butcher, Donal came home and got a job with Dunnes Stores in Waterford where he met his wife-to-be Ailish. He left Dunnes after a couple of years and moved to Musgrave as a regional manager charting the start of his relationship with the Centra brand.

Donal says that Musgrave is and has always been very supportive. “Martin Kelleher was my boss at the time and was very good to me and really looked out for me in the early days when you needed help and guidance.”

He says that the Musgrave support including store design, sales and finance, have been key to his success. “They are always checking to see how you are doing. They are very innovative and always looking at where they will be in the next five to ten years’ time. It’s not about the here and now but looking forward and I like that,” he says.

A roaring success

Donal and Ailish Hickson bought their first store in Tramore in 2006 and have since added three more Centra stores to their portfolio

STORE PROFILE Retailer: Donal and Ailish Hickson Group: Hickson’s Centra Address: Kilmeaden, Co. Waterford Staff: 28 staff, 15 full-time and 13 part-time Size: 3,000sq ft Opening hours: Monday - Friday, 6.30am - 10pm; Saturday - Sunday, 7.30am - 10pm

Dream realised

Donal and Ailish have always had grand plans to have their own business and the dream was realised when they bought their first store in Tramore in 2006. It has been an impressive trajectory since then, adding three more Centra stores to the portfolio. Donal charts the journey, noting: “We opened Centra in Waterford in 2008 and then we bought our next store in Piltown in Kilkenny in 2010. Next, we completed number four in 2017 which was Centra Kilmeaden. It was never planned that we’d have four but it’s just the way it worked out.”

Store number four

The Kilmeaden store came about by chance when Donal met the previous owner of the store, a man called Bobby Byrne. “I met Bobby a few years previously through my brother Tommy and he spoke about retiring,” he recalls. “Then he rang me out of the blue a year later and said look, I’m thinking of selling. So we met on the Friday evening and again on the Monday and by the Wednesday we had a deal put together. I knew this was a great opportunity,” he says. When they bought it they did a mini

revamp but wanted to carry out more work to get it to the standard they wanted.

“The plan was to leave it alone for six months to a year and then plan the revamp because my experience from the others I had revamped was the worst thing you can do is go in on day one and do a big revamp as each of the stores are different,” he explains. “Instead, we spent a year there listening to customers about what type of shop they wanted.”

They learned that customers were happy with the range but they found the aisles quite tight. They also wanted a brighter store and more healthy options available. From this feedback, the team introduced a large health and wellness category and Green Kitchen. There was no off-licence in the store so they included an off-licence as well. Once they put that in it “just exploded”, according to Donal.

Revamp

Originally the revamp was to take four to six weeks starting in September 2020 but due to the extended lockdown after Christmas they finally completed it in May 2021 which is quite extraordinary considering the amount of disruption they endured. The Hicksons have revamped all of the stores and some of them twice so Donal says he doesn’t get too stressed about them as they are used to it and also the fact that himself and Ailish are in it together splits the workload and dilutes the stress.

Transforming the outside was as important to the Hicksons as the inside and it looks like no expense was spared. “We put a lovely stone cladding on the outside as my view is that the outside should always reflect the inside and sometimes a revamp doesn’t do that,” explains Donal. “We got the best of both worlds. It’s a very impressive shop when you drive past. I’m very pleased with how it turned out.” The whole job cost €600,000 resulting in the store turnover increasing by 60% compared with 2019 so it has been a phenomenal success story. Areas that have worked exceptionally well are the Moo’d ice-cream and Frank and Honest coffee. The deli is up 54% and the bakery is up 60%. “These were the areas that we couldn’t do properly before. We knew the business was there but we couldn’t capture it properly,” he explains.

With colourful and fun branding, Moo’d ice cream has proved a real hit with family shoppers Customer reaction

Getting a positive reaction from the customers was very important for the Hicksons as they really took into account their feedback in the design. “Of all the revamps I’ve done, this is definitely the one that has received the best reaction from the customers, probably because we built the store inspired by the customers,” says Donal. “They say they are proud to have it in the village and they love coming into it and they don’t need to go into town to shop now.”

They get a lot of custom from people using the new greenway which goes from Waterford down to Dungarvan with an entry point at Kilmeaden. Donal says that it is the best thing the council has ever done for the area.

Staff

You can’t run a successful store without great staff and Donal is quick to heap praise on theirs. They have 28 staff, 15 full-time and 13 part-time. Donal felt that finding the right manager would be key to the success of the business. They were delighted to appoint Fiona Purcell to the role and say that she has nurtured great customer service. “She’s the type of person that gets on well with everybody and is very well liked by the customers and staff but can still get the work done.

“What makes this store special is the great comradery there between staff and customers. It’s easy for me to put the fixtures and fittings there but it takes the staff to build the business up,” says Donal.

Unfortunately he is currently finding it difficult to recruit new staff. “At the moment we are having a problem getting staff,” he says. “We are coping at the moment as there are a lot of students but we’ll feel it when the students go back in September.”

Family and the future

Donal and Ailish have three children, two girls and a boy aged 20, 18 and 16. The girls already work in the shops part-time and his son will start to work this summer. Whether they will take over the business will be “down to themselves if they want it,” he says. “It would be nice to pass it on but all that matters is that they are doing something they like and are happy and healthy.” Unlike many retailers, the Hicksons make sure to take two days off each week and spend time with the kids enjoying the local outdoors and going to the gym.

So will there be a fifth or a sixth store for the Hicksons? “I’m not looking,” says Donal. “If something came along we might look at it but we’re happy where we are. Sometimes we can look beyond but it’s important to work on what you have and make that profitable. The two of us would be happy out if we never took on another store.”

He says there are a lot of changes coming down the line like the move from a minimum wage to a living wage which is going to be “challenging”. “Then we have inflation and waiting to see how interest rates will rise and a possible recession coming so there’s a lot there so I’m happy to keep an eye on the costs of the business and just enjoy what we have now.” ■