At the heart of the community

Sharon Leavy of Leavy’s Nearby in Westmeath sits down with Julia O’Reilly to discuss the big changes she has made to the longstanding Delvin store

Since opening the doors of Leavy’s Nearby on Main Street, Delvin, Co. Westmeath in August 2020, Sharon and David Leavy have continued to provide a personal service to customers old and new.

Delvin-native David Leavy was reared in retail. His parents owned a filling station and shop. Owning a shop of his own had always been a dream of his. His wife Sharon, who is originally from Co. Clare, settled in the village back in the 90s: “I was a blow in as they say,” she tells ShelfLife “I spent 25 years in financial services. We happened upon this shop through a great deal of luck.

“This was our local store for years,” she adds. “Back in May 2020 I saw there was a note hanging in the shop from its owner Michael Leonard, saying he’d be retiring in two months. Well, I went straight home to David and I said: “Now’s your chance to own your own shop”.

“We approached Michael about it, and he was just brilliant. He offered us the kind of deal we really couldn’t refuse, and so we took over when he closed up at the end of July.”

Between adapting to Covid-19 protocols and learning the ropes of running their own store, the Leavys had a lot to learn after they were handed the keys, but Leonard had a wealth of knowledge that he shared with the pair

“Michael was living in a residence at the back of the shop at the time. He was an absolute lifesaver in the early days. He helped us morning and night for the first week. After that we started to really stand on our own two feet.”

Big changes

Once they were running the show, the Leavys started to make big changes. First on their list was the opening hours.

“Previously the store was open from 9am to 6pm, and it closed from 1pm to 2pm for lunch. On Sundays, it opened for an hour after mass so people could get the papers. From word go, we were open from 8am to 8pm Monday to Saturday, and 9am to 6pm on a Sunday. We wanted to be there for the customers and be the community hub for Delvin.”

Nearby advantages

A few wholesalers were keen to get the Leavys on board, but it was S&W Wholesale who ultimately won them over As Leavy says: “Everything about them just appealed to us. From the product offering to prices, and the entire team. We knew from the start that S&W were the right fit for us.”

“I’d like to give special thanks to Stephen Vincent from S&W for his support and help.

Stephen is our business development manager for the shop and has been an outstanding source of information and help to us from the get go. The whole Nearby Ireland retail team are truly brilliant, and Stephen’s weekly calls let us know he’s truly there when we need him.”

Staffing

Today, the store has seven part-time workers. The local post office, which the family also operates from their store, has one full-time employee, and Leavy herself serves as postmaster

All their staff are “local, known within the community, and hard workers,” says Leavy. “We haven’t had the same issues with finding and retaining staff that many retailers have had. We’re blessed in that way.”

What’s Leavy’s approach to managing staff? “I always say ‘have fun, but get the job done’. We have good craic to be honest. I think the customers feel that when they come into the shop. The other day I had a customer tell me that he can come in here in bad humour and he’ll always leave in good humour To me, that’s the biggest compliment.”

Major renovation

In July 2022, the Leavys did a full renovation. New flooring, shelving, refrigeration – the works. While the store was initially going to close for a period for the renovation to go ahead, Leavy was insistent that wouldn’t work.

“We’re the only shop in the village. We keep bread for people. We keep newspapers for people. You could nearly set your clock by the time certain people come into the shop. And of course, we’d have to keep the post office open. We just couldn’t close.”

Instead, the Nearby retail team set up a temporary shop at the back of the unit.

“I have to say a huge thank you to the team at Nearby for all their help. I’d brought in extra staff for the job, but Nearby did everything for us. And I mean everything. They unloaded the shelves and took down the old shelving. They even put a gazebo outside and it was like a little market. We had tables of fruit, veg and bread. It was good fun, and it allowed us to fly through the renovations. All in all, they took less than a week with the disruption kept to a minimum. Our customers really appreciated the efforts that were put in place during this time and it’s really paying off now.”

Modernising

Creating changes without isolating regular customers can be a hard line to walk. While the renovations were a long time coming, Leavy says some of the locals were initially hesitant about the works.

“Michael bought the shop back in the 1990s. He changed things around a wee bit, but not a lot. When we came in, it had barely been touched in 30 years.

“People like routine. We have customers that have been coming into our store forever and they know exactly where everything is. We weren’t exactly sure how they’d take the change to a more modern shop, but we knew that we wanted to get the younger generation in too.”

For the Leavys, it appears the risk has paid off: “Thankfully though, from day one we’ve seen our sales increase and the customer feedback has been so positive; especially on the new internal graphics and value offering.”

New offerings

As well as the physical changes to the store’s appearance, the Leavys made several additions to the store’s product offering. The shop now boasts everything from essential groceries and household supplies, to ice-creams, wine, and freshly brewed coffee.

Wine was the biggest change, says Leavy, as the store now runs its very own wine club.

“Everyone that buys wine from the store is invited to join the club. We get a wine rep to come in and they do tastings, they talk about the wines and get people familiar with the different varieties. Then, they have the members vote on which bottle we should start selling in the shop. It’s a nice community participation exercise. Thanks to the club, we’ve seen our wine sales jump 67%.”

Community player

Community engagement is important to the Leavys. “The one thing we wanted to do when we opened was deal locally where possible. Our fruit and veg man is local. One of our bakers is local. Another is a lady who works for us who is a qualified chef. She brings in brown bread and scones and the likes to sell in the shop.

“She used to keep the bread wrapped up, but then one morning, it was too hot, and she was in a hurry, so she left it out in a basket. Customers started enquiring about the smell of fresh bread, and within an hour, it was sold out. We’ve done the same ever since and the customers can’t get enough.”

“We’re big into supporting small businesses. Even the baskets we put the bread in are made by a local weaver,” she continues.

To Leavy, serving the community is what this work is all about. “On our social media, we promote things that are going on locally We also sponsor the local camogie team, which my daughter Emily is part of. We support local charities like the Delvin Hospice and the local Temple Street fundraiser. We’re currently fundraising for the RNLI. What we want is for this shop to be the hub of the community.”

The local shop is important to people, she adds. “We’ve tried to create an environment that people want to be in. A shop should feel fun and safe and clean. There should be a variety of products at good prices. People shouldn’t feel rushed. Our customers know that we’re here for a chat if they need it. We’re here for a laugh, to listen to people and to support them when they need it. It’s all part of the job.” ■

In January, TD Neale Richmond was appointed as Minister of State at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment with special responsibility for Employment Affairs and Retail Business and the Department of Social Protection.