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STORE PROFILE
Spar Ashford opened its doors to the public in March this year after two years of Covid associated delays. Now, the owners Cal Lynam and Brendan Bernes are determined to make it a success and early signs are positive for this impressive looking store, writes Fionnuala Carolan
Sparring partners T
hey say you shouldn’t mix business with pleasure but Brendan Bernes and Cal Lynam prove that going into business with your friend can actually work very well. The two men grew up together in Finglas, Co. Dublin and have worked alongside each other for over seven years now. Both seem to have similar drive and ambition and yet don’t seem to take themselves too seriously, which might be the secret to their success. They both started in retail at age 16 while in school by working part-time in a local shop and then went their separate ways with Lynam taking a retail manager job and Bernes working with one of the big fuel companies. Lynam, who is currently on the National Council of Spar Retailers, opened his first store, Spar Bolton Street back in 2007 and owns two other Spar stores - Spar Mulhuddart and Spar Riverside Mulhuddart. Bernes worked with him for years as an area manager of his stores but Spar Ashford is their first fully joint venture. “I came in with Cal about six years ago and the aim was to get my own store,” explains Bernes. “I was looking to franchise and Cal had taken on a couple of Spar stores in Mulhuddart along with Spar Bolton Street so he offered me an area manager position over the three stores.” Within the first year of being in that role, Bernes won the ShelfLife Small C-Store of
the Year Manager in 2017 which he feels put the Mulhuddart store on the map. “There was a great team there. It [the win] was a really good thing for the community and it helped the store,” says Bernes. According to Lynam, the ShelfLife Grocery Manager Award also put Brendan on the radar of Triode Newhill, the franchising arm of BWG. “An opportunity came up for a multi-site deal with a forecourt,” he recalls. “With Brendan being a brand-new operator and it being a multi-site deal, they asked would we go in together and operate them as a partnership and run my stores and Brendan’s new stores as one big group. So that all kicked off and started at the end of 2019 and then Covid hit. Like many businesses around the country, Covid put the brakes on all building work. It was a complete full stop for eight months.”
Covid Their mix of neighbourhood and city centre stores was both a blessing and a curse during Covid. While business was booming in the Mulhuddart stores, things ground to a halt in the city centre. “It was chalk and cheese,” remembers Bernes. “All city centre stores were on their knees for the best part of two years so trying to manage that and retain staff was not a good situation. Then in Mulhuddart business grew by about 15/20% and you couldn’t get enough staff to run the place. We were looking at staff shortages there.”
Co-owners and firm friends Cal Lynam and Brendan Bernes both started in retail at age 16 while in school by working part-time in a local shop
ShelfLife June 2022 | www.shelflife.ie
“We moved the manager of Spar Bolton Street over to Spar Mulhuddart and Cal himself stepped into the Bolton Street store. It wasn’t a good stage in anyone’s business life but we kept the team and the place open. Spar Bolton Street is pretty much back to normal now. It was like turning the lights back on when the students came back,” he reveals. The two men credit BWG for helping them keep the doors open in Spar Bolton Street. “I can honestly say the only reason we are still here is because of BWG,” says Bernes. “The support they have given us has been off the charts. If something goes wrong, we just make a phone call and everything gets sorted,” he says. “There were stages when myself and Cal thought we weren’t going to get to open the Ashford store at all but once restrictions were lifted, it was all go and we were open and trading and that was thanks to BWG and Newhill in particular,” adds Bernes.
New store After two years of false starts, finally Spar Ashford was opened on 10 March this year. This new Spar forecourt is located in the centre of the village. There had been an old fuel station on the site which had been closed for ten years so the regeneration was welcomed by the locals when the old building was demolished and a brand new facility was built in its place.
The store’s appetising Spar deli is ideal for dashboard diners and day trippers visiting nearby amenities like Mount Usher Gardens, Ashford Studios and local cycling routes
