Store profile: Centra Retailer Ian Coughlan tells Gillian Hamill

Despite the challenges posed by the Covid-19 crisis, year-to-date sales are up by a huge 55% at Centra Kilcoole. Here, retailer Ian Coughlan tells Gillian Hamill how a stylish new revamp has bolstered his store, which together with volunteers from the local GAA club, played a blinder in organising deliveries to the elderly and vulnerable during lockdown

Community champions

Maintaining double digit growth throughout an extensive renovation is an impressive achievement for any retailer. Not only has Centra Kilcoole managed this, but the timing of the store’s recent revamp has also proved fortuitous, with the majority of the work being completed before the onset of lockdown. Nevertheless, the pandemic obviously caused uncertainty for all retailers when then Taoiseach Leo Varadkar made his first Covid-19 announcement back in March, and Centra Kilcoole’s owner Ian Coughlan was no different in this regard.

“We had about 90% of our revamp done [when the restrictions were introduced], so it was a bit of a worrying time,” he tells ShelfLife. Fortunately, despite closing the deli for around six weeks to help ensure social distancing in-store, Coughlan is nevertheless able to report that year-to-date sales are up by an impressive 55%. This is due to both the

STOREPROFILE Retailer:Ian Coughlan Address:Centra Kilcoole, Main Street, Cooldross Upper, Kilcoole, Co. Wicklow, A63 E9N Staff:30: 18 full-time and 12 part-time Size:7,200sqft including office/storage space and 5,400sqft ofretail space

stylish renovation attracting more customers, more frequently and a rise in sales following the closure of restaurants and pubs during lockdown. During the deli’s temporary closure, staff were redeployed onto the shop floor to help manage queues.

Careful consideration

Undoubtedly, strong planning and teamwork has helped Centra Kilcoole to navigate all the myriad challenges posed by Covid-19. In a similar fashion, although Coughlan first bought the store some two-and-a-half years ago, instead of simply diving headfirst into a

Retailer Ian Coughlan is upbeat about the future

renovation, he put a lot of thought into exactly what he wanted the outcome to achieve and this approach has definitely paid off. “The benefit of running the store for two years before we did the revamp,” he says, “was that I knew which areas I wanted to concentrate on and which areas I felt we could get most growth out of.”

The renovation involved renting two units next door to the original shop and expanding into those, which potentially made it all the more of a daunting decision. Thankfully, Coughlan says he received “excellent” support and advice from Musgrave in turning the initial concept into a reality. “It was probably well over a year in the pipeline before we did the revamp,” he says. “We had to make a decision; it was a big additional cost to take on two additional units; we had to look at the cost of rent and weigh all that up. “worked closely with Musgrave’s project manager Patrick Stanley who has carried out our last three or four store [renovations] with us, so we work very well together,” he adds, alongside praising regional managers Peter Flanagan and Fiona Leavy for their invaluable support and advice.

Centra Kilcoole traded right throughout its revamp and was able to maintain double digit growth

Long-standing relationship

In fact, the Coughlans have a long-standing relationship with Musgrave, “going back 35 years” when Ian’s father first opened a SuperValu store. “It’s always been a brand that we’ve worked with and chosen,” he says. There are currently six Centra stores across the family’s portfolio which are separately owned by Ian and his two brothers Mark and Damian, with Ian himself in charge of the reins at Centra Drimnagh, as well as at Kilcoole. The other Centra stores in the group are all Dublin-based which gives Ian a slightly different perspective, given that he runs a village-based store in Kilcoole. “It’s a little bit different,” he says. “It’s nice being in a village where you get to know the customer that bit more whereas in Dublin we’d have more transient customers that are in and out of the shop. We have more daytime customers here in the village.” Coughlan has subsequently gotten to know his customers well, particularly some of the older people in the village and he greatly enjoys this aspect of the business.

“Something that we would be concentrating hugely on here would be customer service,” he continues. “I absolutely believe in customer service and interaction between our customers and our staff. That would be our point of difference; we engage with the customers and especially some of our older customers who were nervous during Covid.”

One-stop-shop

Indeed the lockdown period demonstrated to the locals in Kilcoole that they didn’t need to travel to fulfil all their grocery needs: they could do their full weekly shop at Centra Kilcoole. “What we’re saying to people is that you don’t necessarily have to go to the supermarket; you can get everything you want here,” says Coughlan. “We’ve seen a substantial increase in trolley shops which is great and that’s down to our better offering that we’re giving people. We have a very good choice here.”

Going into further detail on this, Coughlan explains that grab-and-go produce is located at the front of the store, and the deli with hot and cold self-serve stations takes centre-stage. The Centra boasts 5m fridges containing a

Whereas previously, the store was “long and narrow”, the renovation has since optimised the available space, which according to retailer Ian Coughlan, “gives the illusion that it’s much wider than it is”

range of meal solutions and ready-prepared meals. “That works for us,” says Coughlan, “because we are a commuter village, so when people are coming home and don’t feel like cooking, we have a solution there for them.”

Something for everyone

The store also features an enticing ‘Green Kitchen’ concept, a fresh salad bar concept proving to be a real draw for health-conscious shoppers. “Our hot and cold salad bars are both flying for us,” adds Coughlan. “We find there’s a bit of something there for everybody every day,” he notes. “When you’re eating on your own or eating on-the-go, it can be hard to get that healthy option so that’s going very well for us.”

Coughlan is likewise confident that the store can offer a strong value-for-money proposition for customers. “We would really push the Centra leaflet and all those offers,” he tells ShelfLife. “We also try and deliver some local offers as well.” “It’s not just about special offers,” adds Coughlan. “We provide a different offering; it’s a fresh offering and we’re supporting local as well. We’ve tied that

In partnership with local bakery, Gran Clarke’s Fine Irish Bakery, the store delivers a panoply of appetising freshly baked goodies

in very well with the Centra promotions and we think they’ve married very well together.”

Community teamwork

This emphasis on local is also very much reflected in the store’s involvement with the community in Kilcoole; an aspect of the shop which very much came to the fore during the Covid-19 crisis. “We sponsor the Tidy Towns initiative, the local sports clubs, the GAA club and soccer club. The GAA club were excellent during the Covid crisis,” says Coughlan. In fact, volunteers from the GAA club set up a special phone number for people to send in their orders to Centra Kilcoole and worked with staff to both get the orders ready and help deliver them. “At the height of Covid, it probably took a lot of pressure and worry off people who didn’t want to be coming out,” says Coughlan. “The GAA club were excellent in working with us on that and it’s great to be part of that community.”

Now, says Coughlan, “the plans for the future are to keep building on what we have and I am very confident that the future is bright ifwe keep our focus on what the customer wants!” ■