START OF A NEW ERA FOR SMYTH’S ARRO
MAJOR STATE-OF-THE-ART EXTENSION LINKS RAFTER STREET AND WAFER STREET STORES
A new era was well and truly ushered in at Smyth’s Arro in Enniscorthy last week as Dermot and Betty Kavanagh officially opened the doors on their major new shop extension which joins up their homeware store on Rafter Street to Wafer Street. A huge development, the store has an impressive new facade facing into the carpark and when you step inside you are confronted with a huge new store which contains almost everything you’d want for your home under one roof - from paint and wallpaper to garden furniture and tools.
Having operated Smyth’s Arro from Rafter Street for nearly 40 years, the store is really one of Enniscorthy town centre’s success stories, having resisted any temptation to move to another site outside of town as many others would have done during the boom. Dermot and Betty also had to weather the bad times of recession, but thankfully they’ve come out the other side of it and it was realisation of a dream as they welcomed customers into the new state of the art store on Wednesday morning.
‘ This was always our plan or our goal,’ said a beaming Dermot. ‘When we bought the site seven or eight years ago, it was in bad times really. But we just kept the head down and worked at it and we were determined to get it to this level. Our plan was to make this one of the finest shops of its kind and I think we’ve succeeded to that end.’
It seems like a relatively short time since the hoarding went up around the shop back in February and work got started on the project, but Betty explains it was thankfully a relatively quick process.
‘I suppose it was around 18 months ago that we first started to sit down and look at making a plan,’ she said. ‘ There’s been a lot of hard work in between from all of us and particularly our son Jack, who has gone away travelling to Vietnam. He was a great help and we couldn’t have done it without him.’
The build was a real local effort with all contractors coming from the local area. McKealan construction from Macamine were responsible for the build, while the shop was designed by Kavanagh Architecture on Mill Park Road. Mark Tyrell of Katlan Construction Consultants acted as Project Manager while all electrical work was done by Robert Hassey. ‘It was always our goal to use local contractors in the build as well,’ Dermot said. ‘And we couldn’t be happier with the finished product. It was our goal to create a nice atmosphere for shoppers to walk around and browse and feel comfortable looking around the store. It’s been a manic few days getting everything ready and putting the finishing touches to it, but I think it’s all been worth it. We’ve had wonderful feedback so far and it’s been very busy.’
A total of three new employees have already started at the store and Dermot says that this will likely increase as he looks to extend his opening hours to Sundays over the next few months.