‘We are all desperately trying to survive and stay positive’
PATSY ROGERS, chef and co-owner of the Nutshell, gave an insight into what it’s like to be a business owner in New Ross today during the meeting when she described how retailers are in survival mode.
‘ The immediate problem in the town as retailers is how to survive while we are waiting on all of this development to happen. We are all desperately trying to survive and stay positive and we are very much behind everything that the council are doing. It’s all absolutely fantastic and it’s probably the one thread that’s keeping us all going: the future, but we have to get from here to there and I know that there is a worry, a genuine worry from people: will they able to sustain their businesses.’
Ms Rogers asked for advice from Ed Murphy of Invest Wexford as to how to stay positive, and to improve their businesses and to put out the message to prospective investors that when they look at the businesses in the town that they want to be part of that and want to invest in New Ross. Mr Murphy said: ‘Retailers should quickly come up with something unique, something new. I do think you need to work your butt off on something different and new, for instance can you prove you are the friendliest town in Ireland? Can you say 80 per cent of the shops in the town have done customer service training to prove that you have the best trained customer service people in Ireland? You need to do your uniqueness inside your own door as well.’
Chamber President Sean Reidy said he had heard rumours the Nutshell was going to close. ‘Last week Patsy handed him a blueprint for the future of the town, suggesting New Ross could become a carbon neutral town. She identified shops that should be on South Street that are not there, including a master butchers and a green grocers.’
Garage owner Nick Cashin suggested a brand is needed for the town and a lady in the audience said New Ross is ideally placed to brand itself as Ireland’s Norman town in the same way Waterford has owned the Viking brand with its Viking Triangle. ‘ The
Kennedy brand is already there; it is done you can’t really do much more with it. You already have a bridge named after it,’ she said, arguing that the Norman Way can do a lot for New Ross.
Mr Murphy said branding is important but ‘We can attract five, six, seven companies to New Ross in the next year; without any brands, without any university, it’s actually just a sales job. We can go and meet people in Dublin, in London or around the world and use the connections we have and we can bring hundreds, maybe thousands of jobs to New Ross just through selling, nothing else. So any people want to come up with sexy brochures or websites or universities it’s a pure sell job. Everybody here knows somebody who knows somebody is in a position of leadership or influence or power in a company around the world and all we need is to chase those leads and push them through and make the happen and they will come.’