This article is from page 2 of the 2013-03-12 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 2 JPG
JOHN O’DWYER’S Builders Providers and DIY Store in Kilrush is to close its doors at the end of the month with the loss of seven of the eight jobs.
Owner, John O’Dwyer described as “rotten” the realisation that he had to close the store on the Cooraclare Road, six months after the Ennis store ceased trading.
He said that some of the staff were with him for more than 10 years and had worked at the Quilty store, making the decision all the more difficult.
The hardware store owner did not attribute the reason for the drop in business, which led to the store’s closures, solely to the drop in the building sector.
“The general spend of our customers is down, even in paint and white goods. So much has gone out of people’s household budgets, and the weekend trade which was once very busy has been down significantly,” he said.
“The weekend trade has been affected. We were a good employer one time. Three years ago, we had 52 staff. At the end of March, we will have just 18 staff members left,” he said.
Mr O’Dwyer said that all vouchers and guarantees from the Kilrush store will be honoured at the Miltown Malbay store and customers should not be concerned.
He added the Miltown Malbay store will continue to trade, looking after customers not only in that area but also customers from Kilrush and Ennis.
“When we closed Ennis, we managed to keep a lot of our customer base, and delivered directly to them. We hope to keep our Kilrush base by providing the same value delivery service,” he said.
Optimistic about the future, Mr O’Dwyer said that the company owns both buildings in Ennis and Kilrush, “so if things pick up, we look forward to opening them again.”
The seven staff at the Kilrush store were given a month’s notice that the shop is to close on March 30.