'We wanted our food to be the hero'

We wanted our food to be the hero,” says Niall Heffernan. “Not us.”

And once the waft of fresh-baked spelt bread and treacle soda tickles your nose, there’s little doubt that’s the status quo at The Food Store, Claremorris.

From Green Saffron spices and sugarcraft roses, to €10 meal deals, all appetites are satisfied. There’s local kale and baby spinach. Claremorris honey and free-range eggs. Jars of cola cubes and cough sweets. Baskets of clementines and bottles of apple juice.

Even a sandwich is a labour of love.

“The meat is off my meat counter and cooked by our deli. The coleslaw is made fresh by us. The potato salad is cooked here. The bread is baked in our bakery,” says Niall.

“We make about 200 products every day between the bakery, butchery and deli – and all those things make us unique.”

Which might explain why The Food Store beat over 600 entries last November to win National Store of the Year 2013. Yet, when Niall and his wife Attracta opened their first shop 25 years ago, they were told it wouldn’t last six months.

Butcher Boy

The couple met in 1982 at a Barry Sinclair hypnosis show.

“I paid Barry Sinclair to send her down to me,” laughs Niall.

They married in 1985. While Niall’s family were butchers in Ballina since 1900, he decided to open his own shop in Attracta’s hometown of Claremorris in 1988 – despite being refused funds by three banks.

“There were seven or eight butchers in Claremorris and a lot of people felt we wouldn’t last,” says Niall.

“Some people gave us six months,” adds Attracta. “But we had no fear.”

Eventually securing a modest loan to lease equipment, Niall opened as a one-man operation, while Attracta – who was working full-time – rolled her hours into a four-day week to help out on Fridays, Saturdays and even Sundays.

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“At weekends, we’d sleep on a mattress over the shop,” recalls Niall.

“There was a cold room beside us and the motor was going off every few minutes, and there was a nightclub across the road, so you could hear the fighting and roaring at three o’clock in the morning.”

Insomnia aside, the Heffernans won business by consistently raising the bar, offering home-cooked meats, salads and customer-friendly cuts.

“My father was a great butcher,” says Niall, “so I learned how to seam beef, and rather than just having a big cut of round, we’d have silver side, we’d have topside – we were the first ones in Claremorris to start doing that.”

Their family grew with the shop. Sarah arrived in 1989 (“I’m almost as old as the business,” she laughs), Simon in 1990 and Shauna in 2001.

In 1998, they rebranded as The Food Store, with an in-house bakery, deli and meat counter. But to secure funding to buy their own premises they had to sell their home, which was built on Attracta’s father’s farm.

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“I hated telling him because he had given us this site,” she recalls. “But he just said: ‘The best of luck to you.’”

Overcoming

Obstacles

The Heffernans took another leap by opening a second outlet in Silverbridge shopping centre in 2007. However, the year before, Attracta had started to complain of back pain, and went for an MRI.

“I thought it was a trapped nerve,” she recalls, but the scan revealed a malignant tumour in her spine. Two serious surgeries were then scheduled.

As the Heffernans decided to seek a second opinion, they were contacted by a man with a relic of St Therese.

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Whatever made the difference, new tests revealed the cancer was not as advanced, though Attracta still needed radiotherapy and had to learn to walk again after her operations.

She spent three months recovering in the Mater Hospital, with Niall travelling between Mayo and Dublin. The Food Store staff were truly supportive, managing the business during this difficult period.

But determined to turn the experience into something positive after finishing her treatment, Attracta began researching the effects of diet and nutrition in relation to cancer, with The Food Store developing an organic fruit and vegetable range, and many other healthy options, as a result.

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Another outcome is that Niall now devotes at least one week every year to charity work.

“I made a promise to God that if Attracta recovered I would do this, so since 2007 I have travelled to South Africa every year with the Niall Mellon Township Trust,” he says.

“In many ways it was a terrible time. But in many other ways it was a great time because we learned a lot. We got a lot stronger.”

Which is perhaps why they were undeterred when the recession reared its ugly head.

“We felt the best way to deal with the recession was to try and not take part in it,” says Niall. “To do that, we had to reinvent ourselves.”

Part of their strategy was offering promotions, with the mantra: “Good food is not a luxury.”

“So if you said: ‘10 lamb chops for a tenner,’ people would say: ‘Wow, that would normally be €20,’” says Niall.

“It meant we had to work harder and obviously we had to say to our suppliers: ‘We’re going to be selling twice as much of this, so I need a bargain.’ But we grew through the recession.”

Store of the Year

Indeed, staff numbers have risen to 42, the bakery now supplies 11 Corrib Oil garages, while Niall estimates that turnover has grown 12% to 15% since a €70,000 rebranding exercise – inspired by a “chance” meeting with Fergal Quinn, who was filming his TV show in Claremorris.

“I stalked him,” jokes Niall. “But he called in after filming and spent three-quarters of an hour here chatting, and he said to me: ‘How come I’ve never heard of you?’”

“I thought: ‘Here’s a man who is at the pulse of retail in Ireland and I’m the big eejit who has been here for about 20 years and nobody knows about me. We have to get the branding and the marketing right.’”

Working with a Bord Bia mentor and branding company, the Heffernans took a hard look at everything from their logo to their shop layout, opting for a traditional country style – culminating in a total refit – from flooring to signage – which they completed in just seven nights.

“And we never closed, not even for an hour,” says Attracta.

It paid off. Not only did they win Good Food Ireland’s Local Food Shop of the Year 2012, it was also named Store of the Year 2013 by Retail Excellence Ireland.

But Niall and Attracta can still be found on the shop floor, Sarah on social media, Simon behind the meat counter at weekends; and Shauna keeping everyone in-line.

The Heffernans always wanted their food to be the “hero”.

But they might have to get used to sharing the spotlight.