20 STORE PROFILE
Founder and manager of Barnhill Stores in Dalkey, Dave Whelan is a well-seasoned retailer having previously owned eight convenience stores before taking the plunge and creating his own brand that has gone above and beyond all his expectations. Fionnuala Carolan reports
Sales at Barnhill Stores in Dalkey are up 100% on last year
Optimum convenience W
hile still attending school, Dave Whelan began a part-time job in the old H Williams supermarket in Killiney, south county Dublin and subsequently he left school to start working full-time in retail. After a decade working as a manager for a number of SuperValu and Centra stores he bought his own Centra store in Bray in 1999. Within a few years he had accumulated eight stores along the M11 including a second in Bray, two in Tinahealy, one in Greystones, Gorey, Ballybrack and finally Dalkey. Running eight stores eventually took its toll and Whelan knew it was time for a radical change of pace which culminated in Barnhill Stores in Dalkey. So what triggered the decision to change tack and leave Centra behind? “We weren’t playing to our market here in Dalkey,” he says. “I knew I could create something special. I was 49, I had three young kids and I decided that before I was 50 I wanted to make a change and not be running around between so many shops.” As part of a lifestyle choice he decided to sell the Centra businesses back to
Barnhill Stores features an impressive offlicence section, where John Hoade is the resident wine enthusiast
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STORE PROFILE
Retailer: Dave Whelan Address: 11-12 Barnhill Road, Dalkey, Dublin, A96 F789 Staff: 60 staff; 20 full-time and 40 part-time Size: 5,000sq ft Opening hours: Monday – Sunday: 7:30am-9pm
Musgrave. “I wanted to spend more time with my kids and we wanted to develop a local store and the community here lends itself to that,” he explains. His wife Karen and three daughters supported his decision to go it alone and he says they are very proud of the brand he has created.
Super suppliers Barnhill Stores is a 5,000 square foot bespoke store, which officially opened in February 2021 and is packed to the brim with the best produce there is on the market. This involves partnerships with suppliers such as Two Fifty Square Coffee, Naomi’s Kitchen, George’s Fish Shop, FX Buckley Butchers, Rustic Honey Baker and Unique Flowers. “Our vision was never to be the person that created everything because we want the experts in each field to do that and we bring it all together in the shop,” he says. “If you try to do too much and fail you could kill your brand in an instant.” He describes himself as a hands-on retailer who likes to be on the floor and do back office work at night. The store is managed by Whelan’s long-standing staff member Mikey O’Brien, with Aoife Peare as assistant manager and John Hoade as the resident wine
enthusiast. Anndrea Carydias, previously a chef for Avoca, is the fresh goods innovation manager and curates all the fresh food in-store. Whelan feels he has a really strong team delivering his vision. Whelan’s experience of dealing with the public and his understanding of the convenience model has benefited him greatly and allowed him to create a very unique brand. He explains that he has been on a journey to bring this luxury convenience model to life and uses the example of how he sells hummus to demonstrate this. “We get our hummus from Lilliput Trading Company,” he says. “They wanted us to take a big wooden barrel and put it in our deli. We are a high-end on the move convenience store. Our customers don’t have time to spend all day waiting at the deli counter. I told them (Lilliput Trading Company) that I wanted to do hummus in a pot which is not how they would traditionally supply it. We now sell over 500 pots of hummus a week,” he says. Whelan has witnessed many of his suppliers thrive during Covid because they seized new
From salads to sandwiches, free range rotisserie chicken and savoury delights, the deli department prides itself on using only the freshest, seasonal ingredients every day
