Hardware & Homestyle News
group had an eye on the threat of potential competition that might arise in the area. ‘You are always looking at potential competition,’ he explains, showing that typical attention to detail and awareness that has served Bandon Co-op so well. ‘There was a mixture of reasons for the development.’ ‘The focus,’ says Michael, ‘has been to attract town dwellers.’ This focus has been reflected in different ways across the organisation. ‘We changed our logo a few years ago,’ adds Michael, by way of example. ‘The logo had a very agricultural feel so we adapted it to suit our expanding market and customer base.’ In 2012 a revamped store was opened at the Kinsale site. The result was a trebling in size of the retail area there.
National Hardware
Bandon Co-op teamed up with National Hardware in 2005. Becoming a member of that group meant that it could benefit from the supply network and top class marketing expertise that National Hardware has to offer. Borrowing a theme from the earliest days of the cooperative movement, joining National Hardware made economic sense. ‘The alliance with National Hardware started at a time when we felt that to grow the business to the next stage we had to be part
July•August 2013
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