RN March09Shop Profile ●
Mace Magic in Dublin Michael Scully’s Mace on Dublin’s South Circular Road has been transformed from a small corner shop into a shining example of modern convenience retailing.
Michael
Scully grew up working around the retail sector. Like many retailers of his generation, he worked with a number of multiple groups, acquiring experience as he did so, eventually working his way up to store manager. For 14 years now, he has owned his own shop on Dublin’s South Circular Road. He joined with the Mace group 11 years ago, and today he is still extremely positive about this long-standing partnership. “Right from the start, I had a great working relationship with Mace,” Michael explains. “At the time, the economy was really taking off and the symbol groups were transforming the grocery and convenience retail sector. The pace of development both in the economy and in the grocery sector was so quick.” In terms of expanding his shop, Michael had Pictured outside Mace, South Circular Road, Dublin, are Michael Scully, always been frustrated by its location as a corstore owner, and John Tully, Mace Regional Operations Advisor. ner shop. There was only one possible place to expand to, the adjacent house. After a great deal of persistence, Michael was able to purchase the house last development involved increasing the back office space, next door and undertake the largest redevelopment that stock area and the shop. It also enabled me to install the the little corner shop had ever seen. What was once a small, most up to date image from Mace,” he explains. “In short, it badly-lit 400 square feet corner shop is now a glittering completely transformed the business and opened up a huge 1,400 square feet modern grocery retail outlet. amount of potential trade that I could begin to target. He describes the redevelopment as “a very involved process. Mace and myself worked very closely together to Worthwhile Investment come up with the layout of the new interior. John Tully and Even in these more difficult trading times, Michael is still myself spent hours tinkering with the design. Even for a confident that his investment has been worthwhile. “The retailer with my experience, it was extremely valuable to have that kind of advice to take advantage of. I also received extremely good advice on the new elements to be included as part of the latest image. I had always been happy with the coffee offering in the shop, until we opened the doors after the revamp with the new Bess Eaton coffee dock offering coffee and treats: I was genuinely surprised at just how much trade that one change generated.” The coffee machine is just one of many massive changes in the shop. The increased size provided space for a much larger deli, an off-licence was included for the first time, alongside an ATM, while the ambient grocery space was increased considerably. Of course, one of the most important 16