New showcase convenience store and forecourt for King’s Gala
IFCR talks to Brian King on the new showcase convenience store and forecourt in County Wicklow, and gets the full story on the new look Gala forecourt.
Congratulating Brian on the new show case forecourt in Wicklow, IFCR asked for a run down on the forecourt – what was involved in developing the new site from inception to completion?
“Back in 2018, I spotted the opportunity for the development of a new site in Wicklow town. The site was actually owned by Tesco and had a small convenience store, with a couple of pumps and office space upstairs. In late 2019, we acquired the site and work commenced on our seventh site in Wicklow town in 2020,” said Brian.
“I worked alongside our Retail Manager, Tom Hardiman, to develop the interiors and mix of offerings in the retail store. As we already had some excellent concepts in our other six sites which we knew were successful with our customers, we were keen to incorporate these to the new Wicklow site.
“During the in-store planning stage, we also benefitted from the advice and support of Gala Retail’s Ray Conboy, our Retail Operations Executive, Ben McGinn, Gala’s Fresh Food Manager and Peter Williams and Robert Davis from 4 Aces / BWG Wholesale. Throughout the process, we worked hand in hand with Fit All Shopfitters and Buggy Refrigeration who played a vital role in helping us with the creation of the store.
Then along came Covid…
“Our plan was a pre-Easter opening and the build had been going very well. We were on track for our initial opening date but then Covid arrived which put a stop to all activity. We arrived back onsite in early May, with the goal of opening the site before the end of August.
“We worked with our contractors to ensure all Covid-19 guidelines were adhered to throughout the build, and our builders were very accommodating, even working through their traditional holidays in August to help us meet our opening date.
King’s Gala Wicklow opened its doors on 19th August”.
To read the full King’s Gala profile in our latest FREE digital issue here.
