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A new Mace convenience store has opened on Monaghan Street in Newry offering groceries, hot and cold deil, coffee to go, newspapers and lottery as well as Post Office facilities.
Employing twelve to fifteen people Mace Monaghan Street occupies the former Savage Newsagents site.
The business is owned by Colm Devlin from Washing Bay, County Tyrone and managed by Newry Man Leo Carroll. Devlin also runs stores in Newtownhamilton and Crossmaglen, with the Newry store being his latest venture in the grocery business.
The 2000 sq ft store opened 2 August and it caters for everyone from Tech students, to people coming in to get their pension, to people looking hot food on the go. "We've got the hot food there, we've got the grocery store. We're just trying to cater to everybody." explains Devlin.
The premises are owned by Jim McQuillan and they have been recently rennovated. The ground floor has been leased to Devlin, and McQuillan intends to lease the second and third floors for office retail space.
Speaking about the shop facilities Devlin said "We have a good offering in store with Frank and Honest Coffee, the island of Ireland's number one selling coffee! We have hot and cold Deli. It's there for convenience - You're in, you're out in no time!
"We offer a good range of groceries and all your basics, milk, bread, biscuits. Lottery is here, Paypoint's here, all the normal stuff you'd expect to get in a grocery convenience store." Also because they are part of the Musgrave Group an emphasis is put on local suppliers.
Devlin adds "People nowadays can tell you more about coffee that they can wine. Frank and Honest is a big big brand. It's big, big business. Our coffee would probably be up there with anywhere else you could find in Newry, if not better. Our hot and cold Deli is something that was required. Yes you have the sit-in Deli Lites and all those brilliant places, but to grab and go, this is ideal! A five piece breakfast, we do that at £2.50, you can take it with you and eat it on the go. People are nowadays eating in vans, eating in cars, everybody's busy."
The Deli provides a full breakfast menu till around eleven when it's followed by lunches. On Sundays take out dinners will be on offer.
When in operation Savages was a very convenient shop to call in for your newspaper, and now that's back with the new Mace providing a full offering of Irish papers and the tabloids, as well as magazines.
Devlin is in the process of taking over the Monaghan Street Post Office located on the premises. As he explains, it's a handy facility to cater for your day to day banking needs as well as all the other Post Office services.
"I'm also the Postmaster at the two Post Offices in the other shops. The Post Office has now become vital to the community because there's banks closing everywhere.
"Banks are doing less and less. Banks don't want to see you, lets be totally honest. I think the key thing with the Post Office is people still haven't realised there's nothing you can do in a bank that you can't do in a Post Office. Withdraw money, lodge a cheque, pay a bill. You can do everything now in the Post Office." explains the Tyrone man.
Devlin, 47 is no stranger to retail "I started way back with retail as a part time job when I was 17 at Curleys in Dungannon. I worked there for four or five years and got myself through university. I've been in retail most of my life, I was a Manager of Dunnes Stores for about 10 years. I then took a venture out and went my own way. I started off in Newtownhamilton in 2016, then I took on Crossmaglen 2019 and now I'm in Newry 2021."
Opening Hours
Mace Monaghan Street
Monday to Saturday: 6:30am to 9pm
Sunday: 8am to 8pm.
Monaghan Street Post Office
Monday to Friday: 8am to 6pm
Saturday: 8am to 2pm.
