Smyths invite local community to celebrate a decade of their Darraghcross store

Local community has joined in to celebrate the tenth anniversary of Smyths of Darraghcross, trading under the Vivo fascia in the hub of the Darraghcross and Raffrey community.

Caroline and Aidan Smyth, the couple running the store, and their growing team have been providing a high-quality choice of products, services and support to the area since they opened in 2011.

“We wouldn’t be where we are today without the support of our local community, so we brought a day of celebrations to the store on Friday 30th July where we gave away some amazing prizes from a family trampoline and kids toys to various spot prizes, everyone was a winner,” Caroline said.

They have been presented with a commemorative plaque, birthday cake and flowers by Jamie Graham of Henderson Group, which owns the Vivo brand in Northern Ireland, who joined the team for the morning of celebrations.

“It has been a pleasure to meet the needs of our local shoppers on a daily basis for the past ten years. We as a team and as a store have grown, we’ve more than doubled our workforce to 12 locally employed staff which comes after three refurbs, where we’ve invested over £300,000 into the store,” Caroline added.

While the celebrations marked the milestone, Caroline says so much has happened worth celebrating over their 10 years in business from bringing the National Lottery in store alongside Barista Bar coffee, the post office, the off license, supporting charity partner Age NI, and opening their famous ice cream parlour.

“The most important of all, however, has been the defibrillator which we fundraised with the amazing support of our shoppers to provide a device that is available 24/7 to the community. We are so proud to have it,” she added.

The Vivo store wasn’t the only baby the couple nurtured since 2011, they are also now parents to Tara and Ryan, and have announced happy news that they are expecting again – with twins!

Caroline concluded: “There is a lot to celebrate in our family at the moment! But we’re just so proud of the shop and that our shoppers have allowed us to serve them and their own families, it’s been a pleasure and we couldn’t do it without their support.”