Brothers invest £1.5m in new look Ballymoney store

Independent retailers Crawford and Richard Henderson have reopened their SPAR Milltown Road store in Ballymoney after a £1.5 million investment.

Almost doubling in size, the now 5,500 sq. ft. store offers an extended range of fresh, locally sourced products, a much larger grocery range plus a new deli, serving a range of salads, wraps and sandwiches, and a hot food counter with options for breakfast and lunch, which complement the variety of services the brothers offer in their complex on the Milltown Road.

Crawford and Richard, who run a number of SPAR stores in Northern Ireland and Scotland, say their aim was to provide an even more enhanced range of products and services for their local community, at a time when value and local retailing is at its most important.

“We have been trading with SPAR for the past 30 years, but neighbourhood retailing has never been more important than in the past few years. Our shoppers are looking for value, local products, trusted faces on the shop floor and a wide variety of everyday essentials so they don’t have to go out of town,” Richard said.

“The demand for food-to-go has also grown in the past few years, and we have extended our offering to include a wider variety of great quality hot food, salads, sandwiches and wraps plus three new Barista Bar coffee machines to cater for the busy passing trade, with a seating area for those who’d like to take five minutes peace with a hot drink.”

The forecourt also gets a makeover with six new Solo branded pumps, all with ‘pay at the pump’ now available and a brand-new state of the art drive through car wash arriving soon.  The store now provides over 100 car parking spaces on-site and the Post Office in-store continues to provide a wide range of services.

The site’s well-known V2 Discount store, adjoined to the SPAR, has also had a renovation with a larger store now offering an even bigger range of products, still at great value to customers. The Bottle Stop continues to offer a superb range of beers, wines and spirits to go with a takeaway from MAO Chinese and Gareth’s chip shop.

The investment has created a variety of new part and full time positions.

Paddy Doody, Sales and Marketing Director at Henderson Group which owns SPAR in Northern Ireland, commented: “Richard and Crawford are highly experienced retailers, bringing exactly what their shoppers want to their complex in Ballymoney. Their new-look SPAR is of the highest spec, includes two new self-scan checkouts to bring even more efficiency to the customer shopping experience as well as a variety of locally sourced fresh and ambient products for shoppers to top up throughout the week.”

SPAR Milltown Road has also grown its local supplier roster, now stocking products from K&G McAtamneys, McErlain’s Bakery and The Cake Box, alongside Henderson’s own brand ranges from The Kitchen and the Greengrocer’s made in collaboration with local suppliers.

The store will continue to support Marie Curie, SPAR’s charity partner across the UK while also supporting local community groups and organisations.

“We also have a defibrillator which is installed outside the store, available 24/7 should it be needed. We fundraised with our shoppers to install it, so it is owned by the whole community,” Crawford added.