Fear of failure in 2010 for new businesses

Many businesses in Clare, particularly those founded in the past five years, could fail early next year if the decline in trade in 2009 is not addressed.

The first two months of 2010 will be a crucial time for business, according to Pat Kelly, manager of SkyCourt in Shannon.
The first nine weeks of the decade could see many businesses fail, he believes, while it could also see others getting through the most difficult period for many years.
“The next couple of months will tell a lot, for many retailers. It has been very tough up until now and January and February are usually quite lean times,” said Mr Kelly.
He said footfall at SkyCourt was found to have been significantly down on other years but there had been a bit of a rally in the days before Christmas. “Last week, it picked up but it was unfortunate that the weather was so bad because people were reluctant to travel. It did affect it a bit but there was a pick-up in the last two weeks, although it was quiet up until then.”
Mr Kelly said that footfall at SkyCourt is down about 10% but said that few businesses have actually closed in the centre. “One positive is that there have been very few closures here and a few new places have opened. We’d still have the same number of outlets as a year ago, if not more.”
He said SkyCourt realises circumstances have changed. “As landlords, we accept that we have to be a bit more open on terms in order to keep business.”
According to Ennis Chamber’s Rita McInerney, a number of businesses in the county town could be in danger.
“Survival will depend on a lot of things. It depends when a business was started up, it depends on the rent they are paying and a number of other issues,” she said.
Ms McInerney believes that incentives need to be put in place to support start-up businesses in order to maintain jobs.
“For businesses that were set up in the last five years, they need to be safeguarded in some way. The older businesses might be able to ride out the storm but fledgling businesses need to be assisted in order to be maintained for the coming years. Everyone has their part to play,” she explained.
“It has been a challenging year for businesses in the town but with challenges come ingenuity and initiatives. We are in a difficult situation and while you have to highlight it, you have to find new ways to incentivise business and sustain business because business equals jobs. The challenge is that we have to come up with ways that businesses can become more cost effective and sustain jobs in the long term,” she added.
In Ennis, business in the days immediately prior to Christmas was strong and Ms McInerney believes this is partly down to people making a greater effort to shop local, as well as the promotion of the Ennis Gold Voucher scheme.
Weather too has affected trade.
“The weather has had a dual affect on businesses in Ennis. It has kept people from other areas out but it has also kept people within the geographic area. I think everywhere around the county will have found there was a lot of shopping local. While Ennis may have lost out from other people from around the county, it may also have benefited from people from the area not going elsewhere,” Ms McInerney said.
In the North Clare town of Ennistymon, pre-Christmas trade was down on other years but, like Ennis, increased in the days immediately before Christmas.
“During that week people came out and I suppose stayed local but up to that it had been very quiet. It was a funny year, with the recession, flooding and then the ice. The weather really affected people,” said Sharon Malone, business development manager at Ennistymon Enterprise Centre.
According to Sharon, businesses in towns like Ennistymon have a good chance of survival because of their convenience and customer loyalty.
“Big towns like Ennis were probably more affected by the boom. In Ennistymon, there is a lot of local support. I wouldn’t foresee any business closing early in 2010 in Ennistymon because of the weather or the recession. It has been quiet but the drop-off probably hasn’t been as obvious as it would have been in bigger towns,” she added.
Meanwhile, Kilrush businesswoman and town mayor Marian McMahon-Jones said that trade in the town dipped this Christmas when compared with previous festive seasons.
However, she believed that the inclement weather actually helped trade in some respects, in that people couldn’t travel outside of Kilrush to shop.
“In general terms, it was that little bit quieter this year. However, we probably gained from the frost, as a lot of people didn’t travel as much. I’d say more people shopped at home for the last week or so as a result of the bad weather. People weren’t that inclined to travel,” she said.
Mayor McMahon-Jones maintained that the provision of two-hour free parking helped trade during the Christmas period, while she felt that the presence of Tesco and Aldi helped to increase the flow of people in the town. 
“It was beneficial in that a lot of people from the hinterland who would have travelled to Ennis to do their main groceries, are coming to Kilrush now. They have the choice. They have the choice of both and then they have SuperValu as their third option. So it has brought in extra customers from out the country that wouldn’t necessarily be stopping in Kilrush ordinarily,” the town mayor concluded.