Tag Archives: Willow

THE Clare-based deputy head of Retail Excellence has described the government’s latest roadmap on the reopening of the economy and society as “frustrating,” and hit out at the lack specific detail and key targets. Award-winning retailer Jean McCabe said that the latest Living with Covid-19 plan, as outlined on Tuesday by Taoiseach Micheál Martin, was short on detail and difficult for people to buy into. “When you examine what was said, there was no reference or mention of the non-essential retail sector,” she said. “Everyone in business needs Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and the latest announcement is very lacking in terms of the data and the number of cases we need to be at before we’ll be able to open our doors. Everyone needs to see clear goals, that makes the plan more achievable and what we’ve heard this week is very frustrating and quite short-sighted.” Ms McCabe said that while her clothing retail business, Willow, is well established online, …

WITH the economy apparently thriving, Christmas was quite positive for local retailers. On Wednesday morning as they reopened their doors, several traders told The Clare Champion things had gone well. Although Christmas Eve hadn’t been particularly hectic, busy earlier trading had more than made up for that, said Patrick Bourke. “We had two record days, the Friday and Saturday, December 22 and 23. The busiest days in a long, long time. That helped matters and it was part of the reason why Christmas Eve was back a bit, there was so much spent on the Friday and Saturday.” His store in Kilrush performed well, he said. “Kilrush had a very good Christmas. It came later in Kilrush than it did in Ennis but it turned out well, there is no doubt about that. This year, the emigrant factor wasn’t quite as noticeable as other years. We had the wedding end of it alright, with a lot of people back for …

SIX Ennis businesses have been named among the Retail Excellence (RE) Awards in Ireland by Retail Excellence, the largest retail industry representative organization in the country. B Molloy Master Butchers, Bambino’s, Patrick Bourke Menswear, Seoidin, The Kilkenny Shop and Willow are the only stores in Clare to make the prestigious list. The Top 100 stores are part of the Retail Excellence (RE) Awards, which were established in 1997 to promote best practice and encourage high standards in the Irish retail industry and are now the largest and most prestigious of its kind in Ireland. As part of the selection process, all store entrants were visited by a mystery shopper, with those exceeding service and standards criteria making it to the Top100 stores. The Top 100 will now be invited to a private briefing with Echochamber, a creative retail agency who tracks global retail trends, on Tuesday 22 August. The Top 30 stores will be announced on September 22.The top 3 finalists and …