Spanning four generations, one hard-working family is now looking further into the future – with an investment of up to £2m set to create up to 40 new jobs at a Co Armagh service station.
Wrights Service Station, at Derrykeevan townland outside Portadown, has now been given permission to build five new retail units on its site at Dungannon Road.
It follows the construction in 2014 of five initial units, all of which have been fully let since construction.
With planning approval now passed for the new offering – and certainly a great deal of interest from prospective tenants – joint owner Andrew Wright describes it as a “double good news story”.
For while the family move to build the further five rental units, work will also start at the same time on a new extension to the existing Spar store, for which planning permission was granted a few years previous.
Andrew Wright, Joint Partner of Wrights Service Station.
As Andrew told Armagh I: “We’re actually doubling the size of the shop and converting it to a EuroSpar, which is more of a large supermarket format. At the moment we’re trading out of a floorspace – with sales area, deli, butchers and Post Office – of about 3,465 sq ft.
“Our proposal, in conjunction with building the five units, is to double the retail space to 6,792 sq ft, in conjunction with Henderson’s as our trading partner.
“With the new units, they’re providing economic opportunities as well. They’re giving people the opportunity to run businesses and employ people staff. I have had some expressions of interest from different people in terms of potential uses for them.”
All of this has grown from humble beginnings. Wrights Service Station actually opened at this location in the 1930s, providing the sale of fuel, convenience shop, Derrykeevan Post Office, and a tyre depot with car accessories.
The adjacent land was in use since 1920, as a blacksmith shop, as well as trading in car accessories, machinery sales, car sales, and farm produce.
The business at Wrights was founded by Andrew’s Great Aunt, Georgina Wright (Ena), and it is now in its third generation.
Phyllis Wright, Heather McAdam, Richard Ashe, Sales director Henderson group, Wayne Liggett, and Geoffrey Agnew, Co Chairman Henderson group.
It really is a family effort supported by an enthusiastic and dedicated team of staff, around 40 in all.
Dad Reggie – who turned 86 this week – and mum Phyllis, aged 80, are both still actively involved. Andrew essentially oversees day-to-day operations, while his two sisters and brother-in-law are also very much to the fore; Helen Wright-Liggett runs the Post Office and has been Postmistress for 30 years, while Heather McAdam, and Helen’s husband, Wayne, manage the business and are in charge of the shop floor. Helen’s daughter, Naomi, is now part of the hard-working team too.
“We’re trading for almost 100 years here as a family business,” says a justifiably proud Andrew. “It’s a real team effort and we are fortunate to have loyal, hardworking staff assisting in the day-to-day operations of the business.
“It’s very much a family business with staff all coming from the local area. The good news story is that, yes, we’re extending the shop, we’re creating further opportunities. It’s a growing population out here at the Birches, close to the motorway. There’s been a lot more houses in the area, young families, local school numbers are high. Young families obviously have needs in terms of what they need in terms of provisions so obviously we’re trying to move that to the next level.
Annie Wright pictured in her shop and Post Office at Derrykeevan in the 1990s.
“We’re really just looking to build on what we have. We have a good foundation here. We’re going to enhance our opportunities. We’ve been here a long time and hope to leave the business in good shape for the next generation coming behind us.”
The five units that are already in place are currently home to an off-sales, operated by the Wright family, as well as a cafe, Chinese takeaway, hot food outlet and hairdressers.
The new units will provide more opportunities for local businesses to come on board.
And the extension to the main shop will also bring great benefits, both to the family and the community which they serve.
Said Andrew: “We’re trading as a Spar at the moment with the Henderson Group. I think Henderson’s are quite keen that we would enhance the offering, enhance the size of the shop. While we’re still trading under the umbrella of the Henderson group it’s a different format for the store.
“The EuroSpar tend to be the larger supermarket format. It’s more of a supermarket feel with more supermarket pricing as opposed to convenience pricing. It will be largely the same products we’re selling from the same supplier, but there’ll be a few additions in terms of an increased fruit and veg offering, large hot food and deli counter.
“We’ll have space to bring in extra suppliers and local bakeries and a wider range of products. We’re really at capacity at the minute. We’ve kind of gone as far as we can in terms of our existing footprint and really we’re at the stage where we’re ready to go.
“Hendersons are fully behind us, assisting us during the project and supporting us, in terms of their planners, their store designers and their business development managers. They’re fully supportive of our plans to grow.
“I think because of the geography of the site here, I didn’t want to start the extension, which we’ve had planning passed for for a number of years, because I was then going to have to excavate where I had filled in to put foundations in for the units, so the two are probably going to be constructed simultaneously.”
Wrights Portadown
And with that said, work is expected to start in the not-too-distant future. Andrew is keen that they will be in a position to ’break ground’ on the project around June and, he firmly hopes, everything will be completed within a year.
The total cost of the development is expected to come in at around £2 million – about £1.5 million for the EuroSpar extension and rebranding and around £500,000 for the five new retail units.
It is expected that a mixture of up to 40 full-time and part-time jobs would be created – between 15 and 20 through the store extension and a similar number when the five additional units are trading.
Further to that, there would be additional jobs during the construction.
JB Bentley, who constructed the original shop in 2009 and original retail units in 2012, are the appointed contractor and they are confident it will be another excellent construction job by them.
On that score, Andrew is satisfied that it will be a job well done – and the existing store will continue to operate throughout.
“We opened this shop in 2009, so we’re trading 17 years. It’s really an extension to the store as such. It’s not a knock down and rebuild job, it’s an extension to what’s there,” he explained.
“As you look at the shop, we’re extending out to the right. It’s probably easier maybe to build from a greenfield site. Obviously then you’re trying to marry the old store into the new store, as well as dust and upheaval along the process.
“We have excellent builders and I have complete faith in them doing a good job. In the past they have worked through the night with difficult things in relation to the shop, in terms of knocking walls down and relocating pipework. But certainly, the upheaval will be kept to a minimum and the store will still be trading during the renovations.”
Great aunt Ena dispensing fuel in the 1930s.
In keeping with the family ethos, Wrights Service Station very much intends to continue to offer that friendly welcome, that homely feel, for which it is renowned and valued.
Indeed, they will be resisting the urge to install multiple self-service checkouts in favour of staff.
“We’re somewhat unusual in this day and age,” says Andrew. “ A lot of the supermarkets you go to, the majority of tills are now self-service. They’re very much driving people towards the self-service checkout routes, and we have no self-service checkouts, no self-service tills and it’s something that I’m reluctant to do because we still believe in the personal touch.
“We still believe in a cashier behind the till in the morning and a smile. It’s sort of old-style service. We do have a lot of elderly people living in the area that do value a minute or two at the tills, just a friendly face to say ‘hello’ or ‘good morning’ or talk about the weather or just pass the time of day with. The tills are always manned, there’s always a friendly face behind the tills and so hopefully there will be opportunities for additional new faces in store.
“I’m not looking to put in a bank of self-service tills when this shop extends. There may well be an opportunity to put in a couple, for people that maybe they just want the convenience. It’ll not be imbalanced, it will probably be three or four cashiers and most probably two self-service tills. I still very much believe in the personal service here.”
A laudable point of view, that’s something which Andrew and his sisters have learned from their parents from an early age.
Even now in their 80s, amazingly both are still working away, doing what they can as only they know how.
“They’re here every day faithfully, seven days a week. There’s no early retirement from this place, I have to say. It would look bad if I retired and my father was still knocking the hours in,” jokes Andrew.
But, in all seriousness, he adds: “It’s a pleasure for them. They enjoy meeting the people. There’s still a role for them. They’re still very much valued.
“I remember during Covid with my dad and lots of people were saying that you need to shield and you shouldn’t really be here Reggie. He wouldn’t hear any of it. He was out doing the deliveries to ‘the old people’, as he said, at about 80 years of age, in the van, delivering groceries to the people that obviously were shielding or didn’t want to go out. So even during the worst of times, he was here and we’re very blessed. Both mum and dad are good advertisements for hard work, I have to say.
“Someone once said that, you’d very rarely come to the store that there’s not at least one member of the family on the site somewhere, so there’s that continuity of service and continuity of trust and respect over the years.
“We’re very mindful too, we wouldn’t be here without the customers and the local population as well. I always remember the mantra, ‘look after your customers or somebody else will’. So we try to look after our customers and go the extra mile where we can.
“This, therefore, is not just about a capital investment – it’s about an investment in the community, the people, and a desire to carry on a long-running family business and continue the hard work of those who went before, people like my Great Aunt Georgina (Ena), my grandfather, Bob, my granny, Annie, who worked in the Post Office and shop in the cottage until she was in her 90s, and our long-standing loyal employee, Alwyn Thornton, who worked with us for over 40 years and sadly died in 2021. We would not be here without the efforts of those who went before us and we are very mindful of that.
“I want this to be a flagship store for Henderson’s, with the most up-to-date branding and imagery, basically one that someone comes into and it just has the ‘wow’ effect.
Helen Wright Liggett, Geoffrey Agnew, co-chairman Henderson group, and Richard Ashe, sales director Henderson group.
“We have a lot of history and we have a very strong foundation to keep building on.
“Everyone works hard. There’s a friendly, happy atmosphere in store and it’s a real pleasure to come to work every day.
“It’s a good news story about a local family investing in the long-term, making their offering the best that it can be and providing further opportunities for employment in the local area.
“We believe in putting the service back into service station.”
Libby Clarke, of Joyce Clarke Estate Agents, Portadown, is taking expressions of interest for anyone wishing to enquire about one of the new rental units, which are suitable for a variety of uses subject to additional planning if necessary (hot food consent), for a new business venture. She can be contacted on (028) 3833 1111.
