Galway Store to open in Dundrum Town Centre
Monday 04 April 2011
“This building was supposed to be occupied by Solicitors and Accountants but, when that fell through, we turned it into retail”, said Annette Curley of Home Gallery at Newtownsmith, Galway. We were standing on the third floor of a vast impressive light filled building, with wall to wall plate glass views out over the dramatic River Corrib hurtling past. This big new store comprises Born Clothing on the first two floors selling trendy labels for women and men, Home Gallery, interiors shop, on the 3rd floor, and a large café overlooking the river. We haven’t seen very many such impressive big 3-storey retail stores of this size opening in the past couple of years, a great initiative, and it really is a super place to shop and relax at the same time.
The building itself is owned by Annette and her husband, John Curley, who live in Kilcolgan, Co. Galway with their two children, Shane aged 17 and Aisling aged 14. The Home Gallery, however, is a business partnership between Annette and her brother in law, Des Curley. Home Gallery is a wonderland of beautiful home accessories of all kinds including lamps, chandeliers, pictures, kitchen equipment, cushions, fabrics, bedlinen, furniture, tables, chairs, occasional furniture, soft furnishings, a vast cocoon of colours and ideas, and I wanted to come home with half of it! It is very user friendly and also very well set out in themed sections so that you are not lost in one great big expanse.
Curley is a well known name in the furniture business and they have retail stores in Galway, Ennis and Kilkenny, where, Annette tells me, they sell “the bigger end of things – beds, suites, tables, furnishing apartments and houses completely for people as “Des is very good with interior design.” “Being so well established in the furniture end of the business, furnishing houses and apartments, we then saw a niche for people who wanted to buy pictures and mirrors, and little things to finish off their homes, so we opened Home Gallery in Ennis in 2008 and it went very well.” Ennis, of course, is a great business town. “We would come in and colourize, dress up and finish off places.” In September 2008 the Lehmann Bank collapse occurred in the U.S. which caused such financial turmoil worldwide, however, this did not deter the Curley’s who are very positive about their business. “Things did go down a bit after the collapse, but we still reached our targets and customers kept returning. Then the third floor came up in this building, here in Galway, which was originally supposed to be offices for solicitors and accountants, so we opened a Home Gallery in the space. This has also gone very well, adding a new dimension to the shopping experience in Galway.” That, however, is not the whole story for Annette and Des are continuing to expand with the opening of a new Home Gallery store in Dundrum Town Centre in Dublin within the next month to six weeks, again over Born, which opened there a few months ago.
Annette says they decided to open in Dundrum Town Centre because they are constantly getting visitors from Dublin into the Galway shop, down for the weekend or on holiday, who love what they are selling and are also “always asking do we have a Branch in Dublin - so we soon will.” The Home Gallery is proving very popular too with Interior Designers, and I can see why, as they have a lot of stock to create a good look at good prices. It is amazing how happenings in life also affect our buying not just financially but our choice of colours, themes, and the way we want to live. “During the boom it was all modern, cream, black and shiny, now mahogony is back big time. People are back into a comfort era and want gold mirrors, warm colours, red…..its all about warmth and comfort and we are catering for that.” Says Annette.
The Born clothing stores are also under the Curley umbrella, this time a business partnership between Annette’s husband, John, and Joan Lynch, who does all the buying for the stores. In Galway it is two full floors of urban chic clothing including Disigual, Lipsy, Miss Sixty, La Voila, Vera Moda, 101 (plus size range) and Mama-licious Materntiy Range, Bench and Name-It Kids wear to name but a few. “People will come into the store and browse around the clothes in Born, then have lunch in the Boutique café overlooking the river, and then come up and view the Interiors.” Annette says “the thing about the Home Gallery is that on first impression you think everything looks expensive but then you find they are not – they are reasonable – we try to keep prices down and we will always look after customers – we will meet them.”
With that attitude they should do well in Dundrum Town Centre too.
Home Gallery,
Newtownsmith,
Galway.
Tel: (091) 895228