Late in May 2021 is was announced that the iconic Mayes Pub on Dorset would cease trading. Since then I was not paying attention so I was really surprised to discover that the building was now home the a Centra. I suppose that the good news is that they retained the clock.
Centra is a convenience shop chain that operates throughout Ireland. The chain operates as a symbol group owned by Musgrave Group, the food wholesaler, meaning the stores are all owned by individual franchisees.
The chain has three different formats available to franchisees — smaller Quick Stop outlets, mid-sized Foodmarkets, and larger Supermarkets. The majority of the stores follow the Quick Stop format, or are simply branded Centra, as Musgrave also offers the SuperValu format, which is geared towards larger supermarkets. There are currently approximately 480 Centra stores in the twenty six counties and approximately 80 in Northern Ireland. In 2016, Centra posted a 3% increase in sales to €1.59bn.Centra’s main competitors are Gala, Spar and Londis, as well as a number of smaller groups such as Costcutter.
The chain was originally launched in the Republic of Ireland as “VG” in 1960. In 1979, the VG chain was rebranded SuperValu with the smaller outlets subsequently rebranded as Centra. The company brought both of these stores to Northern Ireland, the latter through the acquisition and subsequent rebranding of Wellworths stores.
NEW STYLE PHONE KIOSK BESIDE A YELLOW DOOR- DORSET STREET
This street already has more than enough street furniture and I was a bit disappointed to see that a new digital advertising platform, disguised as a payphone, has been added.
Back in 2008, when I last checked, there were about 4000 telephone kiosks, public payphones, remaining in Ireland but there were only about 450 at the beginning of this year [2021]. Many were removed because they attracted anti-social behaviour and others were removed because of lack of use.
Earlier this year Eir applied for planning permission to replace 22 replace old payphones in Dublin with upgraded versions that include Wi-Fi, interactive touchscreens and information services for tourists. The new structures were described as “open stand-alone kiosks designed to reduce instances of anti-social behaviour, improve street furniture and provide enhanced services to users including interactive, digital information points.”
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