SPAR Monaghan Road in Armagh celebrated 20 years serving their local community with a fun day for their shoppers earlier this month.

The store, which is owned and run by Stephen & Donna Mullan, opened in May 2005 with 15 employees, which has now more than doubled as the store employs 36 people from the local area.

Over the years, Stephen and Donna have made significant investments into the store, totalling over £3.5 million. The investments have allowed for three major refurbishments to bring top quality services and products to shoppers. The refurbishments also included the introduction of solar panels and high efficiency refrigeration.

The local community has always been central to the store, with the staff often taking part in fundraisers for local charities. The team have raised over £50,000 for numerous organisations over the years including the annual Blooming Great Summer fundraiser in aid of Marie Curie, store sponsorships of local sports teams such as Armagh City Football Club and supporting local schools with regular donations for school sports days.

An Automated External Defibrillator (AED) is also installed outside the store, which is available for the community 24/7, providing essential access to potentially lifesaving equipment even when the store is not open.

To celebrate the anniversary, the store held a fun day for their shoppers with exciting promotions, spend and save coupons and a ‘scratch & win’ competition with a whopping 5,000 prizes won by shoppers.

Stephen and Donna are well respected in the local community, owning two other stores in Armagh, SPAR Markethill and SPAR Killylea Road. In total, the family employ more than 85 people from the local community across their three stores.

Stephen Mullan commented, “We’re proud to be celebrating our 20-year anniversary. We’re delighted to have made such significant investments over the years to develop our store further and bring an expansive range of products and services to our local community.

“Being a community focussed store, it was so important to us to celebrate alongside our shoppers, and we are proud to own a store that has such an impact in the community. We want to thank our store team and all our shoppers for their support over the years, they are our neighbours, and we look forward to many more years serving the community from SPAR Monaghan Road.”

Paddy Doody, Sales and Marketing Director at Henderson Group which owns the SPAR brand in Northern Ireland, commented, “We wish to congratulate Stephen, Donna and the whole team at SPAR Monaghan Road on their 20th anniversary. They are such an integral part of their local communities at all three of their stores, making major investments to provide value on the doorsteps of their shoppers, all while having a positive impact and giving back to local charities and community groups. We wish them every success for years to come.”

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