Smyths celebrate a decade of service with a smile in the local community
Caroline and Aidan Smyth are celebrating 10 years of their ViVO store in the hub of the Darraghcross and Raffrey community.
The couple and their growing team have been providing a high-quality choice of products, services and support to the area since they opened in 2011. Recently, Jamie Graham from Henderson Group which owns the ViVO brand in Northern Ireland joined the team for a morning of celebrations, presenting them with a commemorative plaque, birthday cake and flowers.
Caroline Smyth commented; “It has been a pleasure to meet the needs of our local shoppers on a daily basis for the past ten years. We as a team and as a store have grown, we’ve more than doubled our workforce to 12 locally employed staff which comes after three refurbs, where we’ve invested over £300,000 into the store.
“We wouldn’t be where we are today without the support of our local community, so we brought a day of celebrations to the store on Friday 30th July where we gave away some amazing prizes from a family trampoline and kids toys to various spot prizes, everyone was a winner!
While the celebrations marked the milestone, Caroline says so much has happened worth celebrating over their 10 years in business from bringing The National Lottery in store alongside Barista Bar coffee, the Post Office, the Off License, supporting charity partner Age NI, and opening their famous ice cream parlour.
Caroline continued; “The most important of all, however, has been the defibrillator which we fundraised with the amazing support of our shoppers to provide a device that is available 24/7 to the community. We are so proud to have it.”
The ViVO store wasn’t the only baby the couple nurtured since 2011, they are also now parents to Tara and Ryan, and have announced happy news that they are expecting again – with twins!
Caroline finished; “There is a lot to celebrate in our family at the moment! But we’re just so proud of the shop and that our shoppers have allowed us to serve them and their own families, it’s been a pleasure and we couldn’t do it without their support.”
