Cheers as ribbon cut on 'gold medal' €9m revamped Portlaoise Penneys

Over half a century since it first came to Laois, Penneys has come of age, with a €9 million revamp in Laois Shopping Centre, bringing 25 new jobs and a lot more shoppers to town.

The ribbon was cut on Thursday morning, March 26 by Laois County Council CEO, Cllr Barry Walsh, accompanied by store manager Orla Hudson, and the head of Penneys Ireland and NI Fintan Costello.

It follows a six month expansion of what was a long outdated Penneys, the last one with carpet in Ireland. Mr Costello recalled visiting the store and seeing Ms Hudson take out a mallet to carry out some “banging” on display equipment in the shop.

Staying open throughout the works, the mallet is “going in a frame” and Penneys Portlaoise now rivals any Irish Penneys with top facilities for customers and staff and more stock, including the widest children’s clothing range of any Irish Penneys, as Mr Costello told the Leinster Express / Laois Live. 

"We have been planning an extension here for some time. It hasn’t been an easy journey, but we are delighted to be able to create 25 new jobs. There are 85 colleagues and managers now in the store. We are delighted to be able to double the size as well. We know our customers were really looking forward to it and we’ve had great feedback already. Portlaoise is a key town in the Midlands, and it’s great for the shopping centre, for the community and for our colleagues.

"We have doubled our offering for our customers, ladies wear is very strong, but the most important part for us here in Portlaoise is kids. We actually have little bit of a higher mix here in Portlaoise than we do in the rest of Ireland,” the Irish head of Penneys said.

Manager Orla said she is from Kildare “the home of horseracing”, and described getting the new store as winning the Gold Cup at Cheltenham.

"We had a few false starts on this, we didn’t really believe it was happening until we saw the high vis coming in last year. We did jump a few hurdles but in the last 10 days we definitely came up that hill and crossed the finish line in style for team Portlaoise,” she said.

Penneys regional manager Michael with Portlaoise store manager Orla and Kevin Doyle, manager of Laois Shopping Centre.

"It’s a great transformation, today is a great celebration, the store has doubled, with fantastic backhouse facilities for the team. To be able to give them the working space they really deserve. The town of Portlaoise as well, all our loyal customers that come in regularly, they really deserve a better shopping experience and today is the day we can finally present it to them,” the manager said. 

Originally opened in 1971 in Lyster Square beside Quinnsworth, the Portlaoise store moved to  Laois Shopping Centre in 1991. The newly refreshed store has more than doubled in size, from 8,130 sq. ft. to 20,000 sq. ft. including much larger backroom facilities to support staff.

Kevin Doyle is manager of Laois Shopping Centre.

“We are thrilled to have it. It’s been a long time in the pipeline and now we’re there. It’s brilliant for the shopping centre, for the town of Portlaoise, and for the county of Laois. The amount of footfall we are going to get from this will lift everyone’s spirits. It’s my 35th year here, we’ve been a long time waiting for this,” he said.

The relaunch focused on the achievements of Penneys staff and management, with bouquets presented to the two longest serving workers, Tina Ryan at 28 years and Susan Kerry at 46 years working for Penneys.

Three of the longest serving staff in Portlaoise Penneys; Tina Ryan, Stephen Regan and Susan Kerry. 

"Portlaoise has got so big, it’s definitely badly needed. Pennys themselves are a great company to work for. To last this length of time we are there. We got married there, we reared our children, sent them to college, and we’re still here, so we didn’t run away too far,” Susan said.

The customers are happy too, Tina said.

"They’re loving it, they just think it’s so big, so bright and there’s so much new stuff. They were saying they used to go to Newbridge before this or Kilkenny and now they won’t have to, we have the same stuff. It’s lovely for us now, we have all the mod cons now. It’s easy to change stuff around now because we have all new equiment,” she said.

Penneys managerial staff Anca, Maria and Sarah with the relaunch cake in the shape of shopping bags for Penneys Portlaoise.

Cllr Walsh said that Laois County Council is delighted at the investment into Portlaoise.

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"We as a county and councillors are encouraging investment into Laois, just last week we were in New York speaking on how much Laois has to offer. There’s over 15,000 workers leaving daily to commute. We have skillsets, we have infrastructure and to see Penneys investing is encouraging to us.

"I know my own daughters and wife are delighted to have you here as well,” he added.

The investment is the latest step in Penneys’ plan to invest €250 million in new and existing stores over a 10-year period, including the development of a €75 million state-of-the-art distribution centre in Newbridge, set to open later this year.