6March 6 2008AdvertiserBusiness'A series of interviews with some leading business personalities'.HEADS & TALESAlison HerbertWith five Galway branches and a
national online store in the offing
(www.evergreen.ie), Evergreen
Healthfood Stores is ever-growing.
With the original Mainguard Street
premises expanding, Evergreen
Healthfoods has evolved organically
over the past 16 years.
8220Most SMEs start with a business
idea and then progress to securing
premises; whereas we did it the other
way around,8221 explains co-owner
Aideen Hurley.
By 1990, and with her five children
pretty much reared, Aideen was keen
to get back into the workplace that she
left after the birth of her first child. A
departmental manager in the
Waterford Crystal section of Moons
(now Brown Thomas), Aideen had a
wealth of retail experience behind her,
but no clear idea of which end of retail
she wanted to pursue.
Aideen8217s husband and co-owner of
Evergreen Healthfoods, Kieran, had
been operating as an independent
agent for Dawn Dairies when he was
offered a buy-out deal that propelled
the husband and wife team into a
whole new business venture.
8220With both of us looking for a new
start, we looked around at city centre
premises and spotted the attractive
location of our Mainguard Street
branch, which had been Quinn8217s Men8217s
Outfitters. We just went for it, but
weren8217t too sure what retail business
we would start.
8220I considered art initially, but after a
bit of market research we believed
there was an opening for a high-end
delicatessen in Galway, so that8217s what
we initially provided.8221
It wasn8217t long before Aideen
realised that her customers wanted
more than just good quality cheese
and meat.
8220Galway has always been a very
open-minded city that attracts people
pursuing a particular lifestyle. In the
early 1990s there were lots of Germans
and Dutch around who were used to
organic food and complementary
therapies, and we soon understood
that there was huge potential for a
shop specialising in complementary
products.8221
After two years of the flourishing
Mainguard Street branch, Kieran
spotted an opening for a second
branch in the Galway Shopping
Centre. Westside, Barna, and
Moycullen outlets soon followed.
With five outlets, two of which are
open seven days a week, Evergreen
Healthfoods has created a hectic
lifestyle for both Aideen and Kieran.
8220We are blessed with great staff, 43
in total, of all nationalities, including
Pakistani, Czech, Polish, Hungarian,
and Irish. I think of them as an
extended family as many of them have
been with us for a long time and they
all have great commitment to their
work 8212 it8217s not just a job to them.8221
Selling specialised produce such as
vitamins, food supplements, and
herbal preparations requires that staff
are knowledgeable enough to give
advice, so all Evergreen Healthfoods
staff receive in-house training.
8220Various suppliers train the staff in
our Liosb225n offices, and many of our
senior staff take practitioner courses
in their own time in areas such as
herbalism or homeopathy.8221Keeping on topAs a member of the Irish
Association of Healthfood Stores,
Evergreen Healthfoods must ensure
that each branch has at least one
person who holds a diploma in
healthfood retailing.
8220We need to keep on top of new
products and trends, so we encourage
continuous learning. Evergreen
Healthfoods pays staff fees for both the
certificate and the diploma in
healthfood retailing, which is carried
out by distance learning.
8220One of our staff, Aoife Calnan, just
recently won the Jimmy Lee
Richardson Award for achieving the
highest overall diploma marks in
Ireland and the UK.8221
Aideen has studied these courses
herself and very much practises what
she preaches.
8220My first port of call is usually
complementary products or therapies
because they work, it8217s that simple.8221
Because Evergreen Healthfoods is
one of the country8217s largest healthfood
chains, and at roughly 2,000sq ft the
Galway Shopping Centre store is
Ireland8217s largest, the company is in the
enviable position of being able to stock
a wide variety of products.
In order to take Evergreen
Healthfoods nationwide, the company
is working on a virtual store, to be
introduced around April, which will
allow customers to initially buy
around 500 products. 8220This will be of
tremendous benefit to those living in
rural areas, or in towns that do not
have a health shop. It will also be a
valuable service to those who are
housebound and cannot get out to
shop, as products will be delivered to
their door.8221
Evergreen Healthfoods stocks
products for the general public and not
just those of minority groups.
8220We do cater for coeliacs for
example, as the incidence of this
disease is so high in Galway, but our
main focus is to buy the best and
healthiest products available. Our
customers 8216buy into8217 their own health,
and want products that will prevent
illness. They8217re not looking for a
8216quick-fix8217 prescription.8221
Aideen emphasises that Evergreen
Healthfoods is not a pharmacy or
surgery, and that neither she nor any
of the Evergreen Healthfoods staff can
diagnose, therefore they always ask
customers whether they have been
diagnosed by a professional, and
whether they are on any medication
before advising them of suitable
products.Herbs are not dangerous8220Customers8217 ailments change with
the seasons, for example colds,
influenza, and hay fever. Other
complaints though can be long-term,
such as allergies or food intolerances,
and supplements, superfoods, and
herbal preparations can be very
effective in treating these.8221
Up to a few years ago health food
stores like Evergreen Healthfoods
could sell popular treatments for mild
depression, such as St John8217s Wort,
and Gingko Biloba for circulation.
Irish legislation has now put these on
prescription only.
8220Herbs are not dangerous, but
drugs are, and some drugs may react
badly with certain herbs. The Irish
answer was to ban the herbs. If a
commonplace product like Aspirin
came out nowadays it would not be
available to buy over the counter, so
there are a lot of double standards out
there.
8220Like all professionals we welcome
the monitoring of complementary
products, but the customer is losing
out by mis-information. Some doctors
though are learning more about
complementary products and do direct
their patients to us for specific
products.8221
To view future trends Aideen must
travel to trade fairs, such as those in
London8217s Olympia, and most recently
the Bio-Fach in Nuremberg.
8220The Nuremberg Organic
Healthfood Show is colossal 8212 about
six times the size of the health show in
Dublin8217s RDS, and as such it is a
fantastic showcase of what is available.
There are organic products from all
around the world, even the smaller,
poorer countries. What was hugely
disappointing this year was that there
was only one organic stand from
Ireland, Bord Iascaigh Mhara.
8220Tourists believe we are a very
8216green8217 country, and are bewildered, as
I am, that there is such a dearth of
indigenous organic produce.
8220Ireland cannot even meet the
demand from within Ireland for
organic food, never mind export any of
it. It8217s a massive economic opportunity
missed.8221
To help educate and spread the
word about complementary products
Aideen volunteers to speak to various
community groups, and the company
also advertises extensively.
8220We spend a lot on print and
broadcast advertising to keep up the
company profile and to alert the public
to our wide variety of products.8221
For an industry that was once
confined to the back streets of towns,
Evergreen Healthfoods has brought
health foods very much onto the
mainstream agenda. So much so that
other retail outlets, such as
pharmacies, are now stocking some
preparations that would once have
been considered taboo.
8220Products like echinacea to boost
the immune system and manuka
honey, which treats a number of viral
ailments, have become almost
commonplace. It8217s the same story with
linseed for better digestion and
glucosamine for joint pain. Customers
start off with the mainstream items
and then extend this to include
healthier products for their skin, hair,
and house. People forget that there is
a healthy, less toxic alternative to
almost every supermarket product.
Forty-seven per cent of our business is
in supplements and herbals, 26 per
cent in food, 10 per cent in personal,
and 17 per cent in home care.8221
Aideen8217s passion to empower others
to become healthier was rewarded last
year by IAHFS when she scooped an
award for Continued Excellence and
Commitment to the Irish Healthfood
Industry 2006.
Aideen admits that she doesn8217t
really need to seek her relaxation
outside of the business, as she loves
what she does.
8220I am an avid reader though and
love both gardening and travelling. I8217m
just back from a break in Egypt and
enjoyed a fascinating visit to Costa
Rica last year, which was a busman8217s
holiday. I was checking out the
farming of medical mushrooms, which
are becoming a very popular way to
treat a number of ailments.
8220The Japanese have been using
mushroom varieties such as shiitake
for centuries to promote health, but
this is new territory for the west.8221
As a couple who like to 8216walk the
walk8217 Aideen and Kieran are at the
planning stage of their future passive
home, which will feature ecologically-
friendly features such as a sedum roof,
solar panels, and reed-bed sewage
system.
8220The sedum roof will be a live
garden to provide a natural habitat for
insects and wildlife. The reed-bed
system treats, purifies, and recycles
waste effluent. We8217ll also harvest our
own rainwater. So I suppose I8217m really
bringing my work home with me,8221 she
smiles.A healthy businessAideen Hurley,
Evergreen Healthfood StoresAideen Hurley 8211 soon all Evergreen Healthfood Products will be offered on-line and delivered to customers8217 doors.
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