‘We had our feet in the water but Covid forced us to plunge straight in’

A Dunshaughlin couple whose world was turned upside down when Covid restrictions brought their thriving business to a standstill reinvented their chaffeur company into a bespoke hamper delivery service that also showcases the best in local products and produce in the process

ASAVVY couple whose livelihood was left decimated by the effects of the pandemic has spoken of how they turned adversity into opportunity.

Ciaran and Karen McBride’s chauffeur and tour company was thriving in 2019 having acquired clients like Aer Lingus, Carton House the Shelbourne Hotel to name a few.

Just when it seemed like things couldn’t get better, the Dunshaughlin entrepreneurs world was turned upside down when Covid restrictions brought things to a standstill. Not one to shy away from a challenge, Ciaran and his wife Karen decided to use the tools at their disposal and set their sights on creating a complimentary business that focused on local suppliers, something already close to their heart.

Last week the couple celebrated one year of The Parcel Concierge, a boutique store in Dunshaughlin that stocks Irish handmade gifts and bespoke hampers.

Speaking on their whirlwind year in business, Ciaran said:

“We were really busy with our two companies Irish Luxury Tours and Irish Chauffeurs and 2019 was our best year, things were flying and we were out purchasing new vehicles in early 2020 and all of a sudden the rug was pulled from under us.

“It was quite a traumatic time for us because we had all of these overheads. Thankfully the supplements from the government were a huge help to us.

“We were really looking forward to 2020 with vigour and unfortunately it all came to a standstill.

“We had all these high end vehicles that were all sitting around and we had to keep them insured and we were looking around at what way we could utilise them.

“We had thirteen vehicles on the road and fifteen drivers that we are responsible for as well.

“We had such large audience with our corporate clients we had talked about developing a business with hampers for our US customers in the future where we would create a gift shop and send them a newsletter reminding them they could buy a gift from Ireland on our website.

“That idea went into Parcel Concierge instead of Irish Luxury Tours.

“We did really well with the hampers last year and hope to build on that this year.”

Ciaran originally from Donegal and business partner Karen had already built a good relationship with local suppliers through their existing businesses as the Ciaran explains:

“We were offering our services as a white glove delivery service for high end goods to be transported around the country then we evolved into creating a website offering hampers and a lot of our corporate clients bought into the idea that it was all Irish product, and they liked the idea of supporting the country in its time of need and supporting us.

“A lot of people who bought our hampers or who got presents of our hampers came back to us and were looking for some of the product that was in the hampers that they liked.

“The office was a bit of a mess with all of the stock we got in so we decided to open up a retail unit, so we have opened up a retail unit in Dunshaughlin which thankfully is going very well.

“Among the products on offer are Beewise Honey from Kilmessain, Cockagee Cider from Slane, Newgrange Oil from Slane, Josie’s Botanicals from Dunboyne, Siobhan Daly Designs from Dunshaughlin and Crann, a unique company that makes watches and sunglasses from recycled wood operating from the Ballymagarvey area.”

“It was a big investment for us, but we felt with the level of support we got for the hampers and the amount of people inquiring and also that Dunshaughln didn’t have anything like this in the town itself. Our big selling point in buy local, guaranteed Irish.

“We felt Dunshaughlin was a growing town, there is another 800 houses being built here at the moment and it didn’t have any shop like ours.”

Buying and supporting local is something that is very important to the entrepreneur.

“I’m from a rural but well populated area of West Donegal and I see the huge importance of keeping business in the area in order to keep people in our region and I think it is important that we have good support for local producers, it enables them to stay at home at rear families in their own regions and have the lifestyle they would aspire to have instead of living in busy cities.

“Because of my background in tourism, all things Ireland is important to me in a big way because these are the people that we will take our tours to, we will go to Cockagee Cider in Slane or Lucy O’ Gorman Ceramics and do small tours.

“As part of our tours we will go to the big attractions, but they are not the unique part of our selling point, the small indigenous grass roots people are very much a part of our tour ethos as well.”

Covid has wreaked havoc for business owners, but Ciaran admits it took them in a whole different direction that they are happily navigating.

“Without Covid we definitely wouldn’t have been as far down the road with this venture, we would have had our feet in the water but instead we plunged straight in. We are starting to come out of Covid and as we started to see our chauffeur and tour business starting on the road this week we have a number of cars back out on tours around the country which is great but now we have a brand new business a long side that which is really exciting, and we can see that we can grow this business and maybe see a few more stores opening up around the country in the not so distant future.

“We couldn’t have done it without Meath Enterprise and Cathal O’Reilly from Roof Top Twenty-Two for helping us with our website.”