New chamber group to help retail flourish

Mullingar Chamber is launching a new and improved retail advisory group who aim to increase connectivity between businesses on the town’s main thoroughfare.

They are calling on businesses in the town to join the group and are seeking advice on how the chamber can help retail flourish in Mullingar.

They are also inviting all retailers to a BBQ in the Annebrook House Hotel on Friday September 27, where people can meet, chat, and share ideas and issues on their minds. Incoming chamber president James Bourke said in the past, there were three separate sectors.

“We had a retail and hospitality group, a professional services group and another for manufacturing,” he said.

“But we thought it was lacking something, it was lacking a bit of a spark where businesses were only sharing with people in their own industry, and it maybe wasn’t beneficial to everyone.

“So, what we’ve decided to do now is we’re going to have one large advisory group and streamline the whole thing.”

Mr Bourke hopes to widen the channels of communication among local retailers.

“We’re trying to foster conversation between people, increase networking and ultimately we want to know what our members think because it’s not up to the board to be making decisions without knowing the opinion of our members,” he said.

“To do that, we need quantitative and qualitative data back from our members so that we can say this is the opinion of the chamber, that we’re all pulling the one way.”

Tomás Nally, one of those in the chamber leading the tactical shift, said they will soon be conducting a survey of local businesses to get the necessary data.

“We’ll ask things like how retail is going at certain times of the year, your thoughts on certain aspects of the town, whether it be traffic lights, crime or scooters on the footpaths, and lots of other topics we plan to survey,” he said.

“It will mean that if we publish the data and it says 98% of our retailers polled says X is needed, then it’s got to be X and nobody can ignore that and say it’s Y instead.

"It’s about getting that group representation out there and sending out business supports.”

Mr Nally said 120 retailers have already signed up to the new advisory group.

“The response has been great so far and we’re hoping to get that up to 150 and possibly 200 by the end of the year.

“In that group, we’ll also share with one another what we’re doing special, maybe it’s a sale, and other retailers can come and support their own or help in spreading the message.

“It’s just about connecting the dots and showing what the chamber can do.”