SHOPPERS no longer need to go to Northern Ireland for cut-price groceries as prices similar to, or even lower than, the North or the UK on all leading brands are now available at the N17 Grocery Price Club based at Milltown on the Galway-Mayo border.
Offering groceries at wholesale prices to all shoppers has been an ambition for years for businessman Tom Naughton and his wife Bernie who operate the very successful cut-price N17 electrical and furniture stores in Milltown and Terryland, Galway.
Having been involved in the wholesale grocery trade during the 1990s, before selling that business to a large wholesaler, Tom says they are influenced to re-enter the grocery business as they can now offer wholesale prices to the general public.
“No longer will shoppers have to drive for hours to towns across the border to get groceries at knock-down prices as thousands of items will be available at wholesale cost at the N17 Price Club adjacent to the electrical and furniture store on the main Galway-Claremorris road at Milltown,” he said.
Since his departure from the grocery trade almost a decade ago when he owned and operated West-A-Wake Wholesale, supplying to shops across Connacht, Tom Naughton has observed many changes in the grocery business.
He says these include the lack of real competition in the supermarket trade with just two major wholesale companies dominating the business.
“Unlike the electrical and furniture business, where prices are now less than half what they were 10 years ago, there has been a huge rise in the price of most grocery items in the 26 counties.
“This is due to the lack of competition and the fact that there are too many costly links in the chain from the manufacturers to the shoppers. All this has contributed to the queues of southern shoppers in towns such as Newry and Enniskillen, which have made the headlines in recent weeks,” he said.
"Seeing all this has inspired me to set up the N17 Price Club in the central Connacht location of Milltown where we will be selling grocery items at wholesale prices, many direct from UK and mainland Europe manufacturers.
"Many items will be 25 per cent and some even 50 per cent less than what you would pay for them in the major multiple supermarkets," says Tom.
He added that sourcing the goods direct from the manufacturers and cutting out the middlemen is the key to slashing the prices to a level never seen before in the Irish grocery business.
"From now on there will be no need for people to waste time and petrol driving to Northern Ireland for low cost groceries as we can now supply them right here in the heart of the west of Ireland," he concluded. The setting up of this new style grocery discount business in Milltown has also created a number of new jobs in this area.
