Thomas Ennis has built a retail business in Dublin that employs over 250 people. Expelled from school at 15 he boxed internationally and trained as a butcher before learning about retailing from some of the best known names in Irish groceries. He now runs a multimillion business headquartered on Dublin’s Baggot mile. In this article Ennis discusses:

• How he built from scratch a dozen retail businesses
• Lessons from the late Feargal Quinn
• Lasting retail trends versus fads
• What the newspaper trade needs to do to survive
• How one of his stores beat 900 others to be named best small store of the year

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Serial investor Eamon Quinn greets shopkeeper Thomas Ennis warmly as he passes by on his way to pick up a healthy wrap at lunchtime. Quinn, the son of legendary retailer Feargal, is on friendly terms with Ennis. Both rose through the ranks together in Superquinn before it was sold for €400 million in 2005 to a consortium of property developers.

“How’s the training?” Quinn calls out.

“Not bad,” Ennis replies.

“What time are you doing these days?”

“Three, twenty-three,” Ennis says.

As Quinn moves towards the till of Spar on Baggot Street in Dublin 2, I ask Ennis what distance are they talking about. “The marathon,” he tells me. “Come on, let’s go up to my office where it is a bit quieter.” 

We go behind the counter of the coffee dock in Ennis’ store and head up to his office. Behind Ennis’ desk is the singlet he wore when completing one of four full-Iron Man’s he has finished since turning 40 five years ago.

On the floor along the wall are stacks of books about Ennis’ three loves: business, sport and music. “I always have a couple of books on the go,” Ennis admits.

On the walls are paintings of the Rolling Stones, a band that Ennis has followed around the world attending over 30 gigs.

Ennis’ face is a familiar one to anyone who works along the so-called Baggot Mile, a stretch of road that runs from St Stephen’s Green down towards the Aviva stadium. It is from this stretch of road that Ennis forged a mini-retail empire that today employs 258 people.

Quietly, almost below the radar, his eponymous Thomas Ennis Group sells tens of millions of euro of goods annually. Based primarily in Dublin 2 and Dublin 4, he owns seven Spars, three Maxol forecourts, his own Fudi delicatessen brand and a post office.  In total there are a dozen businesses in his group.

He is an old-school retailer, who believes in service. But he has a modern sensibility honed from travelling regularly to New York and London to find new ideas for his Dublin stores.

Ennis is constantly on the floor of his premises mixing with customers and mucking in when required. Over the years he has served me many times. I’ve seen him do everything from stacking shelves to finding items for customers.

He is an old-school retailer, who believes in service. But he has a modern sensibility honed from travelling regularly to New York and London to find new ideas for his Dublin stores.

A couple of weeks ago, we had started chatting outside one of his shops. “If you ever need to know anything about retail in the city centre come and talk to me,” he told me. “We see everything first. All the ups and downs.”

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“You are always chasing sales, chasing margin, chasing standards.”

When he was 15, Thomas Ennis, was expelled from St McDara’s a community secondary school in Templeogue, Dublin 6W. “It was a good school. Good teachers. I couldn’t fault the school. It was me. I just didn’t like being told what to do,” Ennis recalls.

Ennis never went back to school. Instead he went to FX Buckley’s to train as an apprentice butcher with the six-generation family business. “I really enjoyed working for the Buckley family. But I remember standing in that shop as a 19 or 20 year old looking at the people I worked with and thinking I didn’t want to be them. I didn’t want that. The meat game was changing. Everybody was going into the supermarket business.”

Ennis left butchery behind and went to work for John Rushe who owned a large Supervalu in Naas, Co Kildare. The family owned retailer put Ennis to work in the fresh foods part of the store. “I realised there for the first time I loved retailing,” Ennis says.

In 1996, Ennis, then 20, quit the business to go travelling for a year to Australia. He came back and went to work for John Furey and Maurice Smyth, two businessmen who had a range of retail interests primarily under the Eurospar brand. Ennis started in charge of fresh foods but he gained managerial experience filling in for store managers. “John gave me the opportunity to step from behind the counter to be store manager,” Ennis says.

Furey put him in charge of a Supervalu he owned in Hartstown Shopping Centre in Clonsilla, Dublin 15. “I enjoyed the responsibility,” Ennis said. “I was doing everything from sweeping the floor, packing to managing the business. There is no one day ever the same in retailing. You are always chasing sales, chasing margin, chasing standards. You are always trying to do better than you did yesterday.”

When he was 25 Ennis was approached by Pat Kelly, a regional manager with Superquinn, who asked him to work for the Feargal Quinn founded business.  “I knew Superquinn were the very best,” Ennis says.

“Every retailer in Ireland at the time was striving to be Superquinn. This was 1999 or early 2000.”

Ennis joined Superquinn’s graduate programme where he was mentored by Kelly as well as another executive there called Cormac Tobin, who is today chairman of Ramona Nicholas’ Cara pharmacy chain.

“I went up the ladder fairly quickly under their guidance,” Ennis says. “I was a single guy at the time so I could work seven days a week. Retailing is that type of business. The more you put in the more you get out.”

Ennis started in Superquinn’s store in Sundrive Shopping Centre in Kimmage before he was made duty manager in Blackrock, south county Dublin. From this position he got to know the doyen of Irish retailing, the late Feargal Quinn.

“Feargal was my buddy director. He would give me different projects and tasks and we would meet once a month to go through things,” Ennis says. “His core thing was the customer, the customer, the customer.”

From Blackrock, Ennis was made assistant manager in Superquinn in Bray. He ascended rapidly moving to more senior positions in ever busier shops. Around 2003 or 2004, Ennis then in his late 20s, was asked to work with Kelly on creating Superquinn Select. This was a smaller store concept that Superquinn was creating without in-store butchers or bakers.

“What happened with a lot of the guys in Superquinn is that they didn’t realise how important fresh food was to the business.”

Its first store was in Charlesland, Greystones, a new suburb that had sprung up after developers like Sean Dunne built thousands of houses there. “Consumers were looking for different things. They were working in Dublin and didn’t have time to do the traditional big Saturday shop. They wanted the quality and great breads that Superquinn was famous for – but they also wanted stores that were open from 6am to 10pm to suit the way they worked.”

After Greystones, Ennis moved onto creating another Superquinn Select in another booming suburb called Tyrrelstown, a townland about thirteen kilometres northwest of Dublin.

“The plan was to open 10 of them. We got two up and running before the business was sold,” Ennis recalls.

The new owners of Superquinn, led by the developer Bernard McNamara, paid a huge sum for the business as they saw it as a property play with a side order of retail.

“Simon Burke was brought in as managing director,” Ennis said. “He was a really good operator. But what happened with a lot of the guys in Superquinn is that they didn’t realise how important fresh food was to the business.”

John Clohisey, group property director of BWG Foods, asked Ennis would he like to open his own Spar. Ennis realised this was the opportunity he was waiting for: to own his own business but with the buying power and brand of being part of Spar’s network.

Ennis opened his first Spar on Merrion Row opposite the Unicorn, a well known restaurant in the final years of the Celtic Tiger.

“It is a different feeling working for yourself,” Ennis said. “It is unbelievably stressful but the mental rewards were fantastic.” It was 2005 and in his first quarter trading Ennis lost €36,000.  

“I didn’t sleep. It was seven days. I was working the shop even though I had a manager,” Ennis says. “I went from a good job, being well paid and having a pension to losing money.”

“The best business decision I ever made was realising that I can’t fix it. I had put my heart and soul into it but it couldn’t work.”

Ennis had invested heavily in his new Spar. It was the first Spar to employ chefs as well as its own baristas. Was this why you lost money? “No. There was waste. I had too many staff. It was an accumulation of things.”

Ennis focused on his margins and in his second quarter made money. By the end of his third quarter he had made back the money he had lost. “We have made money from Merrion Row ever afterwards and I am 14 years there.”

“What I was doing was different. I wanted fresh food to be made in house daily with exceptional service. This meant it cost more… but as the customer became more confident in what we did our sales went up and our costs went down.”

In 2008 Ennis felt ready to open a second Spar in Celbridge, Co Kildare. “I did it against the advice of everybody,” he recalled. “I felt it was a shop that just needed a bit of love and it would work.”

“It was the worst and best decision I ever made,” he said. “I should have listened to people and my gut. I was so wrong. The best business decision I ever made was realising that I could not fix it. I had put my heart and soul into it but it couldn’t work. It was an unbelievable learning curve for me and we haven’t made the same mistake since.”

In November 2009 Ennis closed Celbridge. He had opened two more Spars in the city centre around the same time which were all trading well. He owned a Spar on Upper Baggot Street (which has closed since as its building was knocked down) as well as a Spar on Mount Street opposite Bord Bia. Next he took over the forecourt of Maxol garage on Mespil Row before later opening two more petrol station based outlets.

“Losing money… there is nothing like that to educate you,” Ennis said. “After Celbridge we became much sharper. We developed a formula of exceptionally good food and service. We are not into peas and beans or boxes of corn flakes. Our offering is more select.”

“We have been outbid a few times for sites. If I never open another new shop it doesn’t bother me. I only want to do things that I think will work.”

Ennis also got the idea to open his delicatessen chain called Fudi. He rolled out three outlets but got an offer from another retailer to take over the sites of two of them which was too good to refuse. He still has one outlet on Lower Mount Street and he has an eye out for additional locations.

“The plan was to open up 10 of them but the market is crowded at the moment,” Ennis said. “We have been outbid a few times for sites. If I never open another new shop it doesn’t bother me. I only want to do things that I think will work.”

Tom Lyons (TL): What was it like being a retailer in Ireland’s recession?

Thomas Ennis (TE): I was lucky. I had great support at home from my wife and a good team around me. I just worked through it. In my head I was thinking: ‘Okay you left school young to work in a bloody butchers in Moore street. It will never be as tough as that.’ I had my health. The recession made me a better retailer and a better businessman. Anyone who survived learned a lot.”

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“I have been in a couple of scenarios where you just have to dog it out in business. Being fit gives you the strength to do that.”

As a young man Thomas Ennis trained as a boxer with former Olympian Mick Dowling. He boxed for Ireland and won a Leinster senior title at welterweight. “I would have boxed Francie Barrett before he went to the Olympics in 1996. I wasn’t good enough to make a career out of it but it was great for discipline when I was growing up.”

“That discipline in sport followed me through into business,” Ennis said. In 1999 he gave up boxing to focus on retailing. “I went back coaching but I didn’t have the time anymore.”

“I have been in a couple of scenarios where you just have to dog it out in business. Being fit gives you the strength to do that.”

In 2008 Thomas Ennis ran his first marathon in Dublin. He had never run further than ten kilometres before but was immediately hooked. Ennis has run 19 marathons since. “They are a different animal to boxing,” he said. “It was an instant addiction.”

When Ennis turned 40 in 2015, he started doing Ironmans. “It was tough as I couldn’t swim! I could make it across a swimming pool but that was all,” he said. Ennis took swimming lessons and started doing triathlons to build up his endurance.

He has done four full Ironman’s and a number of halves. “I have four booked for next year,” he laughs. “You are on your own doing them. I will never win but I enjoy the challenge.”

Ennis said his advice to anyone thinking of running their own business was to get fit. “Being in a good place mentally is linked to physical fitness which in turn is good for business.”

“I have been in a couple of scenarios where you just have to dog it out in business. Being fit gives you the strength to do that.”

“If you have an idea stick with it. Do your research but be true to your vision.”

Tom Lyons (TL): Are you concerned that the Irish economy could go into recession again post say Brexit?

Thomas Ennis (TE):  I think anyone who went through the last recession has a good memory for what it was like. I don’t think we will make as big mistakes as we did then again.

TL: What has trading been like this year and what is next year looking like?

TE: We have grown this year. When all the Brexit talk was going on there was a lull. Retail is a confidence business. If the economy is good people tend to spend more and treat themselves to that little extra thing. We can react to dips better today. We are watching carefully what is going on. Last time I think people just kept going (despite negative economic signals) and weren’t cautious.

“Newspapers have so many experts for example but they never get out and meet the people who buy papers. There is too much of a defeatist attitude about newspapers. Print is not dead!”

TL: As someone who sells thousands of newspapers a week what do you think of it as a business?

TE: We sell a lot of newspapers but we could sell more. I think the newspaper industry could do more to hold onto their business. They could engage with their customers more. I had a chat with somebody senior in the newspaper business and they said ‘Will we do a free water?’ I said ‘No, that’s crap.’ ‘You need to be more innovative.’ Newspapers have so many experts for example but they never get out and meet the people who buy papers. There is too much of a defeatist attitude about newspapers. Print is not dead!

TL: Your stores were one of the first mainstream outlets to stock large amounts of protein bars…how did you know this would take off?

TE: Protein bars is a category the big confectionary companies didn’t think would take off. I could see the sales when we started stocking protein bars but the big guys just ignored it. They are a big part of our business. Look at the success of Fulfil (a brand of protein bar). You have to listen to your customers to see trends.

TL: What do you think will be the big retail trend in the next three years?

TE: Trends come and go. People want good quality fresh food and an abundance of it. Protein salads. Tasty hot food. That’s what lasts. Other things like donuts they came and went.

TL: What advice would you give someone starting their own business?

TE: If you have an idea stick with it. Do your research but be true to your vision. Be conscious of who you get counsel from. Don’t let the knocks hold you back. Go for it.

” Jeff Bezos is good! Look at all the knocks he got building Amazon. He stuck to his principles even though everybody told him it wouldn’t work.”

TL: There is a lot of talk of Uber Eats, Deliveroo, even drones. Will technology ever disrupt your industry?

TE:  Technology is fantastic. In 2005 when we opened Spar Merrion Row we had a touch screen ordering service. Fourteen years ago we had it. But it didn’t work as nobody used it. We use elements of technology like Bamboo (an Irish lunch ordering app). Will we engage with new technology? Absolutely. We have three new self-scanning tills going into our stores. I was against them as I was a firm believer in customer service. But our consumer wants them so we will have them. We embrace whatever we think will suit us and our customers.

TL: Who is your inspiration in business?

TE:  Jeff Bezos is good! Look at all the knocks he got building Amazon. He stuck to his principles even though everybody told him it wouldn’t work. My personal mentor has been Walter O’Hara Jr who works for Allen & Co (a New York based boutique investment bank). He is an Irish American from the Bronx. He was on the board of Merrion Capital at one stage and he started coming into my shop when he stayed in the Merrion Hotel for board meetings once a month. Even now 14 years later I would ring him for advice. I was over with him in New York only a few weeks ago. I can bounce things off him. I have been very lucky to have good mentors in business.

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In November the Thomas Ennis Group’s flagship store, Spar Merrion Row, was named best small store of the year out of 900 shops by the Institute of Grocery Distribution beating rivals  in Britain, Ireland, Denmark, Belgium and China.

I asked Ennis what was that like? “It was great to win it and down to the entire team. To win a prize like that you need to listen to your customers, be creative but respect the basics: quality fresh food and good service.”

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