Conlon's Food Hall celebrates 40 years in business in Dundalk

The Conlon family, who run two popular delicatessens and a catering service, are celebrating 40 years in business in Dundalk.

The family-run business, Conlon's Food Hall, was first established in town by Peter Conlon in 1984 and is still a thriving business and real hub of the community 40 years later.

To mark the special milestone there were celebrations at Conlon's Food Hall on Church Street on Saturday with a barbecue, DJ and a raffle, which raised money for the Irish Sepsis Foundation in memory of Peter Conlon who sadly passed away from the illness in 2016.

As the family mark the 40th anniversary of their business Peter's daughter Deborah talks about how it all started saying: “Dad worked in hotels; he was a chef in hotels and worked in the Derryhale and the Imperial and a few others.

“But he didn't like the unsocial hours any more as he had a two year old at home; and Christopher, who now runs the business, was on the way, so he decided to look about opening a delicatessen in order to work more social hours.

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“The goal was to be able to work around the family, but he still put in a lot of hours at work.

“He originally opened the business on Patrick Street in 1984.

“He was there for about a year and then he moved to Church Street for two years and then finally moved and stayed put in 14 Church Street.”

Deborah recalls how when her father decided to open the delicatessen people told him it would never work.

But as they celebrate being 40 years in business he clearly proved the nay-sayers wrong.

“When Dad opened it first he was told that a delicatessen would never survive and he may give up before he had even started. We get a good wee giggle out of that now”, Deborah laughed.

“He proved them wrong. Not only are we here on Church Street 40 years; we have a Conlon's Food Hall on the Avenue Road; a canteen in St Vincent's school; we are doing school lunches for St Daighs and the catering is flying.

“It is down to Dad's sheer determination and hard work; and a good support system.

“Our Mom Margaret was a teacher in Realt na Mara, she is retired now, and she would have worked a bit in the office and helped him out where she could.

“And my granny worked there for a while; and we have Kathleen O'Callaghan, who started with us in the beginning and still works with us today.

“You need good people around you and a strong work ethic.”

Peter's son Christopher now runs the business but all five of his children have worked for the family-run Conlon's Food Hall.

“Christopher worked in the business since graduating college.

“Christopher did a Degree in Business Management and Dad said to him 'sure come and work with me until you find whatever it is you want to do' and he is still there.

“I worked alongside him and have taken on more responsibilities since Dad passed away.

“Martin worked as a delivery driver, my other brother Garrett worked in the shop growing up, and my sister Rachel worked in the shop growing up too. All five of us worked in the shop.

“Our cousins, Dad's cousin, neighbours also worked in the shop over the years.

“We are very lucky that a lot of the people that work with us, stay with us.

“We have fantastic staff, a lot of them have been with us a long time, like Kathleen for 40 years and others have been with us 32 years, 25 years.

“I like to think that anyone who comes in the door of the shop has good craic with us and they feel welcome; and they want to come back not just for the food but for the service as well.”

A lot of things have changed over the years with the one flagship delicatessen on Church Street growing into a thriving business that includes another Conlon's Food Hall on the Avenue Road and a successful catering service.

Deborah said: “Dad did a fair bit of work over the years; the kitchen in Conlon's Food Hall on Church Street when he first opened was a lot smaller than the kitchens we work out of now.

“We extended the kitchens around 20 years ago, so our production kitchens now would be considerably bigger than when Dad started.

“Our Avenue Road shop is 10 years old in January.

“We are St Vincent's secondary school, in the canteen, and we have been there since I was in second year, we won't say how long ago that is”, Deborah joked.

“We also have other long-standing relationships, like with St Daighs school in Inniskeen, we do their school lunches and lunches for St John of God's.

“We also have a lot of long-standing customers and many who use our catering service.

“We have been privileged to have been part of a lot of family celebrations in some way for a lot of people in the town and surrounding areas over the years.”

Deborah told how supporting local businesses is very important to the family.

“We try to keep things as local as possible”, she said.

“We know, being a local business, the importance of keeping things local.

“Our butcher Ronan Crosby is based in Collon, he is actually married to my cousin.

“Tony Kieran, our neighbours, is one of our main suppliers; our packaging comes from Don Keating, McCann and AV Direct; all local companies.

“Whenever possible we go local. It is so important to go local and support local business and economy.

“And aside from that you can ring up people you know – there has been more than once we have been in a panic for something we need last minute for catering and it pays to have those types of relationships with people that you can ring in a panic who will help you out.”

To mark the business's import anniversary they have been treating lucky customers to a free gift.

“We have been doing giveaways to customers in our stores for the last 40 days – 40 gifts for 40 days to celebrate 40 years”, Deborah explained.

And on Saturday they marked the 40th anniversary with a party at the flagship store on Church Street and a raffle that raised money for the Irish Sepsis Foundation in honour of their Dad.

“All the money we are raising is for the Irish Sepsis Foundation” Deborah said.

“They are a fantastic organisation, which dedicates a lot of time to raise awareness about sepsis and the symptoms of sepsis.

“Dad passed away from sepsis in 2016. We didn't know about sepsis, we didn't recognise the symptoms.

“We wanted to highlight the work they do and make a few more people aware of what the symptoms of sepsis are so somebody else might recognise them.”

Deborah concluded: “Dad has been very much missed, we have all been thinking about him a lot as we celebrate the business's 40th anniversary.”