Tipperary Store Keeps Homesick Hungry Stocked Up

Dean Hand is founder of kiwis.ie which brings a taste of home to other New Zealanders around Ireland through the website and a village shop in Clerihan, County Tipperary.

“We’re a one-stop-shop for food and beverage products specifically from New Zealand, with some from Australia and South Africa,” Hand tells the Irish Times.

“We’ve won a couple of awards nationally for our business as a whole. A lot of that was down to the range of product that we have a lot of which is internationally sourced,” he says.

Hand, who is originally from Dunedin moved to Ireland 13 years ago, opened his store, a disused supermarket, in 2013.

He tells the Times that the best piece of business advice he ever received was to be consistent.

“I worked in food and beverage for many years and, in one particular place I worked, it was kind of company motto and it stuck with me. If you fluctuate too much, it will derail your focus, it will upset your customers and ultimately confuse the message you are trying to send out about what your business is.”

Original article by Fiona Alston, The Irish Times, July 8, 2016.