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The Interview Well known for his gardening exploits, Páraic Horkan now has his sights set on the world of pets
It’s a pet’s life
Better known for his gardening exploits, Castlebar man Paraic Horkan now has his sights set on all things pet related
The Interview Sean Rice
THINK Horkans, and the mind traces an image of magnolia and mistletoe and mock orange. Think Horkans five years hence and Pet World could be the instant association. For while the Horkan name will forever be linked with gardening, the future growth of their business is being directed pragmatically towards the sale of pets . . . all sorts of pets. A world of pure-bred dogs and hamsters and guinea pigs and budgies and aquatic animals – and reptiles - will be their merchandise. Yes, snakes and scorpions and even tarantulas. Already the Horkan Group has extended their pet business to a ‘stand-alone’ outlet in Terryland Retail Business Park in Galway. In October they are opening a similar store in Athlone. They are also actively seeking to extend into Ennis and to eventually roll out their Pet World brand throughout the country. Gardening is still the core constituent of the business, but the pet offshoot has grown to such an extent that it is now a separate company within the Horkan Group, and they are meeting the demand for pets with as much insight and enthusiasm as they did when gardening was in its infancy. You must go back all the way to the grandmother of the present manager, Paraic Horkan, to find the genesis of their gardening enterprise, to when Sara Horkan grew fruit and vegetables for sale in her little grocery store in Spencer Street in Castlebar, a hobby pursued by her son, Sean, when she retired. Sean, Paraic’s father, developed the grocery business in two thriving shops in which he also sold his own gardening produce. But his acuminous mind had directed his family away from the grocery trade. So that by the time Ben Dunne came to town Paraic, armed with an education in horticulture, and his siblings had a garden centre established where the grocery store once stood. It demanded patience and resolve to sustain that operation, for when Paraic finished college in 1983 gardening was merely a recreational hobby. “It was not a serious business. I had got an Australian visa and was seriously thinking about emigrating for a few years. Gardening was then a business that lasted from March to August and certainly not something you would make a living from,” said Paraic. Its popularity grew, however, when RTE commissioned a series of gardening programmes, and when Gerry Daly came to the fore as a gardening icon. By the end of the eighties, Horkan’s grocery business had died, but the garden centre was in bloom. Sean was still involved, together with Paraic and his brothers John and Tomas, all conversant with the retail trade in which they grew up. John had already been trained in hotel management. National recognition came with their winning of the Bord Glas Garden Centre of the Year award in 1990, the first centre outside Dublin to be chosen. That major coup thrust Horkans into the national limelight. Suddenly their expertise and advice was in huge demand. Paraic presented a weekly gardening programme on Mid-West Radio and customers flocked to the centre in such numbers that the Spencer Street half acre was bursting at the seams. Stores in Sligo and Oranmore were developed and eventually, in 2002, a ten-acre site in Turlough purchased to accommodate expansion. “The business had grown to such an extent that extra space was vital. The site in Turlough was attractive because of the nearby National Museum of Country Life. We saw the synergies that would develop between ourselves and the Museum and we went for it,” said Paraic. “It was a milestone in the business.” In Spencer Street they had got into the sale of pets in a small way, and in next to no time their store was alive with the chattering of budgies and canaries and cockatoos, presenting management with an ideal opportunity to diversify. “Four years ago we set up a company called Pet World and branded it with our own brand. In addition to pet shops at all our garden centres, we have now opened a stand-alone 8,000sq ft pet store at Terryland Retail Park in Galway City. “Our next plan is to open a similar store in Athlone in October. We are also actively looking at establishing a branch in Ennis and further afield in the years ahead. “We got into gardening when it was in its infancy. We grew up with the industry, but a lot of other people have come into the market place. So it is well serviced at the moment, and it is not an easy business. It is seasonal and weather related whereas the pet business is steady all the year round.” The nature of gardening has also changed. Twenty years ago people were growing their own seed and bulbs and vegetables. “With the Celtic Tiger people have more disposable income and see the garden as an extension to the house, so things like decking and paving and instant gardens are being sought. “Gardening programmes today are all about makeovers, creating something instant . . . instant trees, instant shrubs. Ten years ago it was all about the basics of gardening; it was done in stages. Now it is all about designer gardens.”
“Our growth over the next few years is going to come from two areas . . . development of the existing property in Turlough, a complementary business to the garden centre, in the line of crafts, gifts, and lifestyle type products. It will include facilities such as a restaurant where visitors can rest and relax. We want to make it a destination centre where people will spend time . . . visiting the museum and the garden centre.” The other strand to the growth is Pet World. Like gardening, twenty years ago it was unheard of. It is now a lifestyle in which people have developed a deep interest. “Five years ago the pet business was very much a small, pokey, smelly, dingy sort of set up. But because people are having smaller families nowadays they are turning more to pet animals. Our typical customer is someone in their thirties with maybe one or two kids. They’ll have a dog and a rabbit for the kid. Years ago the average family was six or seven kids; there was no room for pets.” He said the growth in the dog business was particularly strong. The day of the old mongrel outside the back door was disappearing. People wanted family friendly pedigree dogs. The opening of several veterinary clinics in Castlebar reflected the demand for household pets. Rabbits, hamsters, aquatic cold water and tropical fish, gold fish, carp etc, guinea pigs budgies, parrots, African Greys, reptiles, snakes, scorpions, tarantulas were easy to care for, he said “Snakes need feeding only once a week, live inside and take up very little room. They suit people’s working lifestyle. You do not have to walk the snake.” There was also an educational aspect to pets. “Children have so much television, playstation and indoor static experiences that their parents are actually buying them pets to get them out into the garden.” The fish and reptiles are imported but local people, rearing them as a hobby, supply the small animals to Horkans, a little home industry for those involved. Paraic, who lives in Islandeady with his wife Carmel and three sons, said the success of their venture could not have been possible without a fantastic team responsible for the day to day running of the whole operation. They have eighty full-time staff and twenty part-time. His sister, Mairead, is responsible for HR, and his twin brothers John and Tomas, together with their cousin Peter, head their own management teams while Paraic is responsible for the overall development of the business and its direction. Meanwhile, in his new home adjacent to the Turlough centre, father Sean lives in tranquil retirement. He is still actively involved in boxing affairs at national and international level, and occasionally will ramble to the centre to view the remarkable growth of an industry accomplished through his intuition. “When he returned from Barcelona (where he managed the Irish Olympic boxing team) he saw that the business was doing very well and he had great foresight to hand it over to us,” said Paraic. “He had seen the trend and encouraged and directed us.”
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