Job losses as Garvey’s Supervalu prepares to close

THE phones kept ringing out in Garvey’s Supervalu in Newcastle West this Monday morning, when the supermarket’s 45 full and part-time staff members were informed their jobs were gone and the shop would close by the end of the week.

The closure was due to difficult trading conditions, a spokesman for the company said.

The 11 full-time and 34 part-time staff would receive redundancy, he explained, and would be offered deployment to the group’s other stores if vacancies arose there.

Jim Garvey, the owner of the Garvey Group was not available for comment, the Limerick Leader was told.

The announcement of the closure of Garvey’s in the Market Yard has left the staff reeling and has dismayed business people and residents in the town. Many staff members have worked at the supermarket for as long as ten years.

“This has come as a shock,” Pat O’Donovan, chairman of the Newcastle West Business Association said this Monday lunchtime.

“It is another blow for a town that is fairly well rattled already.”

Garvey’s Group has supermarkets in Dingle, Listowel, Tralee, Cashel, Castleisland and Corbally and also owns a Centra forecourt shop in Newcastle West. None of these stores are affected, the spokesman said.

The Newcastle West store has had competition from number of other supermarkets in the town while, last year, supermarket chain Aldi received planning permission for a store in the Demesne but has declined to say when it intends to proceed with the project.

Garveys Supervalu will close this Saturday.