New Furniture Centre opens another Cork store and plans a third outlet

ONE of the country’s largest furniture stores is expanding in the recession with the opening of a new outlet today.

The New Furniture Centre also expects to open a third outlet in Cork’s southside with the next 12 months. It has spent €350,000 kitting out its new store in Ballyvolane.

The company’s owner Teddy Barry said all of this money was spent locally.

Mr Barry said the trading environment is tough but the company is fighting.

“We have a good team and we will fight for anything that’s going,” he said.

The new store is located next to Lidl in Ballyvolane. The New Furniture Centre acquired the premises from Lidl for an undisclosed sum.

Mr Barry is also on the hunt for a premises in Cork’s southside and hopes to open a store there in the next 12 months.

“Opening a store in the southside was next on our list, but we got such a good deal in Ballyvolane we couldn’t say no,” he said.

“The development of the New Furniture Centre has been one of the great business success stories in Cork. The expansion was a natural progression for the firm,” said Mr Barry who opened his first store in the middle of the last recession.

The New Furniture Centre was established more than 30 years ago and is very much a family business with Mr Barry’s wife Betty and four children Kieran, Brian, Evelyn and Dolores allinvolved in running the business. They employ 22 and hope to create around six more jobs with the new store.

“The people of Cork and all over the Munster area have been very supportive of the New Furniture Centre down through the years and we would like to thank them for their continued support,” said Mr Barry.