Avoca's biggest ever store opens in Dunboyne this week

Avoca's biggest store development to date will open in Dunboyne on Wednesday.

The massive store on at the former Plantagen (previously Gardenworks) premises on the old N3 at Piercetown will include the Fork Café, food market and retail area delivered in an innovative way, and last year, Avoca’s managing director, Simon Pratt, said: “This is our most ambitious store to date. We’re spending more than €3 million to create a gorgeous experience for our customers and they won’t be disappointed.”
It will be will be Avoca’s 12th store and will be the largest in the group with 35,000 square feet of retail space and car parking for 300 cars. Some 80 jobs are being created.

It is the first major investment in Avoca by its new owners, the US Aramark empire, who reportedly paid €64 million for the Irish family-owned firm.
According to a company blog this week, themes include a dedication to quality, Irish provenance, locally sourced, a sense of adventure, pride of place and of course a sense of colour and fun, with the interior featuring some interesting and eclectic features.
The designers make use of the floor space and floor-to-ceiling space to incorporate the farm to fork concept, created by dividing the interior space with indoor structures such as a garden shed which is home to Joeanna Caffrey flowers and a barn which will house the store’s range of books. A silo, a structure used for storing bulk materials in agriculture, stands in the centre of the retail section, re-purposed as a structure for hanging and displaying clothing. The exterior also embraces the same concepts, with vintage tractors in Avoca’s signature bright colours at the entrance, which again take full advantage of the scale of the premises.
Men’s and women’s fashion and accessories, gifts, jewellery, books, stationery, beauty, kids, homeware and lifestyle, and Avoca’s signature range of throws and knits will be in stock.
The Avoca Butcher will command a large space in the foodhall section of the Dunboyne facility presenting the best of Irish artisan free range organic meat with a full butcher’s counter, a dry aging cabinet and a wide range of meats from oxtail and beef cheeks to prime ribs and roasts.
Similar to Kilmacanogue’s Sugar Tree Café or the Birdcage in Avoca Rathcoole, Fork Café will be a self-service café. The café will seat 200 indoors including outdoor seating terrace, which will also provide wood-fire pizza from the terrace’s own pizza van.
Concessions at Avoca Dunboyne Poulet Bonne Femme; Sprout & Co Kitchen; Kish Fish; Howbert & Mays Garden Centre; Nature’s Gold; Mitchell & Son Wines; and Joeanna Caffrey Flowers.