We have a fierce loyalty to the Cathcart name, which has been trading in Enniskillen for over 40 years and we want it to be here for another 40 years.” A determined businesswoman, Roisin Cathcart (pictured above) married Richard Cathcart nine years ago and has put her accountancy skills to work in the family business, which has seen many changes since the economic crash.

More female customers saw an increased home décor section in the store and the business is also doing well since going online.

“In reaction to the downturn in the economy we identified a need to diversify out of our core building products into the lifestyle market, therefore we increased our home décor, which includes garden, leisure and barbeques,” Roisin tells The Impartial Reporter.

In 2010, the company moved its Derrychara site to its Tempo Road base, ensuring easier management of staff, deliveries and IT systems.

“Traditionally this business was set up 42 years ago by Richard’s dad Roy Cathcart as a builder’s merchants and hardware store,” Roisin points out.

“The business is part of a group of retailers throughout Ireland who carry out studies into shopping habits and changing trends. That research noticed a big, big shift from male customer to female customer. In many households, the woman holds the purse strings. That research found that husbands and boyfriends are sending their female partners in to get them items,” Roisin explains. As a result, the hardware and builders yard were connected, while the front of the shop was “softened” so that “it was geared towards the female customer.” Roisin adds: “We have seen our female customer base increasing. We also increased our hardware range to include specialist home cleaning products and winter heating.” F.R Cathcart has had to take on board the fact that “people aren’t building as many houses anymore.” Roisin explains: “It’s about trying to react to trends as quickly as we can. It’s important for a family business to be able to do that because we don’t have the luxury of big research and development teams.” Households are “improving what they have and are spending money on good quality things that are going to last a lifetime.” Roisin points out: “We are seeing a shift away from cheap and cheerful to something that will stand the test of time.” Ongoing developments include “developing the garden centre”, which attracts customers to the on-site Lavender Rooms café and refurbishment of the hardware store “to consolidate the range of products for the trades-person and increase the offering for the retail customer.” Trading online was “a steep learning curve” which initially involved “a lot of stumbling in the dark.” “Three years ago we started realising that people are having less and less time to go shopping,” the mother-of-two explains. “Taking ourselves as a typical family, we don’t have an awful lot of time for shopping and we are increasingly doing a lot of shopping online, therefore we decided to explore e-commerce.

“We spent a lot of time researching products and we employed someone we could dedicate solely to the online side of the business. We realised that we had desirable products and we were competitive price wise. It came to the point where we were bumbling along and had to make a decision as to whether we were going to do this properly,” Roisin recalls.

Advice came from local e-commerce expert Patrick Conlon, who helped get FR Cathcart set up on Amazon and eBay. “That worked for us and we started putting more items online; a mix of products that are a representative sample of what we sell in store. We have been selling to customers in UK, France, USA, Dubai and Spain,” Roisin continues. “It was trial and error but through Fermanagh District Council’s Grow and Prosper programme we learned how to take the trial and error out of it.” Such was the success of the e-commerce side of the business, a system upgrade was required. This required investment in a new website and epos till system. “We got InvestNI funding which resulted in a fully integrated system. This means if something sells in the shop, the stock online adjusts.” Overall, Roisin says: “It has been a massive learning curve but it has added revenue to the business.” She continues: “A lot of people think that selling online is easy but it requires a lot of time and research. It’s rewarding when it works, but it’s hard work.” The online arm of the business now employs two full-time and one part-time members of staff.

Running a family business “requires a lot of hard work.” Roisin notes: “It’s nice in Enniskillen that we have so many family businesses. Bigger groups have bigger buying power so you have to offer something different. We can offer excellent personal customer service because we know our customers so well.” Going forward, FR Cathcart wants to become “a destination shop”.

“Richard and I love what we do. We obviously make time for family (daughters Spohie, five and Chloe, three) but we are always making mental notes if we spot something we can learn from. Also, with the online side of the business, it’s 24-seven.” Roisin concludes: “We have a fierce loyalty to the Cathcart name. We try to instill that enthusiam into all our 25 employees, some of whom have been here since the start and have brought a huge amount of knowledge and expertise.

“We don’t for a second think we know it all. We try to use the people around us to help us make decisions. We are a family based management team and it’s that which drives the business.”