Clonakilty's iconic Atkins DIY, which sold everything 'from a needle to an anchor', is up for sale

Thu, 20 Jul, 2023 - 00:00

Tommy Barker

A WEST CORK institution, Atkins DIY with a Munster business history going back almost 150 years, is for sale, with doors likely to close on existing uses as new development beckons on its key, Clonakilty town centre site.

For Sale sign boards went up this week on the much-loved Atkins DIY after news of the closure and planned sale emerged several months ago: the site is likely to make over €1 million, possibly well over it given its central setting and access to three streets, plus a river aspect in one of West Cork’s busiest tourist towns.

The historic building, with four-storey, eight bay stone warehouse at the corner of Clarke Street and Asna Street, occupies only a fraction of the overall 0.6 of an acre plot, along with large old storage sheds and an open yard.

It’s visible from the inner relief Road/N71, next to Harte’s Spar, and opposite the Waterfront mixed use award-winning development and Whale’s Tail restaurant, bus stop, as well as the Courtyard development and has extensive frontage to the River Feagle which runs along its southern boundary.

Atkins DIY is on a 0.6 acre prime site in Clonakilty town

It also has access of the slender Seymore Street, which runs from Asna Street by Sheehys Hardware, in a very well-established part of the town, home to a number of historic properties and former warehouses, some now converted to apartments.

Atkins DIY and Hardware is for sale by private treaty via local estate agent Kieran O’Gorman, who doesn’t give a price guide and who says with Town Centre zoning is it wide open for a vast array of new uses, including residential, retail, other commercial, heritage uses, sheltered accommodation and tourism-related uses.

Mr O’Gorman describes the prime site as substantial, in the seaside town of Clonakilty and as “a once-off opportunity to acquire this unique property with significant development potential.” Calls have also been made locally for the local authority – who have previously invested heavily in Clonakilty urban fabric, winning awards for work done on Emmet Square and Asna (also spelled Astna) Square and the main Pearse Street.

Mr O'Gorman said his clients were selling during to advancing years, and while the business was taken over in a management buy-out in 1996.

It has roots going back to 1876, when John Atkins & Company was set up by a John Atkins from Dunmanway, and Joe Wolfe from Ballydehob, and the property is still owned by Atkins/Wolfe descendants.

It later expanded to incorporate McKenzies in 1898 and subsequently opened in Carrigrohane Road, just west of Cork city by the Lee Fields, at Fermoy, Midleton, Bandon, Clonakilty, and for a period in Dundrum, Co. Tipperary.

Other branches focus on farming supplies, while Clonakilty was the only branch with hardware and building supplies, joining the Topline buying group in 1994; the other Atkins/McKenzies branches are focused on farming supplies.

In an historic aside on the Atkins DIY website a report is recalled from the Southern Star in 1915 when the company opened on what was then Boyle Street, now Asna Street describing the “very fine premises in Boyle Street, covering several thousand square feet of surface. The new premises is for the purpose of storing seed, manures, and agricultural implements, which Messrs Atkins now do perhaps a bigger trade than any concern in this country. A special feature of their business, which we note with pleasure is a growing one, is the section devoted to furniture, which is now entirely manufactured on their own premises.

“Messrs Atkins sell almost everything, from a needle to an anchor,” it continued, “and it is significant of the esteem in which the firm is held that the only fault we ever heard alleged against it is that the public patronage is so great that their large and excellent staff are often unable to cope with the heavy rush of business.”