Donegal Town Hardware closed out the calendar year in style when scoring a magnificent provincial double at the 2024 United in Excellence Awards, taking the prestigious ‘Best Regional Store in Ulster’ and ‘Best Regional Paint Store in Ulster’ accolades back to the north west of the island.
Consistently delivering unparalleled customer service levels for more than a quarter of a century, Donegal Town Hardware came up trumps at the most recent edition of United Hardware’s annual in-house United in Excellence Awards, where they were named Best Paint Store in Ulster and Best Overall Store in Ulster.
The historic twofold success represents worthy recognition for this long-established industry-leading supplier of high-quality, value-added building materials, hardware, DIY, paint and household goods to customers across south west Donegal
Director Martin McGowan, who runs Donegal Town Hardware alongside his brother Gerard, was delighted to learn that this busy, brisk, spacious and well-presented Homevalue store had been named best of the best in Ulster:
“We’re very pleased with the awards,” he told Building Ireland. “It’s great recognition of the team we have working here, our customers and the business as a whole. To be chosen as the best regional store in Ulster by United Hardware is a huge honour.”
Martin agrees that winning awards like these would not be possible but for the incredible team around him, the people on the ground who work so hard to make Donegal Town Hardware the success story it is today: “Absolutely, I’d be the very first to say that. It’s not about me or any of the other senior people here but our team on the floor. They are the ones who interact with our customers, who keep the business going and who deliver day in, day out.”
To this end, Donegal Town Hardware currently employs 30 staff, many of whom have given the business 20 years or more of service. This longevity is instrumental to the store’s uncanny ability to look after customers’ every need.
Since being established in 1998, Donegal Town Hardware has been part of United Hardware – the largest buying group in Ireland with over 150 stores – which enables them to offer a huge range of products at the most competitive prices around. Bar the recession years, the business has grown steadily and exponentially year on year…
“When we opened up initially, we operated from small premises of between 600 and 800 square feet, but today we have a covered area of 25,000 square feet,” Martin continues. “We started out offering building products predominantly as the core business but have branched into DIY, paints, homeware and have also added garden centre. We now cater for a large customer base including builders, the DIY market and home owners, specialising in paints, floors and doors.”
Martin acknowledges a huge debt of gratitude to Donegal Town Hardware’s loyal customer base: “Donegal town and the extended hinterland across the south west of the county have been very good to us,” he states. “There is a lot of growth in the town in terms of new houses and accommodation. There are five large hotels in Donegal town and numerous guesthouses, B&Bs and Airbnb’s, and they all support us and bring business to us.
“We provide an extensive delivery service across the south west of Donegal [including Killybegs, Glencolmcille, Glenties, Ardara, Lettermacaward and all areas adjacent to Donegal town], which saves our customers time and money, particularly trade customers, who can stay on site rather than having to drive around collecting materials.”
Service levels have been consistently strong at Donegal Town Hardware since Day One and being part of United Hardware is a big help in this regard. “Being involved in the Homevalue brand has been a massive help as it gives us more buying power and also allows us to trade at a bigger scale. This affords us significant savings, which we can in turn pass on to our customers.”
As an award-winning market leader, Donegal Town Hardware boasts a brilliant track record looking after customers in the area for 27 years and counting. Going forward, all the signs are that the business will continue to move with the times and improve its product, service and value offerings:
“We are constantly innovating and have recently updated our floors, doors and paints section with new displays and stands etc. to make them more attractive and user-friendly,” says Martin. “We want our customers to always have the best experience possible when they come into the store. We always do the very best we can on the service side to cater for our wide range of customers, from tradespeople to builders, private home owners or those in the agri sector.”
Donegal Town Hardware was originally a spin-off shop of BMG Hardware in Bundoran and has grown into a standalone success story in its own right. “We’ve come a long way but realise we have to keep our standards high to ensure that customers continue to get the best service,” Martin concludes.
“The future looks bright and solid. Donegal town is a thriving, growing town, with countless new developments and new houses being built. You have to make sure you always have the most modern, efficient and up to date tools and products, that meet with customer expectations, and are always in line with market trends.”
Donegal Town Hardware & DIY Ltd.,
Donegal Town Business Park,
Drumrooske
Donegal Town,
County Donegal.
Tel: 074 9723636
Email: [email protected]
Web: donegalhardware.ie
Facebook: www.facebook.com/DonegalTownHardware
This article was published in Building Ireland Magazine, June 2025, Vol 11 No 6
Donegal Town Hardware & DIY Ltd., featured
