It’s been 82 years since Thomas Dickey began the journey of T. Dickey & Co., centred just to the side of Mill Street in Irvinestown.

The hardware store and builders' merchant is now owned by John and Grace Dickey, having taken the business over in 1969 following the death of Thomas.

At that time, the business had two shops, including a main street site, with it eventually being decided that they would make the transition into one site, on Mill Street.

Thomas’ grandson, Christopher, is now a manager at the company and plays a large role in day-to-day operations.

“It was a general merchant on the main street,” Christopher said, when talking about the store’s humble beginnings.

“I think he [Thomas] had worked for someone else, and he then took on a business. That property is still there, but it would have been a very general store.

"That would have been very typical of the time, but with a broad variation just off the main street.

"I think there are records of him taking on the business back in 1942, so that is when he then formally took on the business himself.”

Christopher studied structural engineering himself and worked for six years in Belfast before making a return to his home town to continue the Dickey family legacy.

“The opportunity to work for yourself is very positive. I have worked in other places and had experience,” he said.

“I think that’s very important, that you see and experience things outside of Fermanagh. It was very good that I settled here and to then try and progress the business myself.”

T Dickey & Co. prides itself on offering a huge range of items and services needed for building a home, and after a rocky period for housing, following the pandemic, Christopher believes buying and developing properties is steadily returning to a good place.

“Primarily we’re a hardware store and builder’s merchants,” Christopher explained.

“We also have an Agribusiness, dealing with animal feeds to farmers on a separate site. We manufacture timber products alongside the builder’s merchants.

"It’s really a broad range of offerings to builders still under the general ethos of a store.

"It’s trying to be complete in your offerings for builders and farmers in the local area and further afield.”

Despite being a seemingly petite-looking building when regarded from the outside, it boasts an augmented interior, making you feel like Doctor Who stepping into the Tardis with a two-storey shop fronting acres of land out the back filled with timber, working mobile offices, machinery and other huts for construction.

The hardware store holds an abundance of items for keeping a home in check including paint, bolts, nails, drills, screws and many other essentials.

The recently introduced racks out in the back of the site store masses of wood and other timber imported from a range of places, from Limavady to Latvia, and piles of planks from different Swedish family companies alongside a host of additional key components such as cement being sourced locally in Fermanagh.

“The purchasing has become wider and wider, throughout Europe, than even 10 years ago,” Christopher added.

“So much of your trade is still within the UK, but you go into Scandinavia for timber, into Germany for timber, into Spain for things.

"Even on the local level, you’re starting to see such a spread of that, never mind imported products from China. We still have that in terms of plywood and materials like that from much further afield.

"It’s quite remarkable, for any local business, where their supply lines lie and how connected Fermanagh has to be in other places around the world.

"Things don’t just come down from a supplier in Belfast; you're connecting further out now.”

When asked what it was like working in the manufacturing trade, Christopher responded: “Manufacturing is a different challenge to retail.

"It’s a great asset to our business, that you manufacture a product on site, that you manage to deal directly with your customer.

"It’s a big positive for a customer to come in and deal with a manufacturer as opposed to further away. It produces challenges such as having to source from further out.

"You’re working within a bigger pool of product. There’s always going to be challenges, it’s productivity with relying on the good staff that you have, never mind challenges to the market.

"It's remaining competitive, keeping up quality, and delivering for a customer.”

Even with a wealth of land, the business still has plans to expand further and continue to grow on its success as it branches out further, with a strong belief that the company can play its part in the need for more housing.

“There’s a lot of growth plans. We always look at reinvestment every year and have invested a large amount of money on trying to be efficient on our site,” Christopher said.

“The next five years will lead to further expansion with a number of new buildings allowing more products to be brought on so we can supply geographically further away than we currently do.

"We see working from one unified site as a good model, other than from different stores dotted about.”