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IRISH SALAD BAR chain Freshly Chopped has plans to sell a range of branded merchandise from its Grafton Street outlet in order to make peace with Dublin council over a planning row.
The company’s Grafton Street outlet was opened in February 2016 in a unit that is currently zoned for retail use and was previously occupied by Maguires newsagents – which included a small deli offering.
However last year Freshly Chopped was told by local and national planning authorities its outlet was in breach of planning regulations and the company did not have permission to trade from the city centre location.
The council was concerned that the salad bar would seriously injure and detract from the retail character of the area.
Speaking to Fora recently, Freshly Chopped founder Brian Lee said the company had been in discussions with the council and received advice that changing the signage and adding a retail element to the store could resolve the planning issue.
In a planning application last year, Freshly Chopped outlined in planning documents that it would turn three-fifths of the outlet into a retail store – with just over a tenth of the 41 sq m shop retained as a salad bar – and redesign the shopfront.
The company said it would sell a range of Freshly Chopped-branded tea towels, aprons, chopping boards, reusable coffee cups and tote bags. It also plans to stock knife sets, Irish cookbooks and mezzaluna chopping knives.
Hughes Planning and Development Consultants, acting on behalf of Freshly Chopped, argued that this would bring the salad chain’s Grafton Street store within the parameters of planning regulations.
The consultants said that salad sold from the unit would be consumed off premises and since the sale of food is subsidiary to the main retail use, the unit could be defined as a ‘shop’.
In response to the concessions made by Freshly Chopped, Dublin council said it still has “concerns” that retail space is still not a large enough proportion of the unit.
“The applicant is requested to consider increasing the proposed retail floor space and reducing the proposed area given over for the sale of sandwiches and other food. As part of any proposed revisions, the food area should ideally be located towards the rear of the store.”
The council added that some more amendments also need to be made to the shopfront to bring the unit within retail guidelines.
A spokesman for Freshly Chopped said the company has lodged new plans with the council in a bid to keep the Grafton Street outlet open.
Fora understands the food chain will whittle down the food element further if needed in order to meet planning requirements. A final decision on the dispute will be made by the council in the coming months.
Expanding business
Freshly Chopped, which was co-founded by Brian Lee and Andy Chen, has rapidly expanded since it first launched in 2012.
The majority of its stores are based in Ireland, but the brand has also opened two stores in Cyprus. The firm opened its 60th outlet as part of an expansion into the UK market.
The most recent accounts for the brand show the firm’s main Irish operation was sitting on accumulated profits of €860,000 at the end of 2017
Freshly Chopped and the local council first locked horns in relation to the Grafton Street unit in 2016 when requests to retain modifications made to the Freshly Chopped outlet were knocked back.
During an unsuccessful bid to overturn the council’s decisions on the matter with An Bord Pleanála, Freshly Chopped said if the store was closed “it could damage the company so much that it will jeopardise the brand entirely along with over 600 jobs”.
The council can issue enforcement notices and pursue legal action in order to force through the closure of a business that is in breach of planning policy.
Discount retailer Dealz and coffee chain Starbucks were subject of legal proceeding by Limerick and Cork councils respectively in recent years after the two firms were found to be in breach of planning laws.
Written by Killian Woods and posted on Fora.ie
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Ah yes the Workers party associates 1985 – racketeering counterfeiting protection robberies intimidation … ah wonderful memories !
Sure your not mixing them with FF?
I remember 1985…I didn’t know it at the time – but emigration was just around the corner for me.
Thanks Eamon!
I’m amused at the second paragraph: “1985 – Fine Gael and Labour were in power. They introduced water charges and promised to reform Local Government. We’re still waiting.”
I guess that could still be on the local election posters..
I actually believed that man had scruples and would do what was right for the lower/working classes. How wrong I was.
A complete and utter sellout of the highest order. A stain on our country and a destroyer of the left. Thanks Eamonn.
@ Roland 303
Totally agree with you. Labour will be gone in next election, the party missed the opportunity to stand up for the common man. We’re facing into a continued top-down structured economy with little concern for those in need. We need a conversation in Ireland to agreed what type of society we want. Seems to me, no matter who gets into power they forget that we are human beings and not economic beings!
And what a traitor Gilmore turned out to be
He’ll have a big pay day and pension after the next election.
Him and his buddies.
“mission accomplished”……
Oh, it’d make you want to be sick!!!
LANGER
That’s just put me off my bacon sarnie.
He has certainly made 2014 a year to remember so far !
Spineless , worthless Stickie – only interested in the big fat pension – having destroyed The Labour Party !
Dick spring destroyed it the ladt time they were in government…..its no surprise how useless they are this time around aswell
“Stickie” wow, talk about living in the past. Should we continue to classify Sinn Fein as the “Provos” while we’re at it?
Gaping arsehole
Nobody in the workers party ever did a tap in their whole life
Gilmore what a joker ,the caption should read Workers I am going to line my pockets and look after my family and friends so you have being warned.
He even looked like a w@nker back then.
Was this just after he left the official RA !
It’s eamon’s way of breaking up the left wing parties and making them right wing chickens. Workers party democratic left now labour. Good job eamon way to go ruin the left.
Yes, he’s a totally laid- back individual all right!!
Just replace the ‘or’ with ‘an’ in the Workers Party ,and then 26 years later , replace the W with the letter B and make it the Bankers Party !
Where are his knitting needles?
Buried un the common mans back
He was going for reelection in 1985. So he has been in the political profession for 30+ years? And most f the rest of them the same. We need a new generation of politicians. Time for term limits to be introduced. Something like 10 years max. Get some new blood in there and chuck the dead wood. Any takers?
Have always thought the same..Lets do away with career politicians ..they have had long enough at the trough!
2 terms max with pensions pro rata might go someway to restoring trust and bring new blood and new ideas…but could the same not be said for the permanant civil service..who really run the country!
Any aspirations or ambitions to be a politician should automatically bar you from ever becoming one.
Mrs Brown hasn’t aged a bit
Laid back liar.
He is not even worth a heckle.
Little did we know then what sort of a vile turncoat this creature would turn out to be….
The last true Labour leader was Frank Cluskey, all this shower are DL, even the late Tonas McGiolla would be ashamed of how Gilmore and his lackeys have folded and Cowtowed to Enda and the Fine Gael Mafia
Mcgiolla, now that was a good msn
I prefer this one:
It’s like déjà vu!
Laid back and groovy?
Surely the heading for this article should read: Who’s the younger looking D!ckhead with the glasses?
Seeing this picture reminded me of W.B Yeat’s lines “What need you, being come to sense, / but fumble in a greasy till.” I think that just about sums it up.
Groovy !!! Hahahaaaaaaa.
Don’t make me laugh.
Knob
The new labour banner should read fcuk the workers party
Eamon Gilmore a political WH**E will jump into bed with any party
There they are fresh from making their own money,and Gilmore looking like a clown.
The funniest part of this article is the use of the word “leader” in the sub-heading. Gilmore does what he’s told by his FG bosses.
Is it Colin Hunt from the Fast Show?
Too bad he turned his back on the ethics of that party.
He certainly put Putin in his place
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