Togher Tyres will celebrate a milestone in March 2023
By Tom Gillespie
MULTI award-winning Togher Tyres in Castlebar will be celebrating 40 years in business in March 2023.
The family-run firm were named national tyre retailer of the year for 2015, 2018, 2019 and 2020, as well as scooping six Connaught/Ulster titles.
Joe and his wife Eileen, who employ 10 people, including his brothers Mattie and Micheal and his son Damian, a scrum-half with Castlebar Rugby Club, started the business on March 17, 1983.
Damien joined his parents in the business 10 years ago after completing his Leaving Certificate examination.
Being an essential service, Togher Tyres have been very busy during Covid.
Joe said: "We have a great location with seven bays facing Breaffy Road and three commercial bays at the rear.
"The first 10 months of this year were very busy. November slowed down a little bit. We had a lot of catching up to do but we did catch up.
"November traditionally is usually quiet with people putting money aside for the Christmas."
Togher Tyres have had a spin-off from the construction of the new Westport to Turlough road, looking after the fleet of McGuire trucks and jeeps.
From selling evening papers on the streets of Castlebar as a young lad, Joe Togher has built his award-winning tyre business.
Customer loyalty, he said, has been the bedrock of his success for over 38 years.
Joe told me how Togher Tyres came about: "In 1983 we were looking for a place to rent in Castlebar which was very hard to get for the right price at the time. We ended up going out the Westport Road at the back of Paddy Cannon’s. We were there for a year and a half.
"Then Sean Mulroy built a filling station across the road here and we rented a place from Sean. That was our move into town. Business started growing from there.
"We had a lot of good, loyal customers that started dealing with me then and they are still dealing with me today 38 years on.
"In 1986 we purchased a site on Breaffy Road from Joe Mulroy Contractors and we built the first place of our own.
"We had two bays and an office. We had three or four lifts inside so that we could work with five or six different vehicles at a time. The business kept building from there.
"Then in the ‘90s we bought another site for the truck section and we had two big bays dedicated for trucks which left the other building with two bays totally for cars.
"A lot of my customers are friends over the years. A lot of business people and other customers have died over the years but their sons and families have carried on business with us."
They started doing exhausts and light mechanical works but the business was getting bigger and bigger so, as Joe said: "We had to be master of one and not jacks of all trades.
"In 1999 I purchased the site in front here and we looked at the opportunity of building a nice modern place with seven bays to cater for cars, vans, 4x4s and commercials.
"In the business I am hands on on the floor. I worry about my customers. If you are not on the floor you will not have a business.
"To have a good business you need loyal customers and a dedicated staff."
Togher Tyres have a dedicated waiting room for customers and a play area for kids.
Joe’s first job was selling papers for Lilly McDonnell in Tucker Street. He said: "I would go in at 4.30 to five o’clock to collect the Evening Press and Evening Herald and my job was to go out and sell the papers in shops, pubs and restaurants.
"We were born in New Line across from Peter Dever’s Lone Star Filling Station. I was filling petrol and diesel there and fixing punctures by hand. I remember doing one for the late Brendan Grace and Joe Dolan."
Joe Togher has the most modern equipment in his workshop. "We renew our equipment regularly, every four to five years," he said. "We have seven bays and it costs €60,000 a bay for equipment.
"We have pioneered the style and a lot of people from around the country have come to see what we have done here. They were in from Spain from Bridgestone to see what we have done."
Joe went to school in St. Patrick’s National School and at the vocational school where he did not wait long. "After a year I ran out the door," he admitted.
Joe’s late father, John, used to drive a truck for Loughran’s of Turlough and his contacts on the road helped him along and brought in a lot of business.
Joe told me: "We have always advertised with The Connaught Telegraph as far back as 1983 with P.J. Hennelly."