Ben Dunne was born in 1908 on the shores of Carlingford Lough, in the
Co. Down village of Rostrevor. His first business venture was picking
berries with his brother which they sold to buy sheep, hoping to raise
the fare to emigrate to the America. However, he was noticed by a local
businessman as a young man who had a good business acumen and
commercial ability and he remained in Ireland.In 1926 he moved
to Drogheda to his first job as an appre...
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Ben Dunne was born in 1908 on the shores of Carlingford Lough, in the
Co. Down village of Rostrevor. His first business venture was picking
berries with his brother which they sold to buy sheep, hoping to raise
the fare to emigrate to the America. However, he was noticed by a local
businessman as a young man who had a good business acumen and
commercial ability and he remained in Ireland.
In 1926 he moved
to Drogheda to his first job as an apprentice at Andersons Drapery
store. He worked there without any pay for the first three months when
he progressed to earning 50 shillings per week.
With a good
grounding in Andersons, he then moved to Cameron's Drapery Shop in
Longford and then to Roches Stores in Cork in the mid 1930's where he
gained wide experience in buying and there he made many contacts that
were to provide invaluable in later years. Ben Dunne met his wife Nora
Maloney during his time at Roches Stores and they were married for 44
years and had six children.
As the company expanded, Ben Dunne
began travelling overseas and participating in annual conventions and
seminars held by the National Retail Merchants Association in the USA.
In 1970 they honoured him by electing him to the Board of Directors and
that year he was selected as the 'Most Outstanding World Retailer'
Everyone
who worked with Ben Dunne said he had an instinctive feel for what
would sell well and he was intent on ordering what he believed
customers wanted. Staff remember him as 'a bit of a genius who was
often tough but always fair'.
When he died in 1983, Ben Dunne
had overseen the development of 58 stores in the Republic of Ireland,
18 in Northern Ireland and one in Spain.
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