Newry BID Newsletter

    Happy New Year to you all. I hope you had an enjoyable break. I know January can be a difficult month, so we are using it here in Newry BID to plan a varied and exciting programme of events and initiatives for the year ahead.

    We are as always, open to your ideas, so please do share these with us. We are hosting a ‘Beat the January Blues’ series of competitions with members on Facebook across January for treat vouchers for hairdressers, barbers, beauticians etc. to remind followers of some of our service offering in the city.
    Shortly after this we will be launching our Health in the City initiative. This was very successful last time round and this year we are aiming to make it bigger and better running from Monday 17th February through to Friday 15th March. If you would like to be part of this, please do contact me on Eamonn@newry.com .

    In this edition, we also have an update on our Flood Resilience Group, the caravans at Abbey Way and a report on the stats behind our 12 Days of Christmas Social media campaign.
    As ever, please do get in touch if we can support you in any way. Thank you again for being part of the Newry BID and we look forward to working with you again in our drive to Belong, Invest and Deliver for Newry city in 2025.

    Eamonn

    Flood Resilience Group

    We continue to work closely with Rivers Agency in relation to our Flood Resilience Group. Temporary fencing  (see below) was put in place at North Street to cover us in any emergency over the holidays. We now expect the  installation of proper containers in early January with a full complement of sandbags.


    There are further emergency sandbags in DFI store at Carnbane should we have any issues in the interim.

    Caravans

    As outlined before the break caravans have returned to the carpark at Abbey Way. Legal proceedings have recommenced to have these moved on again.

    12 Days of Christmas Report

    Newry BID ran a 12 Days of Christmas Campaign on Facebook which involved 46 member businesses. Facebook is the BID’s highest reach social channel.
    We sourced hampers with vouchers and products from a range of businesses and ran a competition each day on Facebook in the lead up to Christmas.
    Entrants were asked to comment their favourite thing about Newry or the businesses featured to be entered. The stats from the campaign are outlined below and the overwhelming sense of positivity about the city in the comment was very heartening. A selection of the comments are listed below. You can access them all on Newry BID’s Facebook page.

    Content interactions across the campaign: 12,556 (likes, reactions, comments, shares and replies).

    Total number of views: 172,304 (number of views each day with an average of circa 14k views per day of the post).

    Total number of comments: 6,023 (total number of positive comments received about Newry or the businesses featured in the campaign.)

    Selection of the 6k+comments:

    • Brought some Corn Dolly tray bakes into work in Belfast, they went down an absolute treat. Gorgeous tray bakes and beautiful packaging!
    • Love the Shelbourne great variety of bread and pastry and the restaurant is fab
    • The bank always lovely for a meal with friends and family over Xmas. And lovely bouquet from Preston’s as a treat 🎄🧑🏼‍🎄
    • LaDolceVita pizzas are sooooooo good 👍 🍕 and Central florist always do the most beautiful bouquets 💐 xx
    • Canal court has a really festive atmosphere. Great to catch up with old friends over a lovely bite to eat and a few drinks.🎄🎄🎅🎅
    • Phillips Fruit & Flowers for Christmas essentials and beautiful seasonal treats, cheeses and chutneys. Been there as long as I can remember and never fails to impress. 🎄🍎🥫🥗🧀🍓🍇
    • Love stopping into Murphys meats for meat bundles and Canal Court spa is so lovely and tranquil 🎊🩷😊 I also love how festive Newry is at this time of year with lots of events going on for all the family 🎅
    • All the local stores are amazing! Newry is a great shopping town. Love a coffee and scone in Snaubs. #shoplocal
    • Love a wee sandwich in Deli Lites and a corn dolly treat 😋 when I’m shopping around in Newry …. Great city for shopping 🛍
    • Tescos is great to get all ur shopping under one roof 😊
    • Art barfunkel has to be one of the best food establishments in newry!!
    • From Lidl to Tesco to art bar funkel Newry city has it all.👍👍👌
    • Had our staff do at the Oliver recently and all of us cleared our plates. Amazing food and great atmosphere with the live music!
    • I love a browse around Waterstones, especially at Christmas time. Books make great gifts.
    • Love shopping in newry, good value for meat in super valu
    • Always something to love in Boyd’s!
    • Best deals in Downeys Butchers!
    • Birthday cakes from Corn Dolly are our favourite!
    • Nothing beats a cuppa from Finnegan &Sons ❤️❤️❤️
    • Downeys has the friendliest staff and the best curry in town🤪🎄
    • An Aligator Bite from Downey’s Butcher & Deli omg perfection! 👌
    • Nugelato nuggy pots after a Downey’s curry chip 🙌
    • Love Sapori great food and great service
    • All lovely gifts, but Maya Cafe has the best food! What a treat to win! 🌯
    • Amazing business gifts offered. Timoneys ice cream is the nicest in town ❤️
    • I love to shop in Newry, Dunnes is fantastic such variety and value. ❤️
    • Love flowers from Central Florist, and great fruit and vegetables from Phillips.
    • Absolutely love cafe Krem, the girls are so good. Every morning heading to work they have my coffee sitting ready for me 🥰
    • All great prizes. The voucher from Curtis Butchers would be lovely. Great food and staff are lovely.
    • Cafe Krem best coffee in town. ☕️🥐 Shop and support local.
    • The electric boxes in Newry by Amplified NI are gorgeous. Really brightens up Newry and the conversations it has opened with the kids as we’re driving past have been brilliant! Fantastic initiative- hopefully more of that in the New Year!
    • Mr Boyd from Boyds Stores was always incredibly kind to my granny when she went in, she used to love getting in for a nosy each week and started her Christmas shopping there every year keeping an eye out for Christmas cards from September!!
    • Love buttercrane it’s a great mall great array of different shops all in one everything you need in one area x
    • Couldn’t praise Centred Soul enough, great coffee shop
    • Beautiful twinkly tree 🎄, great coffee Centred Soul , mince pies 🥧 going down a treat from Corn Dolly Foods , and the lists made for Christmas supplies at Phillips and Boyds
    • Shelbourne Bakery, food and staff are amazing, helped my family out recently due to a bereavement , nothing was too much for them.
    • Brilliant prize good luck everyone 👍 Newry is a great place to shop from Phillips for fruit go to boyds for shopping going to the corn dolly and Shelbourne for beautiful buns loafs and wheaten there are all great shops and excellent customer service 👏👏

     
     

    Rates Relief

    We continue to lobby on members behalf for Rates Relief. The lobby body is now up to 26 organisations across Northern Ireland, lobbying collectively on this issue.

    The ‘Back in Business’ Rates Support Scheme offers businesses 50% rates relief for up to two years if they move into premises which have been unoccupied for at least 12 months and had previous retail use. The scheme is open until 31st March 2025.

    Applications can be backdated to 1st April 2024. 

    The BID is lobbying for the schemes extension post 31st March. 

    Should you have any queries, please contact Eamonn@newry.com