This photo shows the Tuberculosis Sanatorium which was completed in 1952. This became Ardkeen General Hospital in 1958. There is no sign of any retail at Ardkeen, in fact there isn't even any sign of the blackberries that directly preceded our first shop. We often meet many customers "of a certain age" that remember picking those blackberries!

Ardkeen Services was officially opened by John Cowley who played Tom Riordan in massively popular The Riordanstelevision series. John wife Annie D'Alton played Minnie Brennan in the series. The Tiger was the mascot of the Esso brand at the time hence somebody got the job of wearing the tiger suit for the day!

An artists sketch representation of the original location in 1967 as a small grocery store with Esso petrol pumps out the front, believe it or not this was quite a novel format back then!

The business quickly became popular with locals as well as visitors and workers in Ardkeen General Hospital and the many people living in the East Waterford who passed Ardkeen on their way into the City.  The number of people living in the area was tiny by todays standards.  With Glenville and the front rows of Viewmount only starting to be built. The picture shows that the shop had already been expanded by the time this was taken in the 1970s

We now have an Esso canopy and prominent branding for Ardkeen, trading is brisk.

In 1997 we embarked on our biggest project to date and began to build an entirely new food store. David Flynn Ltd completed the build on schedule and we began trading in December 1998. The new premises allowed us to significantly the range in the food store and add new categories all in a far better retail environment. 

Upon completion of the new foodstore we went on to remodel the rest of the Shopping Centre adding more retail space with new shops and services for customers. This including demolition of the old foodstore buildings and adding a new Esso petrol station, Supermacs, Community Rooms and Chartbusters.

In 2017 Ardkeen Quality Food Store celebrated 50 years, marking a half century in retail with wonderful colleagues, suppliers and customers. Achieving Retail Excellence Store of the Year, the first retail store to win a “Special Commendation”from Euro-Toques, the winner of The Irish Times "Best Shop",recommended by some of Ireland’s top chefs, and named Waterford Store of the Year, all stemming from our belief in building relationships, putting Irelands food and the producers center stage and treating makers with the respect their craft deserves. Today, the store stocks over 200 of Ireland’s small batch producers and are shipping all over the world via their online portal ardkeen.com.