Ahead of the Clare Business Excellence Awards 2025, The Clare Echo spoke to Frank Holly, owner of Holly’s Haven Pharmacy.
Job position: Business owner
Age: 47
Lives: Lahinch
Family: Married to Emer. Three children; Ella (19), Mia (16), and Dan (15)
Pets: Dachshund (7), name: Louis
Favourite thing about Clare: Lahinch Beach
Least favourite thing about Clare: Nothing. I love everything about Clare
One thing you would change about Clare: A better road to Lahinch
Tell me about your business?
I’m part owner of five different pharmacies, two of which I’m in partnership. Ennis is the original, which my father, Tom, opened in 1982. It’s a community pharmacy on Abbey Street and employs 10 people.
When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?
All I knew was I wanted to be in business.
What was your first job?
My first job was working in the pharmacy when I was 12, helping to wrap gifts at Christmas time.
What has been the biggest challenge in running your business?
The biggest challenge is keeping the customer happy.
How do you stay motivated when business gets tough?
Just being consistent, so waking up every day and doing the same thing day in, day out.
It doesn’t mean that you’ll be as productive as you were the week before or the weeks coming up, but that’s how I stay motivated; Ensuring we provide excellent customer service and patient care always keeps me motivated.
What’s the first thing you do after a long day of work?
I’d probably go to the gym or go down to the sauna in the local leisure centre.
If you won the lotto, what’s the first thing you would do?
I’d do something boring like pay off my mortgage or invest it for my kids. I’m extremely fortunate I don’t want for anything so helping them with their future would be nice. And maybe take a long holiday!
What’s your go-to book recommendation?
‘Skin in the Game’ by a guy called Nassim Taleb. It gives a great insight into what really matters.
As a Liverpool fan, who’s your favourite player?
I’m going to go with Van Dijk. He’s the captain and he’s a great leader in the team.
If you could instantly master any skill, what would it be?
Probably to play an instrument. It’s something I never did or never mastered, so it’d be nice to play an instrument like the guitar.
I’m sorry I didn’t stick at it or learn properly when I was a kid.
If you could give your 20-year-old self advice, what would it be?
“Be a little bit more focused”, I think, would probably be what I’d say.
What has been your proudest moment as a business owner so far?
Number one is seeing the teams and staff I’ve built across the five shops and the relationships I have with them.
Then number two is the service that they give to the customers. It’s so important in community pharmacy. It’s very front-facing; You have to engage with them daily. You can’t hide from the customer in a pharmacy, and none of my staff do, so I’m very lucky that way.
Where do you see yourself and your business in 10 years?
My hope for the business over the next 10 years is just to continue to grow the businesses, continue to stay engaged, and to continue to provide excellent patient care across all the businesses. That’s the nature of the game; It’s all about patient care and customer service at the end of the day, so that would be the focus.
If I can keep doing that across the businesses, I’d be very, very happy.
How does it feel to be nominated for two Clare Business Excellence Awards?
I’m over the moon. All the credit goes to Supervising Pharmacist Connie, Front Shop Manager Sinéad, and the team here. You’ll see a lot of pharmacies that put most of their energy and focus into the dispensary, whereas we would put just as much energy into the front of the shop and being a retailer as we would into the dispensary.
It’s a very proud moment for the shop because it’s a recognition of what a good retailer we are, which is really important, but also it’s a recognition of the customer service that we provide, because both of those awards are based on mystery shoppers – somebody coming in and judging the shop based on the customer service they’ve received. We’re up against really tough competition across the county in very competitive categories, so it’s very, very proud moment for the pharmacy.
The Clare Business Excellence Awards take place on November 27th at The Inn at Dromoland.
