Last chapter for storied family firm

The sale yesterday by Roches Stores of its retail interests to British chain Debenhams may at first seem the most dramatic development in the 105-year history of the family-owned business, but the company has survived even more extraordinary and seismic events.

Roches Stores was founded in 1901 by William Roche, a farmer's son from Killavullen in north Cork, who learned his trade in Cash's in Cork city before going to London where he spent almost five years before returning with some £225 in capital.

He opened his first store in a former sawmill on Merchant Street in Cork city centre, where he began selling household furniture. Over the next 12 years he built up the business, expanding it to include ladies' fashions and moving it to nearby Winthrop Street.

In 1919, a large shop, the London House, became available just around the corner on Patrick Street and William managed to persuade the Hibernian Bank to lend him the money to buy the premises.

In notes found after his death, Roche described how from June 3rd, 1919 until December 11th, 1920, their work "ran along automatically, enlivened by the general turmoil which prevailed in Ireland at the time and which had its storm centre in Cork." That storm reached its climax in Cork on the night of December 11th, 1920 when, in reprisal for the Kilmichael ambush, British forces went on a drunken rampage, setting fire to the city centre and destroying much of Patrick Street, including William Roche's new shop.

He recalled going into Cork the next morning to discover his shop destroyed and how he and some others came under fire from British troops who shot over their heads. "The lorries went off at a good speed and we were greatly relieved to see them go," he recalled.

With his new shop still burning, William managed to re-open for business in his old premises on Merchant Street and continued trading from there until in May 1927 when, with compensation from the British Government, he re-opened his shop on Patrick Street.

A magnificent building and still one of the largest retail outlets in the country, the Patrick Street store became the first of eleven shops in the Roches Stores empire. Later in 1927, William bought a premises in Henry Street in Dublin.

The expansion continued with the purchase of a premises in Limerick in 1937 where, some 10 years later, the firm battled back from a fire at the shop at Sarsfield Street by eventually opening a new store on an expansive site facing O'Connell Street in 1951.

Following William's death in 1939, his widow, Kathleen became chairman of the firm while William's son, William Jnr, with the firm since 1937, was joined by his brothers Stanley in 1947 and Raymond in 1950.

The family moved to Dublin to set up the Henry Street store and, in the post-war years, William Jnr took over the Dublin operation while Stanley took over the Cork outlet and Raymond took over in Limerick.

The company continued to expand throughout the 1970s and 1980s with the establishment of a shop in Galway and suburban stores in Wilton in Cork and Blackrock in Dublin, but the late 1990s saw the company hive off its food business to Supervalu.

Like many of the old merchant Cork families, the Roches are, to quote one informed source, "very understated about their wealth", while another source describes Stanley Roche, who lives in Oysterhaven with his wife, Heidi, as "a very down to earth, private man". According to the same source, Stanley is also quite generous to many local charities.