Dublin was always the next thing we wanted to do, says Simon Pratt, retail director of Avoca Handweavers, which has opened its flagship store at 11-13 Suffolk Street, previously the site of Makullas fashion shop.

"We had been looking to find somewhere in Dublin for a long time. It was important we got the right location and the right building. There are very few buildings this size in proximity to Grafton Street and it is on the route from Nassau Street which for us was the perfect combination and fitted a lot of requirements."

So intent were they on securing the site that they were the top bidders for the rental lease in November 1999, paying a record sum of £800,000. The owners of the building, Mercury Engineering, based at Sandyford, Co Dublin, bought the building for £2 million in 1996.

The 11,000 sq ft Suffolk Street store is Avoca's ninth store and has undergone a complete transformation, overseen by Eoin O'Cofaigh of McHugh O'Cofaigh Architects. Simon Pratt was involved in the revamp along with his sister, Amanda Pratt, who is design director, and interior design consultant, Dorcas Barry.

"The idea was to create a mini-department store with a quirky feel," says Simon Pratt, who declines to disclose the cost of the refurbishment.

The department store concept of being able to rummage through vast selections of clothes, jewellery, pottery, books, herbal remedies, and condiments is down to a fine art at Avoca. The merchandise is aimed at a 65 per cent Irish market and a 35 per cent passing tourist market.

There are four floors open to the public plus three mezzanine floors. There is a cafe on the second floor - the store had previously only had permission for retail on basement, ground and first floors.

From the ground floor you can see down to a garden gift area on one mezzanine level and up to a children's area on a level above. "If these areas were closed off they would lose their visual impact," says Pratt. "With the mezzanines you can see the entire area clearly which has the effect of opening up the store and making it less of a deal for customers to take a trip up or down to see the goods."

There is an unusual, perhaps even unique, feature off the first floor - a small roof garden.

While customers wander up and down between the various floors, there is still building work going on behind the scenes. "Work on the building is still not finished, everywhere you look there is a builder behind a door, hammering away."

Decor-wise each Avoca store is different. "We wouldn't want it to be too formulaic. The building starts as the canvas. We really liked this building and wanted to work with it. We are not into the concept of having stores shop-fitted like some of the UK chain stores, who have their window display done by manual."

Donald and Hilary Pratt, a former solicitor and school teacher respectively, bought Avoca Mill in 1974. It had previously been owned since 1923 by three sisters - Winifred, Emily and Veronica Wynne - who supplied tweed to Italian designer Elsa Schiaparelli.

The Pratts soon realised the necessity to open nearer to Dublin and went on to open a workshop and store in a group of outbuildings at Kilmacanogue, Co Wicklow. In 1988, they bought the adjoining 12 acres and today the 14,000 sq ft store is the Avoca Handweavers' largest and most high profile outlet. They also have shops in Galway, Clare, Kerry, the US and Canada.

The company employs 360 people and as well as its retail outlets has two factories, a mail order and an Internet service.