Avoca co-founder Pratt eyes Roundwood Stores expansion

Roundwood Stores Ltd, the grocery and bakery business opened two years ago by Simon Pratt after he left Avoca, is expanding.

The group has bought the Coach House pub, which is next door on Main Street in the Wicklow village, and four investor/partners will run the business.

“As well as myself and my wife, Monique McQuaid, there’s Tara O’Neill, who was CEO of Avoca after me and was a director on the board of the Jamie Oliver group,” said Pratt. “There’s also Teresa Byrne, who previously headed up Avoca’s food operations and FL Partners.”

Locals refer to it as “Avoca II”, a comparison Pratt says makes the group “grateful and flattered”.

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The plan is to refurbish the Coach House and reopen it later this year as a pub with a strong emphasis on food, and next year to offer accommodation.

“I have long been interested in opening a Wayside Inn with good food, blazing fires and comfy bedrooms upstairs. The kind of place that’s more commonly found in England and Scotland but not so often found here,” Pratt said.

The existing bakery will be extended, with a continued focus on promoting local and organic food in a sustainable way.

“These are much bandied-about buzzwords, but I think our track record shows a sincere commitment,” he said. “We have been buying vegetables from probably the best organic grower in the country, Dermot Carey, and making sourdough, with no yeast or improvers, that requires 48 hours to make each loaf.”