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<\/p>\nLooking back, Sandra Devenney always remembers looking up.<\/p>\n
A dreamer at heart, Sandra remembers the stars in the sky. Planes whizzing past. The lights.<\/p>\n
Having grown up in Ballycolman, Strabane, Sandra\u2019s mother, Marie, is from Lifford and her father, Patsy, is a native of Castlefin. They\u2019re Donegal people through and through, despite living just across the border.<\/p>\n
Casting her mind back to her childhood, Sandra reveals her school reports described her as a \u2018lovely and well-mannered\u2019 girl who did \u2018nothing but chat\u2019, and so it\u2019s no surprise that from a young age, she saw herself working in an industry where dealing with people would be at the forefront.<\/p>\n
At just 17, Sandra set her sights on the sky and applied for a job working in the airlines.<\/p>\n
After being fast-tracked after impressing in interviews and missing her flight home, Sandra was offered a job with Monarch, a charter and scheduled airline based in Gatwick, which flew all over the world.<\/p>\n
Around this time, Sandra had begun dating her future husband, Jason. They made long-distance work before he joined her in England, and they have now been happily married for 26 years.<\/p>\n
Life is never without its struggles, however, and Sandra and her husband faced unimaginable hardship when they lost a baby boy who had a rare form of Down Syndrome when Sandra was 26 weeks pregnant.<\/p>\n
\u201cI still think about him every day,\u201d Sandra says. \u201cWe have two children now, Louis and Lily, whom we love dearly.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the years that followed, the family decided to move back home and set their sights on a new career path – in property.<\/p>\n
What started as one rental property soon became 25, in locations across the north, all of which Sandra managed.<\/p>\n
All was well until a gut instinct saved Sandra from investing in property in Spain just before the financial crash.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was only the start of it,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
After facing issues with some properties and the banks refusing a mortgage deferral request, as many experienced in the late 2000s, the business went bankrupt.<\/p>\n
Not overly religious but certainly spiritual, Sandra visited the late Francis Lagan, Auxiliary Bishop of the Diocese of Derry, who had helped her when she lost her baby.<\/p>\n
After confessing her fears to him over potentially losing their home and having to carry her children\u2019s teddies down the driveway, Sandra shared the words of wisdom Bishop Lagan gave her.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe said: \u2018What\u2019s the worst that can happen? Sandra, that house isn\u2019t their home – you are.\u2019 That sentence changed everything for me,\u201d she revealed.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe realised simple things are most important,\u201d Sandra says.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Not letting the difficulty of losing a business keep them down, the family settled in Lifford, with Sandra returning to her career in airlines, this time for EasyJet in Belfast.<\/p>\n
But fate had different plans for Sandra, and the following Christmas, the stars aligned for her once more when she took a temporary role in the Cosmetics department at McElhinney’s Department Store over the festive season. It was here that she discovered her passion for retail.<\/p>\n
\u201cMcElhinneys was always this beautiful shop – reminding me of being a child at Christmas,\u201d Sandra says.<\/p>\n
In the new year, Sandra started working for Benefit Cosmetics and quickly climbed the ranks to Business Development Manager, serving the Republic of Ireland and working across 50 stores.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne night, I was in a hotel seeing children scampering to the pool, having fun, and I cried,\u201d she recalls. \u201cI was living on the road, away from my family. I opened the laptop one night in Cork, barely fit to keep my eyes open, and saw a sales manager vacancy at McElhinneys.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sandra got the job and six months later, she was promoted to the senior team, working alongside John McElhinney, the founder and CEO of McElhinneys.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was knocking on John\u2019s door, suggesting I\u2019d stay on the floor,\u201d she says. \u201cBut John said he needed me. With the 50th anniversary approaching, he wanted me to help future-proof McElhinney\u2019s for the next 50.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cEverything changed. John wasn\u2019t going to let me down. I wasn\u2019t going to let him down. We were going to bring in talent, harness and develop people on a Leadership Programme. Forty people applied in that first year.\u201d<\/p>\n
After years of growing her career at McElhinneys, everything changed for Sandra again when the pandemic began in March 2020 and the shutters came down on the store.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is actually happening,\u201d Sandra thought at home. \u201cI rang John and offered to work for free. We had to save the business. Families and employees needed this.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite the doors being closed in McElhinneys, work never ceased inside the store with staff working tirelessly to get orders out, even going so far as to work in near darkness to keep costs down, wearing hard hats and carrying torches.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe phone never stopped,\u201d Sandra recalls.<\/p>\n
With the growing demand online and over the phone, the business had to continue engaging with its audience and customers, and they discovered a unique way to do it – via social media.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith no marketing as such and lots of stock, we decided to do videos for social media,\u201d Sandra says.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt needed to be catchy, so we decided to showcase five products at five o’clock. The store was in darkness, bar one corner.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt took off. Likes on Facebook. Lovely comments. Everything we posted started to sell out,\u201d she says, and just like that, Sandra\u2019s 5@5 was born.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
At this point, Sandra also took on a new challenge within the business, the role of General Manager, as well as spearheading the leadership team and continuing to work closely with John.<\/p>\n
Following the success of Sandra\u2019s 5@5 videos, a private group was established, and the group has flourished into a social media community of fashion, beauty, female empowerment, wellness and positivity.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Over 22,000 members, countless in-person gatherings, and virtual live shopping experiences later, the 5@5 is a major part of McElhinneys and Sandra\u2019s own legacy within the business.<\/p>\n
McElhinneys now has over 215,000 followers on Facebook, is well-established in the online retail and social media space, and its staff confidently stand in front of the camera on a daily basis.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe believe in our talent,\u201d Sandra adds. \u201cWe didn\u2019t need outside influencers.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
McElhinneys is well known around the world, with over 200 staff – many of whom have risen through the ranks internally – the business has continued to thrive in uncertain times in the retail industry.<\/p>\n
\u201cCustomers deserve extra,\u201d Sandra says. \u201cStaff aren\u2019t numbers, they are people. So culture is important. John is the hardest worker, the most creative person, and so respectful. I\u2019ve never met anyone like him.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIf staff are treated well, they treat customers well. With McElhinney\u2019s DNA, we\u2019re all a family.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sandra\u2019s advice to those looking to follow in her footsteps is all about believing in yourself and working for what you want out of life.<\/p>\n
\u201cDon\u2019t be frightened to take risks, be your true self and work as hard as you can,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat little girl looking up at the sky all those years ago was a dreamer. She still is. Things didn\u2019t always work out, but they made me who I am, and they will make you who you are.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Looking back, Sandra Devenney always remembers looking up. A dreamer at heart, Sandra remembers the stars in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":254430,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[97425,79,130503,18,19,17,34073],"class_list":{"0":"post-254429","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-ballybofey","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-donegal-life-magazine","11":"tag-eire","12":"tag-ie","13":"tag-ireland","14":"tag-lifford"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115792880831588052","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254429","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=254429"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254429\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/254430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=254429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=254429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=254429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}