Patsy to lock up for the last time

The name Trolan is synonymous with Ballymoney with the thriving Ballymena Road-based filling station bearing the family's name a hive of activity every day of the week.

Renowned for his business sense and charitable work, Patsy is also one of the most respected people in the town.

Strategically situated on the left-hand side of the road heading out of town, Trolan's is one of Ballymoney's great success stories in recent times.

But the driving force behind that success - Patsy - admits that it might never have happened at all had it not been for the support of his parents and wife Mary .

One of nine children, Patsy was born in Magherafelt and grew up on his parents' farm near Draperstown.

While he admits life was sometimes tough, he says neither him nor his siblings ever went without anything thanks to the tireless efforts of his parents.

Their work ethic and desire to succeed in life was undoubtedly engrained in Patsy from an early age. To this day Patsy - a father of five - is on the shop floor seven days a week.

"When I left school my parents told me to go out and not come back until I had found work," Patsy told the Times.

"For the first four weeks of my working life I gathered potatoes.

"I thought my first pay cheque was enormous - 40 a week for a 17-year-old was a lot of money in 1972!"

Patsy then worked as a sheet metal manufacturer for a short time before helping his brother Charlie out at his filling station a few days each week in 1972 and again when he set up in Portstewart the following year.

"Maybe that's where the seed was sewn," said Patsy, who recently became a proud grandfather.

Patsy proved to be a natural entrepreneur even in the early days and got a buzz from retail.

Having learnt the trade first hand from his elder brother, Patsy was increasingly keen to step out on his own and in the early 80's he got the chance to do just that with his own business in Coleraine.

A decade later Patsy saw the site of the old Glenn's Filling Station in Ballymoney as an ideal business opportunity.

The site was previously occupied by the Glenn family and had established itself as part of the fabric of Ballymoney.

Indeed years after the Trolan family took control, customers would still refer to the filling station as Glenn’s and Mrs Glenn - a woman described as ‘a fantastic wee woman’ by Patsy - regularly shops there to this day.

"Obviously I’d had my eye on that site for some time, I always thought there was potential in Ballymoney," said Patsy.

"The location was excellent and it suited perfectly as the site was on the left hand side of the road coming out of the town, which is when people tend to fill up their cars.

"So I bought the site in 1993 and we were in on the 21st of April 1994.

"My parents gave me a great deal of support which I am eternally grateful for. From then on it was me and Mary. She has been a rock and a huge part of this place."

At that time the Ballymena Road was a hub of activity and Ballymoney was a thriving town.

Indeed approximately 1,700 people worked on the Ballymena Road alone in the busy manufacturing and production industries.

"The town is struggling a bit now but then you had high employment with firms like Sherwoods, Tyco and Maine - which is the only one remaining on the road," said Patsy.

"As well as that there were two schools on our doorstep and two roundabouts bringing the bulk of the hinterland into the area so the site was very attractive."

In the early days Patsy and Mary relied on four full-time staff members and half a dozen part-time workers.

Trolan’s now employs 92 staff - 44 of which are part-time.

"As the years went on it got harder and harder as more and more competition came into the town," said Patsy.

"That combined with the decrease in employment meant you had to really fight to keep things going."

The initial site was 1,000sq ft but was increased to 6,000sq ft in 1997.

Patsy made the choice to radically change the premises after identifying issues with the layout of the old store.