‘I helped dad when I was young.. now I’ve followed in his footsteps’

Growing up in Sydney, Australia, helping her father John put teak furniture together, Joanna Kenneally could never imagine that one day she would have her very own business almost 18,000km miles away.

“And in an old piggery farm at that!” says Joanna laughing. “This is the old piggery farm belonging to the farm at Ballymaloe.”

Today, the former piggery is the home for Strand Road Furniture, decked out with beautiful, durable luxury furniture selected by architects, designers, business owners, and hospitality experts.

Sitting at a long teak kitchen bench that came here with her to Ballyduff, Cloyne, the mother of two tells me about her journey.

“I helped dad put together teak furniture in the early 1990s,” says Joanna.

She was an all-rounder.

“Always wanting to sit up next to him in the delivery truck (the views were better)! Helping him set up shop with the company compliment slips and shop till in our Roseville garden, it was a given that I follow him in his footsteps.”

And she did.

“Throughout high school, I worked weekends at the head office showroom in the beautiful Southern Highlands, where we moved to when I was eight,” says Joanna.

“I was lucky to experience every side of the business, from accounts to warehousing to sales and marketing. The company had several showrooms in NSW, Victoria, Queensland and a network of successful stockists in the other Australian states.”

Joanna was looking at other career and travel options as well.

“I was thinking of doing a cookery course in maybe London or Paris,” she says.

“Then a relative told me about Ballymaloe Cookery School in Shanagarry, East Cork, that had a wonderful reputation. Dad is originally from Cheltenham in the UK, and I thought, Cork is not a million miles away from his birthplace and I opted for Ballymaloe.”

She made a good choice.

“It was April, 2005, and it was the first 12-week summer course they did,” says Joanna.

“I loved the cookery course, the place, and the people.”

The people loved her.

“When I had completed the cookery course, I was offered a job to stay and work in the office. So I did!”

Love blossomed in the beautiful haven of east Cork.

“I met my husband Quentin in the local pub in Ballycotton!” says Joanna. “He is a fisherman.”

He is handy too.

“Quentin helps me put the furniture together.”

Together, they returned to Australia where the couple lived for nearly eight years.

“Our front veranda housed pieces of Cotswold Furniture. It’s name is in honour of dad,” says Joanna.

“We had our own furniture warehouse, and Quentin did deliveries and assembled the furniture. I was hands-on managing the day-to-day running of the business and promoting it. Every Sunday since I was 14, I worked in the furniture showroom.”

She was busy being a mum too.

“Our son James, 13, was born in Australia.”

Home is where the heart is.

“Quentin was keen to go back to fishing,” says Joanna. “He wanted to get a boat.

“Also, his mum was unwell. We made the decision to sell our furniture business to an Australian business that would supply our Australian outlet. We returned to East Cork, where we continued to run the business from afar until the sale was completed.”

Claudia Kenneally, 10, is a true Rebel.

“Cork born and bred!” Joanna says.

Did Joanna ever feel homesick given the coastal Cork climate?

“Not at all,” says Joanna. “In the Southern Highlands our winters are cold and frosty. I often played hockey in blinding sleet!”

She’s used to other similar things here from Down Under.

“There could be 16,000 acres of sheep next door!”

So she is quite at home with the country life here, surrounded by sheep and cows?

“I used to laugh at first about the ‘pretend farms’ here,” says Joanna.

“They are a bit different to the farms back home.”

When the children were little, the Kenneallys did Air B&B at their house in Loughane.

“It suited us,” says Joanna.

“With Quentin fishing, there was no set schedule. My mum came over to us a lot.”

Joanna never wastes her talents.

“I went back to work in Ballymaloe Cookery School as a teacher for a brief stint until I felt the time was right to bring my own furniture shop and showroom here to East Cork.”

She had the experience and she had the expertise.

“At Strand Road, our products are designed to last, often passed down through generations,” says Joanna.

Like the kitchen bench almost the length of the showroom space?

“Yes, like the kitchen bench,” says Joanna.

“My dad and I put that bench together.”

Customers like to build up their own collection of Strand Road furniture, choosing from brands such as Fermob, Sika Design, Vincent Sheppard, and Raw Materials.

“Customers can build their own collection over time without the pressure of purchasing sets or meeting minimum quantities,” says Joanna, opting for quality over convenience.

“Our furniture and homewares are made from materials like teak wood, rattan, and steel. They are sourced responsibly and can be reused or recycled.”

I like the Vincent Sheppard Kraft paper Lloyd Loom chairs.

“They are painted to order, allowing for easy customisation,” says Joanna.

“If tastes change, the chairs can be resprayed, making them ideal for long-term use.”

Covid did not provide ideal conditions to do business.

“We went back to Oz for a year,” says Joanna. “It was a huge upheaval.”

She made a discovery.

“We had been away too long. We came back here after covid.”

Connections made had never been broken.

“I went back to work at the Cookery School again,” says Joanna.

What did she do there?

“Well, I was cleaning 16 ovens a day!”

Furniture was more her thing than appliances.

“I had to go back to selling furniture again,” says Joanna. “It was in my DNA.”

It was in her sisters’ DNA too.

“My two younger sisters had a big company in Australia and they ran furniture showrooms”.

They had the recipe for success.

“They said run it like you can sell it,” says Joanna.

Often, Quentin’s days of being on his boat fishing have to take a back seat.

“He was at the very top of Donegal recently with a delivery!” says Joanna.

Where else?

“Dublin and West Cork are regular destinations for our furniture deliveries.”

What is Strand Road’s best seller?

“Fermob is the most well-known brand and it is a great seller,” says Joanna.

“And with the promise of a good summer, our outdoor furniture designers are doing well.”

Joanna doesn’t let the grass grow under her feet.

“I attend industry trade shows and regularly meet with our suppliers. When it is not very busy, I concentrate on picture framing, which I do here at the back of the showroom.”

She has a little helper.

“I left Claudia here one day while I ran an errand down the road,” says Joanna.

Claudia has her mother’s DNA.

“When I came back, she was demonstrating a variety of lights to some customers! I wondered, what in the world is she doing?”

Joanna is happy in her world.

She thinks of the Southern Highlands sometimes

“In Australia, restaurants and hotels have refreshed their Strand Road furniture even after 15 or 20 years, proving that sustainability and style go hand-in-hand.”

• Stand Road Furniture. P25 KW68 is open Tuesday to Saturday 10am-4pm, or by appointment.