The newly opened Vitamin Shop offers a comprehensive service and product range to health conscious people and fitness/bodybuilding enthusiasts alike.

The shop—owned by Marcin Nakonowski and Barbara Groenwald-Nakonowski—is located on the corner of Thomas Street and Wickham Street and aims to be a cross “between a very specialised shop and an ordinary health food shop”.

The husband/wife team already own a shop in Dublin, which has been open for a year, and before that they sold supplements over the internet.

Barbara is a qualified fitness instructor and her husband has been involved in fitness and bodybuilding for many years.

“We always used different supplements ourselves and we thought it would be a good idea to sell the products as well providing an advisory service on how to use them and a fitness programme,” she explained.

“We have a huge range of vitamins, minerals and health food right up to the very specialist supplements for athletes and bodybuilders. Anyone who is health conscious can come in here and get the same service and advice; it’s very important to us to give people the information they need and it’s not just for professionals or sportspeople. If someone has problems losing weight or with their joints, for example, we can give them advice exercise-wise, nutrition-wise and supplement-wise.”

Vitamin Shop—an American-Polish franchise—has 49 shops in Poland as well as in Italy, France and England.

“We went to the company and said we were interested in setting up some shops and distributing its products here and we are now the franchise holders for Ireland and Northern Ireland. We decided to expand on the Dublin store and will be opening a shop in Cork soon too and we also have two franchisee shops—one in Galway and one in Waterford,” she added.

“We tailor supplements for the individual customer and explain what they should use and how they should use it. We can discuss what would help in their diet and what to avoid. Most people who are into fitness don’t know how to use supplements properly; I would say that 99% of them are using the wrong things or not using the right things properly. That doesn’t help and when people see no effects they give up. The main thing for us is to give the correct advice and we urge people to come in and talk to us.”

The range of products on offer is vast and includes different brands from America and Canada including the American-Polish brand, Trec Nutrition.