A local Gift Card in Macroom has reached a milestone of €200,000 in sales in 5 months, with over 3,300 in-store transactions in local businesses.
The Grá Macroom Gift Card launched in October 2025 for Macroom and its neighbouring villages. Over 100 businesses in the area accept the Gift Card, including shops, restaurants, hotels, salons and services.
Consumers and organisations alike have been using the card for gifts, as well as for rewards and incentives in line with the Small Benefit Exemption, with both physical and digital versions of the card available.
Backed by Macroom Business Association, the Grá Macroom Gift Card was introduced to enhance the convenience of supporting local, replacing the previous paper voucher and extending its reach from the town to its surrounding villages in the Lee Valley region,
Cards are available to buy online and in person from Killian Auctioneers Macroom, Cooney’s Garage in Coachford, Connections in Macroom, Dromeys Centra in Ballymakeera and Daybreak in Ballingeary, with a dedicated site for organisations.
The Grá Macroom Gift Card is part of the award winning Town & City Gift Cards initiative, and the first of its kind in County Cork.
The Castle Hotel switched from using Perx Gift Cards for staff rewards to the Grá Macroom Gift Card, and also accepts the card.
Manager, Rory Buckley, said: “We’ve had fantastic feedback from our customers to the new Grá Macroom Gift Card with around €9,000 of cards spent with us over the past 5 months. In the hotel, people spend their cards on food and beverage or hotel stays, even using it as payment for communions, and they’ll use it at the leisure centre to pay for membership. They find it easy to use and like the ease of checking their balance.
“We used to use Perx Gift Cards to reward our staff which can be spent anywhere but decided to switch to the Grá Macroom Gift Card to ensure the €13,000 we spent on staff rewards stayed locked into Macroom and neighbouring villages. As the card is eligible for the Small Benefit Exemption, we were able to gift staff up to €1,500 tax free. It was a smooth process and our team were very happy with the choice on offer through the card.”
Henry Murphy from third generation business Matt Murphy’s Pharmacy in Macroom commented: “I’ve experienced the Grá Macroom Gift Card as a proprietor, a corporate purchaser and a recipient and it has been positive all round. People quickly realised how easy it is to buy and spend. Before Christmas, we had people using their card to buy gifts and for bigger ticket items, and post-Christmas they’re using the card for day to day essentials. However they spend it, they see the card as money in their pocket and if they have a small amount left on the card, they can use the balance and pay the remainder with another form of payment, so nothing is wasted.
“As a business, we get paid very quickly when people use their Grá Macroom Gift Card, unlike the old paper vouchers. The fact that there is no commission to accept the card as a business is a refreshing change from the national Gift Cards. With the Grá Macroom Gift Card, what you see is what you get. We also switched to the card for our own staff gifts at Christmas and it helped them to shop local and even try out new businesses.”
Cooney’s Garage in Coachford is one of the in-person locations to buy the card. Ronan Cooney said: “The cards are very popular and I think that’s down to the convenience of them. People come in especially to buy the Grá Macroom Gift Card, or they’ll remember they have an event coming up and will buy it while they’re at the till. It’s a positive that there is no fee to buy the card. Lots of people spend their cards with us on their day to day items, from diesel to pizza and a bottle of wine.
"From €0 to €200,000 in sales in 5 months is brilliant and I imagine we’ll see even more organisations moving to their local Gift Card for rewards and incentives over the coming months. We use it for our own staff, as well as within the business as prizes and so on – it’s easy to use and people really like it.”
Killian Lynch, auctioneer and chairperson of the Macroom Business Association, said: “Macroom and its neighbouring villages have worked together to create this card for the benefit of our local businesses, giving organisations a local option for their rewards and incentives and consumers a Gift Card that supports local. €200,000 in sales of the Grá Macroom Gift Card in 5 months is a great achievement and we’ll be continuing to build on this throughout 2026 and beyond, so we can unlock the full potential of ‘shop local’ in Macroom.”
Miconex provides the technology for the Grá Macroom Gift Card as part of the wider Town & City Gift Cards network.
Colin Munro is the CEO of Miconex and said: “There are many benefits of the Grá Macroom Gift Card, including the fact that it has to be spent in person, driving real footfall and spent in Macroom and its neighbouring villages, with over 3300 in-store transactions to date. And not only are people spending the value on their Gift Card, our research suggests that the majority of people spent over the value of the card and buy additional products and services at the same time.”