TWO Fermanagh sisters are in the saddle of an innovative new business venture.
Converting a Rice Beaufort horse trailer, sisters Karan McLernon, an events manager by trade, and Siobhan Reilly, who works in customer service, have created a quirky events bar known as 'The Giddy Box' , which in just three months has become a hit at weddings and festivals across the north.
A desire to move away from the traditional nine to five working lifestyle spurred the siblings on to purchase the trailer at the end of September last year and the pair haven't looked back since.
"We were looking for something to do for a while," Karan explained.
"I had a baby recently and the idea of going back to Monday to Friday, nine to about ten o'clock at night, didn't really appeal to me any more. Siobhan has two young girls too and she wanted to do something different.
"We'd always loved the idea of converting something and I suppose you could call it a perfect storm as a lot of things came together and we came up with the idea of the mobile van."
"We just decided to go ahead and do it. There's a market there for it at the minute, a lot of people are looking for something different for weddings, people are using more unique venues so we just said let's do it."
The fully operational bar, complete with fridges and sinks took three months to convert after purchase and is completely self-funded.
Since its online launch in January The Giddy Box - known to the sisters as 'Alice' - has featured at the Imbloc International Music Festival and Legenderry Food Festival in Derry as well as a host of small weddings.
With a busy summer of bookings ahead, which includes the Cowboys and Heroes Country Music Festival in Leitrim and the Clonmany Festival in Donegal the two entrepreneurs are encouraged not just by the initial response, but at the potential to grow the fledgling business.
"It's a great idea, people like it, people can relate to it, people see a use for it. Whenever we said we were going to do it we said we wanted to do it right and I think that makes a difference, it's a high end unit. We love the business and I think people share our love because of our enthusiasm and passion for it."
"We would love to have a couple in terms of bar offerings, but we would also hope to do something along the foodie line, we're just not sure yet," Karan added.
"We'd need to do a bit more research in terms of how to kit it out and what the regulations are in terms of using gas and things like that. It's a different arena. We'll find our feet first."
To find out more visit the company's Facebook page at: www.facebook.com/thegiddybox/
