Sitting around the dinner table during the pandemic, Sophie Leahy could never have predicted what would unfold when she noticed her mother Mary, who has arthritis, struggling to open a bottle of wine with a corkscrew.
“I went on to Amazon and got her a wine opener I thought she could use, but she couldn’t use it at all, she couldn’t grasp it ... another one I bought lasted only four months, it was too weak,” said Ms Leahy.
Inspired by the lack of usable and durable options on the market, the mother-daughter duo reached out to manufacturers with the aim of designing a prototype that was usable, rechargeable and durable, as well as stylish.
Now two years in business, The Wine Opener was launched as a solution for those with limited dexterity, as well as a more luxurious option for wine lovers in general.
Since 2021 the business has sold 22,000 units, including the original wine opener as well as a range of other products. In 2022 the family business generated a turnover of €400,000, far beyond predicted sales. In 2023 The Wine Opener is on track to triple that, surpassing €1 million in turnover.
“I couldn’t believe it, I knew I had created a product that could work, was useful, was durable, and it just grew,” said Ms Leahy, who left her job in real estate marketing in July last year, on her 30th birthday, to work full time at the business.
With a new website launched last week, The Wine Opener is set to be stocked in Arnotts and Brown Thomas this Christmas, and has three Christmas pop-up stores planned in Dundrum Town Centre, The Pavilions in Swords, and Mahon Point in Cork.
While online retailers such as Amazon sell similar products, and sometimes at a cheaper price point than The Wine Opener’s €55 price tag, Leahy says the quality of their product makes them stand out.
“We’ve tried others on the market and they don’t live up to it. People that might not have been actually able to use other products on the market can use this. I know it sounds mad that a wine opener can help somebody, but it does give independence,” she said.
Leahy says that next year they hope to tackle the UK market “guns blazing”, having already set up a UK-based fulfilment centre.
“In the next five years I’d like to be immersed in the UK market,” she said, adding that she has already seen interest from a number of UK retailers.
After that, she has her eyes set further afield, and is “not ruling out” investors to help bring The Wine Opener to the US.
“We sell in the US at the moment, we’re going to keep that going, and then hopefully when we break into the UK we can move into that market,” she said.
