Long-established knitwear company, Irelands Eye, made some of the most radical decisions in its history during the recession. With its back to the wall, the company reinvented its business by repatriating the bulk of its manufacturing, repositioning its product and updating its traditional designs with a contemporary twist. It has not looked back since.

In 2008 employment had fallen to a low of 10 people. Today it is 35 and growing.

Like many Irish companies trying to stay competitive, Irelands Eye found itself outsourcing more and more of its production in an effort to maintain margins on what was essentially a volume knitwear range.

This worked relatively well for a number of years but when the recession hit in 2010, owners Paul and Brendan O'Sullivan looked to their customers for insights into what changes to make to survive. One of the strongest messages they received was that customers wanted garments made in Ireland even if it meant they were more expensive.

"We had kept some of our manufacturing here as a fall-back so we began to rebuild local production," Paul O'Sullivan says. "We knew that manufacturing knitwear in Ireland was never going to be cheap and on that basis decided that what we made had to be special. This led to a big investment in design and more upmarket yarns. Designer Mary Donoghue joined the company five years ago having worked at the top of her field in New York, Italy and London and she has completely transformed our design process.

Automated process

“We also invested heavily in new machinery and have an automated process running 24-hours a day complemented by a team of people who hand-finish our garments,” O’Sullivan adds. “We now make 90 per cent of our knitwear in Ireland. In 2010 it was the other way around.

“What we still have made abroad are garments in finer weight yarns that can’t be produced on the type of machines we have here. The generally accepted wisdom for many years was that it didn’t matter where something was made. To a large extent we were sucked into that way of thinking and moved production abroad. We’re really pleased to have reversed that.”

Irelands Eye Knitwear began life in 1988 in a tiny premises in Howth, Co Dublin. The impetus for its formation came from Jim O'Sullivan, a knitwear expert with Eolas (a forerunner of Enterprise Ireland). Aware that his adult children were keen to start a business, he saw an opportunity when some knitwear machinery came up for sale. He showed them how to use it and Irelands Eye knitwear was born.

In 1992 the company moved to a 9,000sq ft (836sq m) premises in the Baldoyle Industrial Estate where it remains today. It is preparing to move to a new 30,000sq ft unit.

The business was originally owned by the O’Sullivan family, but brothers Brendan and Paul bought them out in 2002. Five family members still work in the company. Business is split equally between the home and export markets and roughly 60:40 in favour of women.

In Ireland its range is primarily stocked in tourist and country clothing shops such as Avoca, Blarney Woollen Mills and Kylemore Abbey, while abroad it is sold in premium and heritage stores. Its main export markets are Europe, the US, Canada and Japan.

Retail price

Before its move upmarket in 2010, the average retail price of its garments was €40 to €60. Now it’s €80 to €150. “The recession was very hard on everyone in the company and, while we didn’t lay anyone off, we all took pay cuts. They were very dark days indeed,” O’Sullivan says.

“But in adversity you either give up or dig deep and we decided to raise the bar in terms of quality and finish. We are now seeing pay-back from those tough decisions and are extremely optimistic about the future – so much so that we hope to take on 15-20 people in the next two years and will invest over a million in new machinery in the same period.”

The “made in Ireland” label has been pivotal in the turnaround. “People are willing to pay more if a garment is made here and ticks all the boxes for quality, heritage, functionality (it must keep you warm) purity of yarn (no man-made fibres) and modern design.

“I’m an accountant by training so I tend to be very focused on cost. Then I had my ‘light bulb moment’ when I realised we needed to make knitwear that was first and foremost beautiful and desirable. If we could do this, people would buy it. So apart from the physical changes there has also been a shift in mindset.”

Irelands Eye has invested heavily in its web platform and related social media in the past two years and this is paying off in generating sales leads. The company sells through a network of agents in Europe and the US where buyers are still keen to have the link with Aran knitwear so Irelands Eye still works with familiar stitches.

“We have very much stuck with tradition but moved it forward with different interpretations in different yarns – adding in lighter cashmere for example – which has allowed us to expand our range,” O’Sullivan says. “When people are here on holidays from abroad or if you’re Irish and taking a break at home, you often want to buy something that will be a lasting reminder of good times. It’s called being in ‘a different need state’ and our knitwear successfully hits the spot.”