Honda
Honda
Blooming Clothing .193Case 11.3 Blooming Clothing
A bumpy path to exports
It was nine o'clock on a misty Irish morning in February 1995. Martha O'Byrne cycled down the narrow avenue to the clothing factory of which she was managing director and the main shareholder. Wheeling her bicycle into her small office, she wondered if Janet Evans had called yet. Janet, the chief buyer with the Mothercare chain of stores in the UK, had promised to phone her that morning, to let her know if she would be placing a further order with her company. Listening to the messages on her answering machine, Martha remembered the path that she had taken to establish her own enterprise. Blooming Clothing, the small company that Martha O'Byme owns and manages, is situated in the Liberties, an aid and historic part of Dublin, Ireland. Established in 1985, the firm employs 80 people manufacturing maternity wear for the Irish and export markets. Martha O'Byrne had come to this business by an unusual route. Having established herself as a successful merchant banker, she had been considering setting up her own business for same time. 'Women, I think, can have a mid-life crisis at the menopause, but I got mine when I was 28', she recalls. In 1984, a shopping trip with her pregnant sister-in-law revealed that the maternity wear available on the Irish market was dowdy and depressing. In that moment, the idea for Blooming Clothing was conceived. Martha resigned from her position in the investment bank in 1985, and set up in business with two partners as a retailer of maternity wear. Her shop, called 'Blooming', was located on South Leinster Street, on the fringes of Dublin's most prestigious shopping district. It quickly won recognition and sales for its more modern clothes, which proved particularly popular with working women. 'There was a need for a new, more vibrant look', comments Martha, 'while still retaining the femininity and mystique of the pregnant woman.' The emphasis of the...
