Kilkenny Design chief executive Evelyn Moynihan tells Conall Ó Móráin how she has the best of both worlds, with the freedom to drive the company forward backed by the wisdom and experience of chairperson Marian O’Gorman

One of the criticisms levelled at the retail trade in Ireland is that the main shopping streets in our larger towns and cities are dominated by Big Name shops from overseas. Frequently our main shopping streets are missing what both home and overseas shoppers want, that is ‘a little bit of Irish’ in their shopping experience.

One name that stands out as being distinctively Irish is the Kilkenny Design chain. One of the main reasons why Kilkenny has become a shopping beacon, beyond its stylish store fronts, is that the retailer stocks only Irish-made goods, which is great for tourists as well as those at home who want to support local and shop local.

Kilkenny Design is a vital outlet for homegrown makers and designers of anything from candles to jewellery to handbags. People familiar with the rows of tourist buses outside their flagship outlet on Nassau Street in Dublin might imagine the focus is largely on tourists. Not so, says chief executive Evelyn Moynihan, who has a very strong CV in international and digital marketing.

Moynihan has been in the Kilkenny hot seat for just a year, and points out that tourists account for 25% of trade, rising to 50% in the summer months. The chain is always looking forward to the next season and the season after that. The product mix is more tourist focussed during the summer season, while for the Christmas period the focus shifts to domestic shoppers.

No matter what the season, Moynihan’s staff are always on high alert. They are trained to give constant feedback as to what the customers are saying, good or bad, so the Kilkenny Design buyers can react accordingly. Staff training in giving customer feedback to the store buyers is hugely important to Moynihan, and it’s not good enough for shop assistants to have a pleasant manner.

In Association with

Every staff member needs to know all about the products they’re selling, who the maker is, where it’s coming from and any other detail that will add colour and customer satisfaction. It’s not just shopping – Kilkenny Design seeks to create an experience, to lure the shopper back again and again.

E-commerce silver lining

Moynihan started her career in marketing with Diageo, and then spent nearly 15 years with Musgrave, in various marketing roles. She joined Kilkenny Design in November 2109, a few months before the Covid shutters came down. The silver lining for the Kilkenny group was that it has been paying attention to e-commerce before the pandemic.

“It was a lifesaver to have a really good e-commerce site,” she recalls. “We were investing in it anyway, and bring bringing in new skill sets to really go after that opportunity. In a matter of about six months we had to do three years of growth on the web.

"We started engaging with our domestic and international customers through our website, and this enabled us to redeploy people from our shops and get them into an e-commerce mindset. What has been great for our business is shifting people's mindset into the omnichannel way of doing business.”

As is the norm in large firms, there’s a constant demand for more and more information about customers, and Kilkenny is no different. As well as the ‘tills having ears’, the retailer operates on the basis that there’s no ‘one size fits all’ as it continuously learns from online customer feedback.

Kilkenny Design operates separate UK and US websites as the two jurisdictions have different tastes, so they have to “edit their range accordingly”, according to Moynihan.

Gaining attention for these overseas sites is slow and expensive, Moynihan concedes. “It’s important to target areas where there's a strong diaspora that has an interest in your brand and who want to hear from you,” she explains.

In the US, Kilkenny concentrates on New York, Boston and Chicago. It surprised me to learn that another area focus for the Irish retailer is Texas. Apparently there’s a good demand for Aran sweaters among shoppers in the Lone Star state, where winter temperatures average 14C.

Repeat purchases

I was interested in changing trends, and what the chain’s newer customers are buying.

“Wellness is a big, big trend,” she replied. “All our wellness products are Irish-made and we're very proud of that. And many of them started with us. There are some gorgeous skincare products, which are sustainable and extremely on trend. We're finding customers coming to us for that, and what's great is they have to come for repeat purchases as well.”

And as if her store buyers didn’t have enough to do — crystal ball gazing what Christmas will be like, in summer — there are also underlying, non-seasonal, changes constantly occurring.

“Renovating homes is huge at the moment. We've all done it during lockdowns — sitting in and looking at the walls and imagining renovation and newness. Homeware is now like clothing. It's like, what are you going to change for this season in your house?”

Family business expert Paul Keogh recently remarked how difficult it can be for external managers to run a family business. So I had to ask Moynihan what it’s like working for Marian O’Gorman, the chairperson and doyenne of the Kilkenny Design group.

Moynihan told me, “Look, Marian and I have a great relationship. I came in as the marketing and business development director, and I was in the door a few months when Covid hit. It was either going to be make or break, because it really was backs against the wall. From my perspective, I would describe Kilkenny Design as a family business, but very professionally run.

“And for me I'm a very lucky lady, because I have Marian O’Gorman, the legend, as a mentor. She is very much in that role. I have all her experience and learnings about retail pitfalls all by my side, along with the freedom and the ability to drive forward and grow the business and bring it to the next level. For me, it's a winning combination.”

Conall O Móráin produces and presents the weekly That Great Business Show podcast