Blarney Mills invests in €2m diversification

BLARNEY Woollen Mills is investing €2 million in a venture which has been hailed as Ireland’s answer to Abercrombie & Fitch.

Farrell & Brown is being rolled out across Ireland with the flagship Dublin store opening last month and doing “extremely well”, according to the company.

Its store in Tipperary also opened recently and the Cork store is due to launch next month, followed by a Bunratty outlet later in the year. The stores will be contained within existing Blarney Woollen Mills outlets and each will employ its own staff.

Comparisons have been drawn between Farrell & Brown and US store, Abercrombie & Fitch, with shoppers saying both stores have similar clothing ranges, store design, bags and websites.

Like the Abercrombie stores in the US and London, Farrell & Brown outlets are kitted out with huge black and white photographs of young models and its outlets have dark lighting which is coupled with loud music.

However, Farrell & Brown deny their inspiration is drawn from the US store saying they wanted to create their own casual line of clothing and accessories aimed at Irish shoppers and tourists aged “18 to a cool 40”.

“We wanted to create a young Irish brand that was sexy,” said Blarney Woollen Mills chief executive, Freda Hayes.

“The demographics of the visitor to Ireland has changed a lot in the past few years. There are more EU visitors than ever before, they are much younger and always on the look out for something different. I believe at Farrell & Brown we have successfully filled the gap.

“It is for the individual, looking for the unique. They don’t want to be part of the flock — they are the subtle black sheep or even the leader of the flock,” added Ms Hayes.

The company said the Dublin store has received great interest from students and tourists.

The designers behind the range are Emma Wilson and Paula Hanley, who have both worked with Blarney Woollen Mills for the past few years.

The Farrell & Brown logo is the Irish Wolfhound, chosen, it said because it is “historically intertwined with Irish heritage and culture and is symbolic of what Farrell and Brown stands for”.

The company’s website it to go live shortly and customers will be able view the clothing range online.