Francis Brennan: 'We’re not putting it up on the shelf if it’s not 100%'
Francis Brennan amid his Francis Brennan The Collection display at Dunnes Stores, Patrick Street, Cork, marking ten years of his exclusive homeware partnership. Picture Chani Anderson.
Francis Brennan surveys Cork City through the panoramic window of the top-floor cafe in Dunnes Stores on Patrick Street. I’m meeting him here as he marks the 10th year of the Francis Brennan Collection in Dunnes.
As we’re introduced, he focuses his attention on me completely; there’s a warmth to him and a hint of divilment. As you would expect, he’s immaculately dressed in a classic navy pin-striped suit, not a hair out of place.
We both order tea, and in the few seconds it takes me to dig out my notebook and pen, Brennan has poured my tea and arranged the crockery perfectly. The good manners aren’t a facade or a character choice for TV, they’re an inherent part of him; later on, when we go downstairs to look at his products on the shelves, he insists on standing in front of me on the escalator. “Good manners never go out of style,” he says.
As we chat, several Dunnes employees come up to say hello; Brennan is a familiar face here. His brand, the Francis Brennan Collection, has been a mainstay of the Dunnes homewares department for a decade now.
The seed of the idea started in 2012 when Margaret Heffernan, former Dunnes Stores CEO and regular guest at The Park Hotel in Kenmare, commented on the quality of the bed linen Francis and his brother John had in the guest bedrooms.
“John said to Mrs Heffernan ‘you should get [Francis] to do a linen line for you’. I told him to go away out of that, I was far too busy. But then Mrs Heffernan asked a second and then a third time.”
Third time’s a charm, as they say, and so the relationship began. But not before Brennan had made it clear the bed linen should be of the highest quality, while also being affordable. “We use what’s called percale cotton in our range. We couldn’t have used the same cotton we had in the hotel, it would have been too pricey. But percale cotton is wonderful and has a tight weave that gives the crispness that characterises quality bed linen.”
Since starting in 2016 with a range of bed linen, the Francis Brennan Collection for Dunnes now has almost 700 different products. There are towels and bathroom accessories, furniture, lighting, crockery, glassware, ladies’ nightwear, and seasonal products like Christmas decorations.
His products are some of the most popular in the Dunnes homeware department, and Brennan puts that down to the quality and consistency.
“We don’t compromise. Our products are always at a high level. And if there’s anything wrong with a product when it comes in, it goes back. We’re not putting it up on the shelf if it’s not 100%.”
Ten years later, although Brennan now has a team in Dublin, he is still hands-on with the development of the collection.
“I travel a lot and I’m always bringing home ideas of things I’ve seen. I’ll bring them to the team – Michelle, Theresa and Jenny – and we’ll see if we think it would work. Can we do it well, at a price point that works. If we think we can, then the process starts. And I’m telling you, that process takes forever. The level of detail we go into, it’s colossal.”
It’s that attention to detail that is perhaps Brennan’s hallmark, whether it’s in his Dunnes range, or at The Park Hotel, which he ran with his brother John for over 40 years, or his popular TV show, At Your Service, which he co-presents with John.
The show has been broadcasting on RTÉ since 2008, with a new series scheduled for this year. “It’s an institution really at this stage.” It’s no small feat to record the much-loved TV series, where the brothers give makeovers to B&Bs, guesthouses and small hotels around the country. “The show takes 40 filming days each year, and that’s just the filming. There’s travelling on either side of those filming days too.”
Naturally, the success of the TV show rests on the advice and expertise the brothers offer the businesses, but also on their relationship. Having run The Park Hotel together for decades and latterly working together on the TV show, the duo share a brotherly bond that comes across on the screen. Since selling The Park Hotel at the end of 2023, Brennan says they don’t see each other quite as often but they still talk all the time.
“We were filming the other day, and it was the first time we’d seen each other in about three months. I was away, and then he was away, and then I was away again. But we speak on the phone every day.”
There’s no doubt that the TV show catapulted Francis into the public eye. But it’s something he appears to relish. As we stroll around Dunnes looking at his products, I lose count of the number of people who come over to say hello, or ask for a photo with him. He tells me that while he was waiting for me earlier, “three young girls came up to me and asked for a photo. ‘My mother loves you!’ one of them said”.
He’s generous with his time and is unfailingly polite, with a laugh and a joke for anyone who came over to him. He may have missed his calling as a salesman too.
“The detail in every [Dunnes Stores] product is unbelievable. To try and get everything to be exactly the same every time, it’s no joke at all. And with the linen, it’s just timeless and stands the test of time, or as my assistant Margaret calls it ‘tractor-proof’.”
Sitting on the success of his Dunnes range doesn’t seem to occur to Brennan. He says he’s constantly coming up with ideas for new product lines and new innovations.
Certainly, at 72, Brennan shows no sign of slowing down. “I love being busy. I tell you, last week I drove all around the country for various meetings and events. It was almost 1,500km all in.”
As well as his own work, the former hotelier likes to give back. He is an ambassador for Age Friendly Kerry, “they roll me out at things”. He also gives his time to St Vincent de Paul, and was instrumental in organising a new premises for Penny Dinners in Cork, a special project he worked on for At Your Service.
But when all the travelling and work are done, Brennan loves coming home to Kenmare.
“The more I travel and the more I go places, I just think how lucky I am to live in Kenmare. It hasn’t changed that much at all over the years.”
“I recently moved from a house outside Kenmare to an apartment in the town. Because I’m going to get older, it made sense. I have no steps, I park my car in the car park and take the elevator right to my apartment, which is brilliant.”
Inside, Brennan says his apartment is “a home, not a showcase”.
“It’s a lived-in home, and not for display. Everything in my home is worth something to me, whether it is a piece of art or some other personal item. It’s not pristine; you can sit on the sofas and there will be bits and pieces on the kitchen island. I want to relax when I go home, that’s what it’s about for me.”
With such a long career, I ask him what he’s most proud of.
“It would be The Park Hotel, because we took that from being a closed entity in 1979 to becoming a five-star, world-renowned hotel with a great staff. So, when I look back, I’d like to think my legacy would be the hotel. It’s nice to have that legacy.”
This year will mark three years since Francis and John sold the hotel in November 2023. Has the hotel changed a lot under the new ownership? “[The Park] is not like it was when we were there. And that’s fine. I have no problem with that. I said once I got the cheque, they can hang pink elephants from the ceiling, I couldn’t care less. It’s another man’s business now. But I do hope in my heart that it continues for many years.”
To anyone coming up in the hospitality business today, or indeed any business, Brennan says “don’t be afraid to follow your dreams”.
“Take the chances. I took ferocious chances when I bought The Park, but we got there in the end. And of course the hotel led to all the other things, like , and , and the partnership with Dunnes Stores.
“We had a family business in the hotel in Kenmare and with Dunnes it feels very much like two family businesses working together. And now this year we’re celebrating a few milestones in Dunnes; we have the 10 years of the Francis Brennan Collection, and the 60th anniversary of the Dunnes in Cornelscourt Shopping Centre, one of their flagship stores. It’s a big year, and we’re delighted to be part of it.”
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