Blooming Clothing

Martha O Byrne
A successful merchant banker till 1984. Resigned from investment banking and got into the business of maternity wear for women. MD & Main share holder of Blooming Clothing ltd.

1984
Went shopping with her sister in law. Felt there was need for improvising maternity wear in comparison to what was available in the market then. She decided to do something big in the world of maternity wear. She decided to start BLOOMING CLOTHING

1985

Blooming clothing was now established at Dublin in Ireland.

1987

Blooming Clothing recorded an annual turnover of IR 250,000 through Departmental stores and independent outlets. Got into business with Harrods (London).

1992
Turnover of IR 1.1 Million was recorded during the year. Opened a store at Carmen's Hall & Francis Street. They went into joint ventures with John Lewis & Selfridges.

The economic turmoil in 1992

United Kingdom (UK) was struck by recession during this year. Textiles was the first market segment to feel the pinch during this recession.

1993
There was a currency crisis for Irish pound during the year. There was an increase in prices of clothes manufactured by Blooming clothing which resulted in customers falling apart. State fund schemes were introduced by respective state governments to bail out the affected traders /exporters from this crisis.

1994
Blooming Clothing appointed an agent in Belgium just as an onset of recession and sales did not materialize. Thus the relationship with the agent faded away in no time.

1995
Sale of Blooming corporation increased substantially. New retail outlets were opened in different locations. The British chain Mothercare accepted Blooming s Range of maternity wear as a part of their further business.

Mothercare
Networking : 330 outlets in the UK. International franchise in 25 countries with 130 outlets. Mothercare helped Blooming clothing to enter European markets.

International Activities
Blooming Clothing seeked newer markets to sell its maternity wear. (Scotland & northern Ireland) In 1995, received orders from Japanese agents. There was problems with sizing. They left the project due to the slide in Yen()

 In 1999, it entered European trading fair in cologne with two objectives 1) Generate orders. 2) look at european competitors While they were going to exhibit their collection in the fair half of the collection was stolen enroute to cologne..

Increasing International Competition

Chain stores from United Kingdom and mainland Europe had made significant inroads in the Irish Markets. Thus Irish Market for maternity clothing now had 2 or 3 European labels alongside itself. These labels were produced at low cost producing units. Blooming had earlier turned down offers to produce private label lines for other retailers and manufacturers, but now it felt there was an urgent need to do the said thing sooner rather than later.