Staying the retail course by backing the online horse

A love of horses led Paul Ryan and his wife, Caitriona O'Dwyer, to set up the Equine Warehouse in 2001. Having successfully negotiated a number of hurdles over the years, the company is now pulling away from its competitors and is on the fast track to success.

Based in Clonmel, Co Tipperary, a county renowned for its horse-breeding heritage, the couple operate one of the largest equestrian retail superstores in Ireland, stocking everything from saddlery and jodhpurs to riding jackets and mucking-out equipment.

Their warehouse, which is located at Ard Gaoithe Business Park, on Cashel Road, has more than 7,000 sq ft of showroom space. It offers a large range of quality equestrian product for professionals and enthusiasts alike. However, while the retail outlet draws plenty of visitors, the company is enjoying even more success with its online store, which has been attracting buyers from around the world.

“The products we sell are available in other shapes and forms elsewhere, but we feel that what sets us apart from our competitors is our focus on ecommerce and how our website integrates with the store,” Ryan said. “The equestrian world is traditionally quite old-fashioned in its way, so we’re trying to bring technology to it, and it has served us well so far. We have clients all over the world because of the website, with customers in far-off places, such as Saudi Arabia, Bhutan, the US, and closer to home in mainland Europe.

“While a lot of our business is still based within Ireland, it’s fantastic to see these other markets emerging for us and we’re really optimistic about future opportunities.”

Although there’s plenty of support for the business locally, particularly from the horse-breeding industry, Ryan is realistic about where the company needs to be to continue to grow. “As Ireland has such a small population, we have to look outside of it to get more business. Luckily for us, the country’s reputation in the equine world means that we can be a real player in other markets,” he said.

Loving the industry

While he didn’t grow up competing in gymkhanas, Ryan has come to love the industry he now works in. “I fell into the equine world. I’m not from a horsey background, but I was among the first group of students to study for a degree in equine science at

University of Limerick

, which was very useful as it had a business element to it,” he said.

“I always had a keen interest in the horses and doing the degree made me even more fascinated by them, so after completing the course, I got a job as a sales representative for an equine health company, which gave me more insight into the equestrian world. From this, I realised there was a need for a store in the south of Ireland that would sell equine products, and Caitriona and I decided to give it a go.”

Their plan was always to have a website, but Ryan didn’t expect it to do much in the way of business initially. “Our first forays online didn’t lead to much, but over the years we steadily increased our investment and commitment towards it and started to see results each time we did,” he said.

“Then, when the downturn came, we knew we had to do more to differentiate ourselves and to try and keep our heads above water, so we decided to take on staff purely to work on the website in areas such as digital marketing. It’s common enough for companies to do this now, but it wasn’t then. We thought it was a big risk but it worked.”

As with businesses across Ireland, the company struggled during the recession, but it managed to stay in business by growing online revenues. “Our focus on the website worked really well and the psychological impact of seeing a part of the business growing was a great boost during what were a tough few years. Focusing on the website meant we were able to hold our market share during the bad times, and even to grow,” Ryan said.

Online presence

While the company’s online presence has blossomed, Ryan is convinced it can achieve more. “In terms of turnover, maybe only 25 per cent of our overall business is done online, but I’d say it is responsible for about 75 per cent of the business we do, because a lot of people also use the website to check out stock and then come along in person to the store to buy,” he said.

“Nonetheless, we’d like to grow online revenues more. We’ve noticed business picking up a lot over the last year or so and feel that we’ve learnt a great deal over the last while that makes us more robust as a company and more sure about our business and value proposition. The plan now is to expand on what we’ve built and dig deeper into other markets.”