UNDER THE RADAR Marie Harty: Lisboa:FOR A former buying manager with Sainsbury's, used to leading a team of 10 and being responsible for an area with a turnover of £650 million (€753 million), you'd imagine starting a boutique in Cork would be a piece of cake.
You’d be wrong. Marie Harty opened Lisboa in 2006 and began building her dream business. But in January of this year recession hit with a vengeance – and that retail dream was rapidly replaced by the threat of imminent closure.
“There was a huge fall-off in business in January and February,” says Harty (34).
“I realised I had two choices: I could close the door or take a calculated risk on moving to a more vibrant shopping location. It was a cliffhanger – but here I am.”
It was a cliffhanger not only because disposable incomes had disappeared and the bottom had fallen out of the market, but because Harty was tied into a six-year lease and faced the challenge of finding someone to take it off her hands.
“It cost me a bit of money but I decided to stand my ground. I think that if I’d stayed where I was, I might well be facing the reality of closing just about now.”
What kept Lisboa afloat was the experience Harty had gleaned from working for more than six years with one of the largest and most successful supermarket chains in the UK – that, and sheer bloody-mindedness.
“Maybe if I’d decided purely on the basis of the numbers, I’d have called it a day. But I’ve invested three hard years. I believe in this business model, and there’s a need for small businesses to survive this recession. It shouldn’t all be left to the multiples.”
In what Harty describes as “a big, scary move”, Lisboa changed premises from Maylor Street to Oliver Plunkett Street in June, and set about attracting a broad target market of women from their mid-20s to their mid-60s. “It isn’t possible to satisfy everyone in that age group,” says Harty, “but it is possible to satisfy people who have a certain taste in common within that age group – and that’s what we’re setting out to do.
“We sell clothes with a classic feel, that are elegant, are going to last and will build a woman’s wardrobe. People who buy something today and wouldn’t dream of wearing it in 12 months’ time won’t find what they’re looking for here – they want the more wacky, high-end, catwalk labels.”
Innovation is also important in the new Lisboa. In an imaginative departure worthy of UK retail guru Mary Portas, Cork’s own “Marie queen of shops” has introduced vintage clothing on the floor above the boutique.
“As a working mum with three small kids, I don’t spend as much on clothes now as I did a few years ago. So I have lots of things taking up wardrobe space, clothes I’m not attached to any more or I’m tired of, or maybe handbags I was given as gift,” says Harty.
“So the idea is that people bring those to us – as long as they’re not ordinary high-street brands that we’d have trouble reselling. We sell them on and we pay 50 per cent of what we get back to the original owner. That way people can free up the ‘cash’ they have in their wardrobes – and hopefully they’ll spend that additional money with us.”
Ask Harty about the most important retail rule she brought to Lisboa from Sainsbury’s, and she replies immediately: “It’s not what I want that matters, it’s what the customer wants. That’s something I keep constantly in mind, and I know it’s one of the things in my business life that’s changed me as a person.”
ON THE RECORD
Name: Marie Harty
Company: Lisboa
www.lisboa.ie
Job: owner
Age: 34
Background: Graduated from UCC in 1997 with a BSc in nutritional science and joined the Kerry Group as a graduate trainee. Moved to the UK and joined Entenmann's, the cake company, before moving to supermarket chain Sainsbury's as a buyer in 1999. Promoted to buying manager, responsible for a team of 10 and an area with a turnover of £650 million (€753 million). Returned to Cork in 2005 and the following year opened Lisboa on Maylor Street. Moved the boutique to Oliver Plunkett Street in June and added a vintage range.
Challenges: "Like so many other businesspeople, making sure that turnover stays steady enough to pay all the running costs. January and February last were so bad that businesses are already worrying about January and February next."
Inspired by: "I suppose I'm inspired by the retail ideas people use in their businesses. When I go to London I'm always looking in shops and boutiques and trying to pick up new ideas and see what other businesses have come up with. Listening to customers can produce valuable insights as well."
Most important thing learned so far: "Don't overegg it. Test new ideas gradually and don't always follow your gut instinct. I went on a big burst at one point with Irish designers I thought were very good, but people just didn't buy them."
