Gadget empire makes its first foray into Republic

In the old days, the entire board of The Gadget Shop - turnover £26 million sterling (€40 million) - used to go on trips to trade shows in New York. It would fly Aeroflot and share one room in the Days Hotel on Eighth Avenue. True, the entire board was made up of Andy Hobbs and Jonathan Elvidge, but this meant they could hold meetings, and make decisions fast.

They still can, it's just that these days when they go to a trade show they tend to charter their own cargo jumbo jet to bring back the tonnes of products for their 30 shops.

Mr Hobbs readily concedes that the whole affair was Mr Elvidge's idea: "Buying presents for men - we always get crap! We always get ties, shirts, socks, hankies - rubbish! Jonathan said: `I wish somebody would put lots of things I like under one roof; it would make a fortune.' He went on about this for a while, and eventually people started saying, well, why don't you do it yourself."

Mr Hobbs was a successful property developer in Mr Elvidge's home town of Hull, and the pair met.

"The concept I loved, but he lacked business experience, and money."

In 1991, the property developer and the telephone engineer opened their first shop. Without any bank borrowing, or venture capital, they now own a gadget empire stretching across Britain.

The company is growing rapidly, doubling in size every year. It turned over more last week than it did in its entire second year of trading. It is on its eighth warehouse, its seventh office.

"People don't understand what an enormous task it is to grow that fast. You outgrow your warehouse, you outgrow your office annually. So not only are you involved in opening new stores all the time, but you keep on having to reinvent your logistics just to keep up with it," says Mr Hobbs.

They still own the company, and have no intention of floating it on the stock exchange. Why would they, when it brings in almost £5 million sterling - and rising - in profits a year.

This and the chartered jumbo jet keep them ahead of the competition in the search for new gadgets.

"When two owners go to a show and see a product they like, they can have a board meeting there and then. We get that product whacked back onto our shelves well before anyone else," he says.

"The way a large multiple works is they see a product they like, they say `That looks interesting, I'll contact you when I'm back in England.' Some time later they send a fax to Hong Kong or Germany or wherever and ask for a sample. Eventually the sample arrives. They then take the sample to the sub-committee. The subcommittee says `This is quite nice, can we have 12. You'll be pleased to hear it's going up to the main buying committee.' By the time these buggers have got around to making an order, we've had it in the shops for two months."

But the real secret is in choosing the products. There are portable lie detectors, microphone key-rings, spectacles with mini-torches on either side, credit-card sized survival tools complete with tiny bowie-knives, pens that boil water by human heat conduction.

It means that everyone knows they can go to The Gadget Shop, peruse shelf after shelf of weird and whacky wonders, and be sure to come away with an interesting and appropriate present for anyone of any age. As Dubliners will find out from this week in the Jervis Centre.

While there is already a store in Belfast, the Dublin shop is the company's first foray outside of the sterling area.

"The idea is that we have to deal with the euro, translate prices. It is our first testing ground for what will be more stores in Ireland - and quite rapidly because everyone tells us it is going to go down a bomb in Dublin," says Mr Hobbs.

He admits that Grafton Street would have been his location of choice: "But you cannot get into Grafton Street, it's a nightmare. They call it key money - everything changes hands for, like, £400,000 - it should be illegal actually."

"If it were shareholders' money, I'd probably pay it. But it's not - it's my money!"