Over the past five years, Ian Galvin has built a stable of fashion brands, writes Eoin Lyons

Fashion in Ireland is a risky business but Dublin retailer Mr Ian Galvin is more than happy to stick with the business of making and selling clothes.

Mr Galvin (39) has come a long way since winning the Late Late Show Entrepreneur of the Year Award at the age of 23. Over the past five years, he has built a stable of fashion brands and, despite tough economic times, he has managed to keep sales high.

Mr Galvin has interests in both the Irish and English fashion businesses. He operates franchises in Ireland for British labels Karen Millen, Whistles and Hobbs. He has also invested in and developed the businesses of Irish designers Helen McAlinden and Mary Gregory.

He employs 80 people and estimates this will rise to 120 over the next two years.

The Helen McAlinden label is Mr Galvin's big Irish designer success story. He set the label up just over two years ago with McAlinden, who previously designed for Irish company Ramsay. Already they have an impressive turnover of €2.5 million, mostly through sales at Brown Thomas and the pair's first store in Dungannon, Co Tyrone.

Mary Gregory will return to Grafton Street next spring and, in 2004, Mr Galvin will open Karen Millen and Hobbs stores in the Dundrum shopping centre, currently under construction. There are also plans to open Hobbs footwear stores around the State.

Mr Galvin, from Tramore, Co Waterford, holds a business degree from the College of Marketing, Mountjoy Square, Dublin.

Before he had finished studying, Mr Galvin started to take his family business - which was essentially a local draper shop - and develop it into three fashion stores in the south-east under the name Clarence House. He won the Late Late Show award for this work.

High-profile women such as Ms Norma Smurfit and Ms Margaret Heffernan were shopping at Clarence House, which attracted the attention of Paul and Deirdre Kelly, who were involved with A-Wear in 1987. They introduced Mr Galvin to Mr George McCullough, then chairman of the Brown Thomas Group.

In the late 1980s, says Mr Galvin, Brown Thomas was in danger of becoming "fuddy duddy" and he was taken on to help revitalise the store's image.

He seems to have had a knack for seeing what would become fashionable before everyone else and he brought labels such as Prada to Dublin for the first time.

"It was the start of the economic and creative boom in the Irish film and music industries, and fashion followed. There was a whole new wave of customers who understood designer clothes and could pay for them."

In 1996 he left Brown Thomas. "I had been there almost 10 years and there was nowhere else to go within the group. I wanted to find something else but didn't want to leave Ireland."

After he left Brown Thomas, Mr Galvin had a number of ventures that failed. In 1997 he opened a branch of Whistles in Dublin but fell out with the chain's British owner Ms Lucille Lewin.

He set up a short-lived label under his own name and secured the franchise in Ireland for Spanish chain Zara.

Back then, trying to raise money to bring Zara to Ireland wasn't easy. Zara wanted top locations for its stores and Mr Galvin failed to get the £4 million (€5 million) needed to land the deal.

Mr Galvin was perhaps ahead of his time as, a few years later, many big retailers were clamouring to open Zara. It will open at Roches Stores this August.

At the time, Mr Galvin also acted as a consultant for Dublin's Powerscourt Centre, helping to making it fashionable again by attracting French Connection and Spy nightclub among others.

In 1998, Karen Millen asked Mr Galvin to open a store in Dublin. This time he needed €400,000 upfront. "After the disappointment of Zara, I aimed a little lower and looked for a few smaller investors."

There are now four outlets around the State with another to open next year in Galway.

The Whistles label came back to Mr Galvin after Karen Millen bought it for £6.5 million sterling (€9.2 million) last year and asked him to manage it in Ireland. The Hobbs brand also came about through a Karen Millen connection.

Mr Nick Samuel, a former finance director at Karen Millen, moved to the company after it was sold for £30 million to a management team last year and he asked Mr Galvin to join him. Turnover at Hobbs is forecast to be about £40 million this year.

The money he made from his British brands has allowed him to invest in Irish labels. Part of the reason Mr Galvin's labels are doing well seems to be that there is no conflict between them as each goes after a different type of customer.

Mr Galvin sees one particular irony when it comes to selling fashion in Ireland. "It has a 'high-risk' reputation among institutions and investors but yet retail space remains the most expensive commercial property in Grafton and Henry Street."

Some department stores, such as Brown Thomas, started their summer sales two weeks ago, a month earlier than usual, and moved rapidly into 50 per cent discounts, reflecting a season of disappointing sales. However, Mr Galvin says clothing sales are steady, even if not increasing.

"This isn't a recession like before. Department stores aren't panicking the way they used to because - in retailing terms - this is different to the mid 1980s or early 1990s.

"Before, there was a severe change in buying patterns. Clothes were not a priority. Government taxes and VAT on clothing made their cost prohibitive.

"Now people are still spending but re-thinking what kind of clothes they buy. There is a slower growth but it's not stagnant," Mr Galvin says.

"There was a price tag on the main three department stores - BTs, Arnotts and Clery's - during previous recessions but all have successfully repositioned themselves in terms of property and branched into secondary stores and car-parks. For example, Brown Thomas is opening a new store in Dundrum."

Mr Galvin believes Hobbs, Karen Millen and Whistles are recession proof.

"They started in the UK in the midst of a recession in the 1980s and they were the first to create a boutique-style high-street concept by putting reasonably priced goods in a store with an upmarket image."

It's a concept that seems to work as each of them have 60-120 UK stores.

All three have adapted a production method called "just-in-time", which means refreshing stock continually throughout the season - an approach Mr Galvin has followed with his Irish labels.

Mr Galvin says he is excited by the new wave of young Irish designers.

"From my experience with Helen McAlinden, I think I've got a formula that will work with other designers. I've always wanted to be involved with Irish fashion and am really against the pessimistic idea that it isn't an industry worth investing in."