A shopper's dream job

Some people joke that they could shop for Ireland. Teresa Rafter actually does it every day of the week. As chief homewares buyer for Dunnes Stores, Rafter is responsible for up to 20 per cent of the group's multi-million pound textiles business. And the figures are growing. Once known only for its sensibly priced bedding, Dunnes' homewares department is rapidly becoming one of the best places to shop for homes accessories.

This season's collection includes gorgeous soft kelim type cushions that go with rich red bouclΘ throws, that match crimson square candles or tealight holders with gold bead shades. More contemporary pieces range from slender but solid chrome finish lamps with black shades, heavy aubergine velvet throws for bed or sofa and wonderfully heavy, perfectly plain crystal vases and bowls. Voile curtains scattered with purple flowers are flying out the door along with matching bedlinen. Minimalists can pick up plain, cream-coloured dinner ware, and tightly woven seagrass baskets to store all clutter out of sight. Want to spruce up your front door? Just add a pair of clipped bay trees in teak planters.

Rafter goes shopping on a grand scale. One week she is in New York looking at trends in Bergdorf Goodmans , the next visiting factories and craft villages in the Far East and after that it might be Copenhagen to view new furniture designs. Increasingly, though, the suppliers come to her warren of offices high above Dunnes Stores on Georges Street. There, on any given day, you might meet a parade of Asian gentlemen showing off their wares, from hand-beaded cushions to gorgeously coloured glass lanterns. It is well worth their while making the trip. Once listed with Dunnes, the right item - what Rafter calls a winner - will sell by the tens of thousands. Like the ceramic plant pot that sold 100,000 times over during the summer.

Rafter's office, once occupied by Ben Dunne Senior, is stuffed with desirable things; in fact, it's standing room only among the armies of lamps, the piles of cushions and crowd of candles, and the samples spill over into the adjoining suite of rooms where her 20 buying staff operate.

Rafter moved to homewares three years ago after 22 years in the fashion department, just in time to see homewares become the new fashion. With top fashion designers rolling out their own ranges of bedlinen, lighting, ceramics and scented candles, there is now "huge interest" in anything to with the home. "I was reluctant to take the job at the time, but then took to it like the proverbial duck to water," says Rafter. "I used to think homeware was about four steps behind fashion. Now that is not the case. People are nearly as quick to buy a lamp as they are to buy a skirt."

The biggest growth area for the company is in kitchenware. A core range of stainless steel accessories - from pots and pans to a sleek Thermos jug for chilled drinks - is complemented by a co-ordinated dinner set, glassware, tables and chairs and butchers' blocks. "We have moved from the purely utilitarian in our kitchen ranges. You might have a magnificent drawingroom, but most people giving parties find that people are congregating in the kitchen and you don't want to have heaps of old pots and pans and cracked crockery on display."

For the price of a meal for two, customers can update their table top, from glassware to linen, and add a bowl of fresh lilies into the bargain.

Opulent products at a realistic price is one of Rafter's catch phrases, and so far the formula is working brilliantly with sales up 30 per cent over the last three years. Price is still a big concern for shoppers, she maintains. "Products have to be exceptional value - there are core basics that have to be the best possible product." Best of the basics is the coloured poly/cotton bedlinen range which Rafter describes as tractor proof. "It's a headache for us just keeping enough of it in stock."

Of course, not every product is a winner. Everyone makes a mistake and one of Rafter's bad buys was a line of brown tableware, that, she says, food just does not look good on. "Ninety per cent of this business is gut instinct and we learn from our mistakes. There is no good buyer who doesn't have a cupboardful of mistakes."

Future developments include full-scale furniture, such as beds and sofas. "There is a market out there. We know it because so many people want to buy the displays from the floor, so we are looking into ways of offering them to customers. We are not going to sit on our laurels, so watch this space."