Let's go outside: Portwest opens new shop in Dublin

“More and more people are engaging with the outdoors,” said Owen Hughes, managing director of clothing company Portwest, at the opening of its first Dublin store.

Located in the former McCullough Piggott building in Suffolk Street, which has had a €l million renovation, the shop will stock everything

for the outdoors enthusiast, from Portwest’s own adventure sports clothing and water sports equipment to international brands such as Rip Curl, Billabong, O’Neill and others. The shop will also have a cycle section and the venture will create 15 new jobs.

With two shops in Westport, Co Mayo, and another in Galway that opened last year, this is the company’s fourth store in Ireland. There are plans to open others in university towns and tourist locations throughout the country by January 2012.

“We have a reputation for good value and there’s a need for a bit of competition,” said Mr Hughes. “We’ve been in business for over 100 years and here we are. If you want to expand in Ireland, you have to expand in Dublin and opportunities arise in a recession,” he added.

Westport-based Portwest is best known for workwear and safety products, and the past

10 years have seen it expand into Europe where, in a workwear sector estimated to be worth more than €2 billion a year, it expects revenues of €40 million for 2010.

The collapse in demand for workwear in Ireland in 2008, because of the recession, led the company to concentrate on promoting the brand by opening shops.

The Hughes family, whose roots in Mayo go back to the 1700s, has been trading in Westport since 1904 when Charles Hughes established his textile business.

Owen, Cathal and Harry Hughes – who come from a family of 13 children – are the third generation of the family to run the business, which employs over 300 staff in Ireland, the UK, Poland and China.

The three Hughes brothers set a world sporting record of their own, in 1984, for the most siblings to complete the Dublin marathon.