Keeping skin in the game with an innovative approach

Co Louth company Irish Breeze launched its popular WaterWipes brand in 2007, having started life as a manufacturer of cotton wool, soaps and skincare products.

By that stage, the Drogheda firm had been in business for 14 years, but founder Edward McCloskey saw an opportunity to harness innovation to spur global growth.

“I had big ambitions for the business,” said McCloskey, “I wanted it to be globally successful.”

“The business, in the very early days, started off initially on a sort of import substitution basis, but within six to nine months it had become clear that we needed to focus on innovation.”

In response, McCloskey developed a chemical-free baby wipe made from 99.9 per cent purified water and 0.1 per cent grapefruit seed extract.

Marketed under the WaterWipes brand, the product was initially made on a pilot line and sold in local pharmacies in the north-east.

“In the early days of our innovation drive, we had a very good innovation pipeline, but we were trying to license those innovations to global FMCG manufacturers,” said McCloskey.

“After a while, I realised this approach wasn’t getting the kind of traction we wanted. The turning point for us was when we had developed WaterWipes and we thought: ‘Let’s try doing this ourselves’.

“We knew it would mean taking on the global multinationals at their own business, but that was actually a core strategic inflection point for us. That’s how WaterWipes started.”

Irish Breeze secured its first export contract with British online supermarket Ocado and now sells WaterWipes to supermarkets, pharmacy chains and online retailers in 46 countries.

“The business is growing very fast, but we are careful about which countries we enter and why,” said McCloskey.

“It’s important for us to choose countries that are appropriate for the WaterWipes product. We have also adopted a prudent approach to financial sustainability.

“We don’t have any borrowings at high levels with any institutions. We’re completely self-funded. We could grow faster if we over-borrowed, but we’re very keen to make sure we’re resilient and have good financial structures in place.

“At the same time, we invest a very high percentage of our turnover in marketing and in brand building and support, much more than many of our peers. That has been fundamental to our growth.”

And Irish Breeze continues to grow. The company’s manufacturing base in Drogheda expanded in 2016 with the acquisition of a 45,000 sq ft factory adjacent to the existing facility. This quadrupled output with capacity to make 380 packs of 60 wipes per minute.

It opened a US base in New Hampshire in 2017. High-profile US customers include Walmart, Kroger, Target and Safeway.

Irish Breeze agreed a major deal last November with JD.com, China’s largest e-commerce market and retailer.

The Co Louth company is valuing the contract with JD.com, which hosts more than 20,000 international brands, at up to €25 million over five years.

Irish Breeze established a commercial hub in the Netherlands in early 2018 serving the European and Middle Eastern markets. Another hub serving the Asian market opened at the start of this year.

As one of the new winners of this year’s Deloitte Best Managed Companies awards programme, Irish Breeze has benefited from the in-depth judging and coaching process involved.

“The programme allowed us to hold a mirror up to ourselves, to the executive team and the other senior people in the business,” said McCloskey.

“It’s good to have that mirror that allows you to look at yourself and ask: ‘How are we doing here?’

“It’s also a feather in our cap, recognition of the strategic decision we made early on to build the HR and cultural foundations for the business we wanted to become.

“We decided we were going to over-invest in HR and culture and pour the foundation for the business we’d like to become.

“If we hadn’t done that, we would have tripped over ourselves as the business grew without having put the necessary structures in place.

“If you want to build a skyscraper, you’ve got to put in the appropriate foundations.”