Dubarry, a Galway-based fashion brand, expects its turnover to grow by 10 per cent this year with a bigger jump in 2026.
Dubarry was founded in 1937 as a joint project between the Scott family and a co-operative in Ballinasloe. The company now has 105 staff and had turnover of €24 million in 2024.
“At the most basic level, we’re best known as a footwear brand. We’ve branched out into clothing and accessories. Our focus is on the premium performance side of footwear and clothing, specifically in the sailing, equestrian and country lifestyle world,” Michael Walsh, marketing director of Dubarry, told the Business Post.
Dubarry began with the Scott family being invited over from Northampton in the UK to Ballinasloe to set up the business before evolving into its premium focus.
“That was a time when Ireland was flourishing with shoe and clothing factories. The Scotts came in to make a general footwear business for the Irish and UK markets. Cheaper imports began to come into Europe, which made it difficult to compete at that level,” Walsh said.
“I joined the company 30 years ago so I’ve seen a lot of changes.”
The switch to a focus on the premium end of the market was one part of the transition. Through the 1990s, the growth was a result of a more focused approach.
“We decided that we couldn’t compete in the mass market so we went niche. One of the expertise we had built up was hand sewn moccasins. That led us into making deck shoes and the world of sailing,” Walsh said.
“Then we became the first company in the world to get a licence from Gore-Tex to manufacture off-shore sailing boots.”
That partnership with Gore-Tex in turn led the business into the country lifestyle market. The business learned that customers were using sailing shoes for hunting, which moved the company into developing its now flagship product, the Galway hunting boot.
All of this development and growth has come with the support of Enterprise Ireland, which Walsh said has proven a useful partner for Dubarry.
“It began with them helping us find local partners in different markets. Our relationship with them has evolved to activating events with them in these markets. We’re also working with them on finding distributors in countries where we don’t have subsidiaries,” Walsh said.
“Even when it comes to simple things, like printing material locally in Arabic, they’ve helped with. It’s almost like having an extra employee based in those countries.”
Walsh expects the key growth for Dubarry to come with expanding its product offering more than finding new markets geographically. With that in mind, he expects solid growth of 10 per cent this year but with the potential to grow far faster in 2026 as these new product lines become more established.
“The focus is on developing key product categories. The superyacht market presents an enormous opportunity. We’re also launching a new collection of equestrian boots. The priority is product development.”
This Making it Work article was produced in partnership with Enterprise Ireland.