Shock of Grey planning to turn eco-friendly jewellery into sustainable international growth

Shock of Grey is planning a major expansion of its sustainable jewellery and lifestyle products off the back of a significant move into the US, British and European markets.

The firm, hot off the heels of winning the International Buyers’ Choice award at Showcase 2024 earlier this week, is looking to fuel its growth with help from the high-potential start-up unit at Enterprise Ireland (EI), which it joined at the end of last year.

Sarah Carroll Kelly, the founder, said that being recognised for this prestigious category by Enterprise Ireland was key to the future growth of the business.

“The high growth potential start-up thing is major though, because we’re an absolute anomaly that they pulled us into this with the staff numbers that we have . . . it’s like being asked to be a special agent,” she said.

She has been very successful at rolling out her product range – which so far has consisted primarily of eco-friendly jewellery – across Ireland, with only Limerick and Wicklow not covered. But she said there is only so much growth you can achieve in a market the size of Ireland.

“Ireland is very small, really, and people only have two ears, so there is a saturation point, and I think we’re actually there,” she said.

About 85 per cent of the company’s revenue currently comes from the Irish market, but the linchpin of EI’s support, and the real future growth of the firm, hangs on Carroll Kelly’s international expansion, for which, she said, the state body has been hugely helpful.

“They have so many contacts for export and access to markets in a really clever way that you wouldn’t get through any other support system,” she said.

With the company poised for major moves into the US and Europe, and further growth in Britain, the number of staff has increased to four and is projected to reach 10 employees by 2025.

Along with a growing headcount, turnover is also expected to climb, with revenue almost doubling to about €300,000 last year, and a commensurate increase for this year.

Most of that growth will come from Carroll Kelly’s range of lifestyle products like tea towels and stationery and a few more unannounced products, along with her new jewellery collection made from the company’s own repurposed and reconstituted scrap materials.

As for the expansion into other product lines, Carroll Kelly says it is all about staying true to the core values of the brand, describing sustainability as “the root of our business”.

“Our jewellery is made using FSC certified wood, low-emission paint and recycled boxes. The products we’ll be developing will be sustainable products. They’ll have recycled content. They’ll be using vintage, old material,” she said.

Longer-term plans will take the company in new directions, guided by wherever the use of these materials takes her. She said the key to her expansion so far has been keeping her senses tuned to potential opportunities.

“If you don’t keep your eyes open and your mind open, you can miss opportunities. And I think as long as the core values of the business stay the same, it can lend itself to other outputs,” she said.

Carroll Kelly also wants to run more of her workshops, which are currently divided into two strands, ‘Jewellery and Prosecco’, and educational workshops which turn scrap into jewellery and other products like bags and keyrings.

With her eyes set on turning this indigenous Irish brand into an international name to reckon with, and a new investor that joined at the end of last year, Carroll Kelly has her priorities crystallised.

“At the moment, we have 48 Irish stockists and we have some in the US, Canada and the UK. What we need to drive now is getting more stockists abroad,” she said.

This Making It Work article is produced in partnership with Enterprise Ireland.