‘I founded my company at 50. Seventeen years later, I sold it for €68 million’

Since founding Merlyn Industries in 2000, Michael Hoyne has seen his shower enclosure business grow to sales of over €34m. It has thrived in boom, bust and Brexit. Just how did he do it?

Michael Hoyne and investment partner Pete Smyth: ‘We went for a cup of coffee and both of us were thinking where might this go’ Picture: Maura Hickey

Michael Hoyne does not look like a man who just that morning sold his business for tens of millions of euro. It is just after 4pm on Thursday when I meet him in his investment partner Broadlake’s office in Rathmines, Dublin 6.

Hoyne is wearing a casual blue checked shirt. He is good-humoured and relaxed as he tells me his extraordinary business story based in the most unsexy world of shower enclosures. Pete ...