‘We decided to test a few of those rugs on eBay’: How Newry siblings turned their father’s market stall into a £21m homeware brand

Long before Kukoon became a £21million homewares business with 75 employees, it was a market stall in Newry.

That’s where I grew up, watching my dad sell rugs and getting involved from a young age alongside my sister Clare. Neither of us probably knew then where it would lead, but the market stall became the starting point for everything that came afterwards.

When I finished university in 2006, we decided to test a few of those rugs on eBay. They sold, and pretty quickly it became obvious that the market was far bigger than a market stall could ever reach. That was the start of Kukoon, and we’ve been at it ever since.

Today, Kukoon is an online-first homewares brand focused on rugs and home furnishings. We design our own products and sell across Ireland and Great Britain through our own website, more than 15 online retail platforms and over 60 retail stores.

What makes us different is really the product and the culture behind it. Rugs had become a fairly boring, functional category, but we didn’t think they had to be. We wanted to create rugs that were on trend, washable and affordable, while making it easier for people to transform their homes.

There isn’t really a typical day for me as a founder. It starts with the school run and our morning meeting, and then it’s whatever the business needs that day – product, commercial, finance, the team.

We run a 2 Second Lean culture, so we’re constantly looking at how we can improve our processes and make things better. That gives us the freedom to spend more time focusing on our products and customers. The evenings belong to our four children and, hopefully, something fitness related.

One of the biggest highs has been seeing Kukoon products appear in some of the biggest retailers in the country. Their floor space is highly sought after and expensive to run, so for those retailers to trust us with our products and displays is fantastic confirmation that we’re taking the brand in the right direction.

Working with some great retail brands and influencers has also helped elevate Kukoon, and it’s been great fun along the way.

But it hasn’t all been straightforward. 2022 was a particularly difficult year. We had overinvested during Covid and didn’t properly understand our own business. Cashflow and profitability both went against us.

We had to make some very tough calls quickly and spent two years trimming back to the basics until we were on a strong footing again. It was hard on everyone, but it forced us to understand what actually drives the business.

What I’m most proud of is our team. We now have 75 people in Newry handling everything from design and marketing through to warehousing, pick and pack, customer service and our retail team.

We have a great team culture. Everyone is constantly looking at how we can improve what we do, the craic is great and everyone wants to succeed. It’s genuinely a great atmosphere to come into every day.

There's a lot happening right now! We’ve just launched our William Morris collection and the reaction has been superb. Combining classic styling with practical function in affordable, washable rugs has been a huge hit.

We’ve also opened a new retail store at The Boulevard in Banbridge. It’s a completely new format for us and for the category, presenting rugs in a much more interesting and shoppable way. Our retail team has been incredible, combining expertise with good craic and great customer service.

We’re also about to launch cushions, which is our first expansion into the wider textiles category. We’ve spent two years working on the right styles, suppliers and qualities, so we’re unbelievably excited about the range.

Being named a finalist in the EY Entrepreneur Of The Year programme means a lot, particularly because Clare and I have done it together and it all started on our dad’s market stall. It’s recognition not just for us, but for the wider team’s creativity and work ethic. It has also exposed us to so many incredible businesses from this year's program and the wider alumni. That has changed our perception of just how ambitious we should be.

The biggest lesson is that nobody has it all figured out. There are a lot of planes being built on the way down and our own ambition is a limiting factor. The EOY CEO retreat in Canada was the standout - the openness of the group was not something I expected and learning from other entrepreneurs has made us even more ambitious about what Kukoon can become.

We’ve self-funded the business from day one, reinvesting profits and using bank funding for larger capital projects. We finished our latest financial year with £21m in revenue and £2.2m EBITDA, and we’re now building our brand in Great Britain with plans to enter North America within the next two years.

For me, though, it still comes back to the same thing: a business that started with Clare and I selling rugs from our dad’s market stall, and an incredible team of 75 people in Newry who want to see how far we can take it.