Ciaran Finane, managing director, Finline Furniture

(Editor: Leona) Last September Co Laois company Finline Furniture became the first Irish furniture company to exhibit at the China International Furniture Expo in Shanghai, having first entered the Chinese market in 2011.

Husband and wife Kieran and Bridget Finane established the company in 1979 and it is now run by their sons Ciaran and Kilian and employs 40 people.

“In a normal working week, we can produce up to 80 suites. Our yearly sales are around €4.5m and we’re just about to launch a new website which we think has a more modern look and feel to it,” Ciaran explained.

“In China we use a distributor based in the city of Tianjin, which also owns three European-themed furniture stores. In 2013 we were getting a lot of interest in our products from Chinese buyers but without physically seeing our goods they wouldn’t purchase. So we decided to take a 100 sq m stand at the Shanghai international fair. As a result, we took on new customers and orders from Dubai, Taiwan, China, Mongolia and Russia in addition to China.” 

Until 2010, Finline Furniture depended entirely on a wholesale business through high-end retailers in Ireland and UK and its goods were stocked in the likes of Arnotts and Brown Thomas.

“When the recession hit many of these retailers starting importing cheaper furniture from China and Eastern Europe. We felt we had a unique offering and the knowledge and expertise people really wanted when buying an expensive piece of furniture. So we decided to open our new showrooms at our factory in Emo, Co Laois in 2011 selling directly to the public,” said Ciaran.

“To meet demand we also opened showrooms in 2013 on the Long Mile Road in Dublin. One of the highlights in 2013 was that we were exclusively chosen as the supplier of sofas and chairs for the G8 International summit held in Co Fermanagh and attended by many world leaders including Barack Obama, David Cameron and Angela Merkel.”

Because its products can be packaged easily and shipped in containers, Ciaran said Finline Furniture can export to “anywhere”.

“Next week, we have a 40 ft container going to Ulanbaatar in Mongolia. It will go by sea to China and then by train. Our strategy is to work with experienced and well connected individuals on the ground who understand their markets well. We try to get these people to our factory for training so they can become ambassadors for us abroad and understand our products better.

“We don’t plan on becoming global necessarily – rather we would like to concentrate on a few markets where consumers put a premium on buying quality. This is what is important to us going forward in 2015.”