Evelyn Moynihan, chief executive of Kilkenny Group, has been chosen as The Irish Times Business Person of the Month for June, an award run in association with Bank of Ireland.
The Irish fashion and design retailer, owned by the O’Gorman family, returned to an operating profit last year as trading bounced back after Covid and it invested in new stores.
Speaking to The Irish Times, Ms Moynihan said: “In [calendar] 2023 we returned to strong operating profit, there’s been really good momentum in the business. We’ve been investing in our bricks and mortar stores as well as in our ecommerce websites, which is driving good growth for us.
“Also, we’ve been doing a lot of work in developing new own brand ranges, such as the Lennon Courtney collaboration, which launched last October. That is really helping to drive footfall and improving margin in the business. We were back in profit in 2023, and we’re budgeting for even more profit in 2024.”
Kilkenny Group operates 18 bricks and mortar stores here, with a shop in the Liffey Valley in Dublin opening last October. It also has separate online stores for the European, UK and US markets following an investment last year of €400,000. “We’re planning for very strong ecommerce growth and are looking at double-digit growth in that space in 2024,” Ms Moynihan said.
