Small Business Future Proof Global Design Concepts

JP Glass Interiors began as a family business in Cork in 1890, specialising in domestic linens. Moving to Dublin in 1963, the company didn't trade in commercial contracts until the 1980s.

"During the 1980s, we began establishing ourselves as a soft furnishings provider for hotels. We developed a good reputation relatively quickly and we became well known by hotels," says managing director David Gray.

At that time many hotels were family- run businesses and, during the 1990s, the domestic side of JP Glass Interiors died out and the company moved to bigger contracts solely with hotels.

In the 1990s and 2000s, the company began to see changes in the hotel industry.

“In the 1980s and into the 1990s, we would have dealt directly with hotel owners, but by the 2000s we saw lots of new- build hotels and hotel chains coming in to the Irish market. We were dealing with the interior designers on those projects, sourcing materials for large developments and constructing what the designers wanted.”

Good years

David’s son Bobby became involved in the business in 1999. “We had some really good years in the late-1990s to mid-2000s. And 2005-2007 were also busy years for us. We got involved in a big apartment fit-out project through a former client and that kept us busy.

“But in 2007 everything changed in the hotel industry; it just froze. It was as if someone just turned a light off and hotels just stopped spending. The years between 2008 and 2012 were really difficult.”

However, JP Glass’s ability to adapt meant it survived those tough years well. David explains: “We looked to the healthcare market. We took on very specialised distributors from the UK and we began working in hospitals and care homes. We made some losses, but we had put some funds aside from our good years and we did generate some turnover and that’s what got us through.”

Among the projects completed in this period was one for St Vincent’s Private Hospital and for residential care homes. The company also provided a specialist blinds service to schools.

But JP Glass always knew its expertise was in working with hotels and kept an eye on that market.

“We knew things couldn’t stay the same and we were thinking ahead,” Bobby says.

New premises

In 2011, the company bought premises in Baldoyle, three times the size of its previous site in Glasnevin, at a very low price, and the following year it began to get a sense that things were changing.

“We started getting inquiries from customers in the hotel sector coming back to us. We had never stopped sending out brochures and keeping connections with our customers and it paid off,” says Bobby.

By 2013, the company decided to again concentrate solely on the hotel market, feeling they were back where they were most comfortable.

And it began looking to the future once again. Having analysed the market, the company noticed some of the changes that had taken hold since the recession. The market had moved more to outside hotel groups coming in and buying up hotels, sometimes groups from China or the US.

“We felt a global presence would really benefit us and we started to think about how we could develop that,” says Bobby.

"We have friends in Australia who owned Global Design Concepts. They had been working in the healthcare market but they wanted to get into the hotel market. They had good resources in areas where we were weak, so we felt the merger would be a good move for both companies."

One-stop shop

Despite a change of brand, the company says there is no change for it in the Irish market and no change for its Irish customers. Now Global Design Concepts (GDC) Ireland, the company employs 12 staff and a number of teams of contractors.

“We are now a complete one-stop shop for any hotel design or refurbishment,” says Bobby. “We offer a project management service, meaning the hotel general manager only ever has to deal with one person and we look after everything else. We have an in-house design team and we can source and supply all materials needed.”

Global Design Concepts is already making its mark in the global market. As well as GDC Australia and GDC Ireland, the company has opened an office in London.

“This offers us a great base to really go after the UK market,” says David Gray.

Another son, Cliff, is also involved in the company, so for all the change, GDC Ireland remains a family-run operation in a global marketplace.