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Irish Breeze is the undisputed
leader of quality Irish-made
personal care products. Here
at Irish Breeze, we specialize
in the manufacturing and distribution
of cotton wool products, as
well as soap and other skincare
products. Our factory is located
in a 30,000 sq. foot premises
in the Donore Industrial Estate
in Drogheda, Co. Louth, where
we employ 35 people. We manufacture
most of the cotton wool products
sold in Ireland, with the
Irish Breeze brand accounting
for over 55% of the market.
We are the only Irish manufacturers
of cotton wool, and are one
of the very few companies
in the world that can offer
our customers a full range
of cotton wool products, including
pads, pleats, puffs, rolls,
squares and cotton buds.
Background
Irish Breeze entered the Irish
cotton wool market, which
is worth over €8million
in April 2003. All the cotton
wool in Ireland was being
imported from Britain and
elsewhere. This was highly
unusual, as cotton wool is
a bulky, low value product.
The company founder and current
MD Mr. Edward McCloskey noticed
this gap in the market, and
made the decision to enter
the market and provide the
Irish people with Irish-made
cotton wool. Irish Breeze
now manufactures nearly 500
tonnes of cotton wool a year.
When he started out, Edward
had had very little knowledge
or experience of the cotton
wool manufacturing process.
However, he purchased the
production machinery necessary
to carry out this task and
received a considerable amount
of support from Irish retailers.
The company originally licensed
the Irish Breeze name, but
has since purchased it outright.
A mere two years after its
launch, Irish Breeze was the
brand leader in the Irish
market! The Irish Breeze products
are recognized as the best
available and satisfy the
market at a competitive price.
Our achievements have been
recognized by many, and we
have won the following awards:
· Superquinn Supplier of the
Month Award
· Checkout magazine Irish
Business of the Year Award
· North East regional winner
for the ACC Bank/Sunday Business
Post ‘New Business of the
Year’ award
· Finalists in the ‘Up and
Coming’ television show
· We have the ISO9002 accreditation
as well as an environmental
procedures accreditation,
and are currently
striving to achieve a food
preparation standard of hygiene
accreditation.
Production
Cotton is one of the oldest
cultivated plants in the world.
It was first grown in the
ancient civilizations of Egypt,
India and China, and is known
to have grown in Mexico as
early as 5000BC. When Columbus
discovered America, he saw
cotton growing in the Bahamas.
Today cotton is grown in over
70 of the world’s warmer countries,
such as the southern United
States, China and Pakistan.
Nearly 60 million bales of
cotton are made every year.
Cotton comes from the cotton
plant, which grows up to 2
meters in height and has pink
flowers.
The seeds of the cotton plant
grow in pods that look like
pea pods. These pods are called
bolls. When the seeds ripen,
the bolls turn brown and burst
open. The seeds are covered
in masses of fluffy white
cotton fibres. This is what
is used to make cotton wool.
The bolls can be picked from
the plant either by hand or
by machine.
Once the cotton is picked,
it has to be harvested. Giant
baskets of cotton bolls are
placed in a machine called
a cotton gin. The gin removes
the seeds, stem, pod and other
impurities of the cotton plant,
leaving only the fluffy white
fibres.
The cotton fibres are then
graded according to their
quality. The fibres are then
cleaned and bleached and packed
into bales. At this stage,
the bales are shipped to the
Irish Breeze cotton wool factory
in Drogheda.
At the Irish Breeze factory,
the raw cotton wool is turned
into the soft, smooth cotton
wool products our company
is famous for. There are four
steps in this process.
Step 1: The Bale
Harvester. When the bales
of cotton arrive in the factory,
the cotton is quite compacted
and the fibres are tightly
packed together. The individually
wrapped bales (c. 120kg each)
are taken by forklift from
storage, unwrapped and placed
in the Bale Harvester area.
This sophisticated machine
travels back and forth on
tracks and, when it is electronically
instructed that more cotton
is required in the Carding
Room, it systematically ”munches”
the top layer of each of the
bales, and blows the dislodged
pieces of cotton via ductwork
directly to the machine that
requires it.
Step2: The Carding
Machine. At this stage,
the cotton, which is still
tangled and hard to work with,
is passed through carding
machines. A carding machine
is made up of large cylinders
covered with hundreds of sharp
bristles, which comb through
the fibres, producing a fine
web of cotton wool, which
looks like a spiders web,
as it is so thin. These webs
are layered on top of each
other until the layers are
thick enough to make the desired
products.
Step 3: The Final
Products. In the factory,
the cotton wool is made into
hospital rolls, puffs, pleats,
and cleansing pads.
Stage 4: Packing,
Storing and Delivering. The
puffs, pleats, pads and hospital
rolls etc are packed into
bags and then are passed through
a metal detector, which rejects
any pack with even the tiniest
race of metal in it. Each
bag is then individually date
coded, which allows for full
traceability, back to the
original bale of cotton from
which it is made, facilitating
our detailed ISO procedures
and documentation. The bags
are then stored in large cases
in the factory warehouse until
they are delivered to supermarkets
all over the country. Irish
Breeze representatives visit
each supermarket in the country
and receive orders from them
for the Irish Breeze products.
The orders are then passed
onto the factory, which processes
the order. An external logistics
company, who handle the storage
and distribution of the Irish
Breeze products, picks orders
up daily from the factory.
Our distribution objective
is to have Irish Breeze products
in every shop, convenience
store and supermarket – wherever
our customers want to buy
them.
Irish Breeze realize that
the kindest way to remove
the effects of everyday wear
and tear on your skin and
help return it to its natural
beauty is to thoroughly cleanse
and tone every day with your
favorite cleanser and toner,
using Irish Breeze cotton
wool. Irish Breeze, with its
unique hydro woven surface,
is especially effective for
absorbing and removing impurities
picked up during the day.
As it is made from the softest
cotton available, it contains
no potentially damaging astringents
or alcohol, unlike some other
methods of cleansing.
The Irish consumer has certainly
cottoned on to the fact that
Irish Breeze cotton Cleansing
Pads keep your skin looking
younger longer, as Irish Breeze
is the No.1 selling cotton
wool in Ireland.
Marketing Information
Irish consumers spend over
£134million on personal care
products every year, and we
aim to ensure that the consumers
are aware of the highest quality
products available to them
through an extensive marketing
and promotions campaign. You
have probably seen our advertisements
on the television or in magazines,
or seen our in store displays
and promotions. We regularly
place advertisements in publications
such as Woman’s Weekly, The
RTE Guide, U magazine and
IT Magazine. We recently ran
an extremely successful and
far-reaching television advertisement
campaign, aimed at the Irish
market. In the past we have
teamed up with companies such
as Ponds and Rimmel to offer
our consumers the best value,
and the best products available.
We also aim to entice the
consumer though offering promotions
such as money off vouchers,
free products, ‘extra free’,
3-for-2 offers, and extra
points with your shopping
in certain supermarkets across
the country.
Our objectives regarding
marketing are:
· To maintain dominance in
the cotton wool market in
Ireland.
· To listen carefully to our
customers
· To develop and introduce
new products which directly
meet the needs and desires
of our customers
· To create a ‘stable’ of
innovative and differentiated
skincare products with major
export potential
· To make our products as
available to our customers
as possible, by selling them
wherever it is convenient
for them to buy them.
· To invest an average of
10% of our brands turnover
on marketing and advertising.
We export a sizeable proportion
of our output to the UK and
further afield,
and we have great hopes for
the export potential of some
of the products
we are currently developing.
Research and Development
Here at Irish Breeze,
we are committed to Research
and Development. We have recently
formed an R&D team, made up
of the MD and several key
personnel. We are very keen
on innovation, as can be seen
from the recent introduction
of the zip packaging on oval
cotton pads, now the no. 1
biggest selling cotton wool
product in Ireland, as well
as the introduction of ‘AfterDates’,
a tray of 25 individually
wrapped packs of two large
hydro-woven cotton square
pads. There are currently
several patents pending on
products developed at the
Irish Breeze plant and we
are also working on developing
several more. Quality is a
key concern of ours and we
hope to improve on this in
the future through our R&D
work. We have managed to take
such a high market share in
such a short space of time
because of the sheer quality
of the products we offer.
This has only been possible
through past research and
development, and will only
continue to be possible through
future research and development,
which is why our R&D spend
now exceeds 7.5% of turnover.
Future
As Edward says “Nothing
is ruled out for the future.
Its just a matter of finding
new ways of doing things.”
This, along with our work
in R&D, sums up our attitude
for the future. We continue
to be progressive, innovative
and differentiated manufacturers
of Irish skin care products,
something we hope to maintain
well into the 21st century.
We are currently working on
developing new skincare products,
which we hope to have in the
shops in the next year. We
also want to expand our export
market through developing
and exporting high value,
innovative products. These
products will also be available
in the domestic market. As
we like to say around here,
‘the only way is up.’
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