Over US$140,000 Projected Sales Following Trade Visit to ‘Ireland Show’
Eight small craft businesses from Fingal and Dublin City have just returned from the ‘Ireland Show’ in New Jersey, having secured direct export orders exceeding $52,000, with more than $140,000 in combined export orders projected over the next year.
Organised by Local Enterprise Office Fingal, the Trade Mission was organised for small craft businesses in Dublin, who could demonstrate real potential to export their products to the lucrative giftware market in the United States & Canada.
This year the ‘Ireland Show' was in its 18th year and featured over 200 exhibitors, making it the biggest Irish-American trade show in the US, attracting buyers in the gift trade from all over North America.
Oisin Geoghegan, Head of the new Local Enterprise Office in Fingal, highlighted the increasing importance of export sales to small businesses in Ireland. He said: “The world is getting smaller and we have to look to new market opportunities that have not yet been fully exploited. The costs of engaging in an export trade mission to the US for a small business as a solo run are extremely high. By collaborating together, and with the support of the Local Enterprise Office, our craft-workers are now able to benefit from economies of scale so that they can exploit foreign opportunities and punch well above their weight, reaching global markets.”
The companies from Fingal at the 18th annual Ireland Show in April included: O’Gowna Studios (manufacturers of porcelain figures and chess sets); Exclusively Irish (Celtic Greeting Cards); Privatmark (Irish Heraldic products); and Iconic Ireland (prints and artist commissions of Maura O’Rourke).
