Meet the Mayo brothers behind Portwest

When Cathal, Harry and Owen Hughes were children, their father would play poker with them.

“And he used to love the phrase: ‘When ladeens have money, they are men and when their money is gone, they’re ladeens again,’” smiles Cathal, recalling how their dad would, inevitably, wipe the floor with them.

Still, the lesson stuck. Despite the adage that a family business can go from rags to riches – and back to rags – in three generations, turnover at Portwest rocketed from €10 million in 2010 to €100 million in 2014.

It has become one of the top five workwear manufacturers in Europe, with staff in over 70 countries and customers wearing their clothes in the deserts of Dubai, the oil rigs of the Sakhalin Islands, and from the Suez to the Panama Canal.

While the Westport-based clothing brand is well known in farming and leisure circles, the extent of their range is mind-boggling. Indeed, their workwear brochure is 400 pages long and available in 25 languages.

A far cry from when their granduncle, Charles Hughes, established his drapery on Bridge Street in 1904, before graduating to manufacturing shirts and pyjamas, with factories in Westport and Castlerea.

“During the ’40s and ’50s, he probably was accounting for about 600 people being employed in the town,” estimates Owen.

Charles had no children, so at 16 their father Pádraig – one of 13 children raised on a farm – joined the business as it gradually moved into manufacturing workwear.

All three brothers attest to his work ethic, along with that of their mother Máire, who started Carraig Donn while also raising 13 children. (Today, Carraig Donn is run by their brothers Pat and Vincent.)

Education was prioritised in the Hughes’ household. Having boarded at St Jarlath’s, both Cathal and Owen completed a B. Comm followed by chartered accountancy, while Harry studied textiles in the UK.

“Our father educated the 13 of us and that was the gift he gave us,” says Cathal. “Thank God we’ve used the gift well. A lot of people don’t.”

It certainly came in handy given the challenges they faced after joining the business themselves.

“In 1979, we had a phone strike, we had a postal strike, we had a rail strike and there were PAYE marches, which in turn gave us power cuts,” lists Harry.

“People think that the last few years were a challenge – they should have tried the ’70s.”

Gradually, however, the Hughes brothers changed how business was done. For example, rather than manufacturing just for specific orders, they began to build up general stock, they set-up a factory and sales team in the UK and began to brand their products as Portwest (they were not allowed to register as Westport).

Another seminal moment was their decision to dip a toe into the wider European market, employing their first sales manager for Holland in 2003.

“It was a small country and they speak excellent English, so that’s where we started” explains Cathal.

“But in Europe they wanted a totally different look and that look changed for every market we went to, so the catalogue changed and the range of products got bigger.”

While Portwest was involved in manufacturing in Ireland until 2008, market pressures since the early ’90s had forced them to also produce in factories overseas, specifically China.

In 2011, however, they took a major step to build their own Portwest factory in Bangladesh, which opened in 2013 and currently employs 1,400 people, achieving the gold WRAP (worldwide responsible accredited production) certification. They have also been approved for a second site.

However, all research and design is carried out in Westport, where the constant technical challenge is to develop products that meet the highest standards, from flame-resistant to hazard-protection fabrics, for all conditions.

“For example, there would be people going in to meat factories where they have freezer rooms and they spend the day in there, so that needs a special garment,” says Harry.

“On the opposite end of the scale out in Dubai and in the deserts, you need people getting protection from the sun, so we have a UV protection of 50 within our products. None of our competitors have that.”

But how has a company in Mayo become such a player internationally, particularly during the recession?

“We’re not sitting here hoping for expansion, we’re going to create expansion and that’s more products, more countries, more salespeople,” says Harry. “If we don’t put extra feet on the ground, it won’t grow.”

Indeed, as well as seven bases worldwide between sales offices and warehousing, Portwest has reps in 74 countries, with plans for personnel in every country in Africa, the Middle East and eastern Europe within three years. Last August, they opened a warehouse in Kentucky to break the competitive US market, while other developments include a partnership with JCB.

The Irish market, however, is still vital. There are 70 staff in head office, shops in both Westport and Galway, and a strong customer base – whether among farmers for products like their Sealtex rainwear, the Road Safety Authority for their high-vis vests or a whole new market with their stylish ladies wear.

“And a few miles up the road we have Croagh Patrick; that’s always a good place to test anything,” laughs Owen.

The brothers also own the award-winning Hotel Westport. So what is their secret to working so successfully together?

“Lack of ego,” responds Harry. “There’s nobody fighting for different positions. We’re proud that we have inherited a family company and it’s our duty to pass it on as a family company.”

Those poker games have stood them in good stead.