Suzie Monaghan of Monaghans Cashmere
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Breakfast Business with Enterprise Ireland on Newstalk. Probably only one product that comes from goats that can command very high prices. And that's cashmere, of course. My next guest has been selling cashmere sweaters, socks and jackets for 65 years on South Anne Street. And as we approach Christmas, she expects her busiest time to start now. She's Susie Monaghan from Monaghan's Cashmere. Good morning, Susie.
Good morning, Joe.
What unique qualities make cashmere a high-priced product?
Thank you. Remind us where how you garner the material. I don't want to call it wool. It's not called wool. Is it from the goats?
So sheep produce wool, goats produce a hair.
Okay, and that is scraped off the, not scraped off, but kind of brushed off.
Brushed, just as you would brush your dog. You know the way you would have those combs for brushing your dog? Our goats would be done the exact same way.
And are they shorn like a sheep might be?
No, no, not our goats. I believe that some companies do, but that's damaging the hair and obviously we don't want that.
OK. And so it's all this wool is garnered and it ends up in bales, I presume. And then you make you don't make the sweaters in Ireland, but you kind of commission them to be made in Italy and Scotland. Is that right?
Yes.
Mostly in Scotland. We've been dealing with the Scots for 65 years from day dot.
How does Suzie Monaghan source her cashmere materials?
I have to stress that you didn't set up the business 65 years ago.
No, my father did in 1960. He opened the store on his birthday. Wow. So we're celebrating 65 years this year and it also would have been Dad's 100th birthday. He was hanging out for that cheque from the government, but he didn't quite make it. He made it to 98, but unfortunately he passed away five days before his 98th birthday.
And he'd be very proud that you're continuing to run the business. And is it going well for you?
It's been difficult this year, I would say. In the summer months, we would be mostly tourists, but the tourist market, the American market, people just didn't seem to be travelling this year. That's interesting.
Yeah. So it's a softening market.
It's picked up, thankfully. Usually we would see the Americans from about May till October.
Mm-hmm.
They weren't coming in May, June, July. And I'm sure that's a lot to do with what was going on in the States. And a lot of people, I think, were afraid to travel. That's what they were telling us. But they've started to come September, October. So it's picked up, thank God. But it was a quieter summer for us.
And now that the Americans aren't here in the same numbers as you approach Christmas, then I presume most of your market will either be online or Irish customers.
Yes.
Our Irish customers come back October, November, December preparing for, you know, we're probably most known in Ireland for people going in to get their Christmas jumper. It's not quite the Christmas jumper as we picture it normally.
With the reindeer on it.
Yeah, no, no, we don't do, we don't really. Our style is quite classic. We try to put a little edge on it, but because our product is long lasting, we expect a minimum of 10 years from one of our garments. we tend to try stick with quite classic with a little twist.
But you do design many of your own sweaters and socks and then you get them commissioned. And you put a premium on it. You don't get them for cheap.
They're not cheap, but for me, our cashmere is coming out of the same factories as Hermes, Chanel, all of the above. But our prices are nothing like theirs.
What would a sweater for a man typically cost, a cashmere sweater in Monaghan?
Classic cashmere would start about 350. Okay.
All right. But you could get a pair of socks for less than that.
55 euros. And that would also be cashmere? 100% cashmere.
Wow. And they would hold and, you know, with all the friction against the shoe and the sneakers and all that?
So there is in the heel and the toe, there is a tiny bit of threads added to it just to reinforce it. Socks aren't really made to last, but they last quite a long time. I mean, I have socks over two, three years old.
Yeah. Brilliant. Well, listen, best of luck with the Christmas rush.
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