The head of the Co Down firm selling four million Denman hairbrushes every year said he believes the advantages of dual market access had been underplayed in Northern Ireland in recent years.
Speaking on The Irish News’ latest Trading Up podcast, Denroy chief executive Kevin McNamee said the Bangor-based injection mould manufacturer has significantly evolved its business by selling directly to consumers and promoting its world famous hairbrushes using social media.
The Bangor firm is now selling around four million hair brushes every year via Amazon and has secured more than one billion views for Denman-related content on TikTok.
He said ability to access both the UK internal market and the EU single market for goods has worked well for the business.
“We can trade directly with the UK without any encumbrance or problem, but it’s the EU advantage that is really the key one,” he said.
“Because everything we produce is manufactured to EU standards, so that means it can freely move without encumbrance into those markets, and we do that.
“We’re all sensitive to the politics around [dual market access] but I think the advantages of it were underplayed for various reasons.”
He recounted how the company had evolved from selling to wholesalers to selling direct using the Amazon network.
“And those brushes move freely from Bangor to any Amazon EU hub.
“It’s a major advantage and it definitely takes away a significant amount of bureaucracy and just eases that ability to place our product online without any encumbrance or additional product testing or certification.
“It gives use a competitive advantage over GB players offering the same services.
“We talk to distributors based in Europe who deal with both Northern Ireland, but also GB suppliers, and they say it’s much easier to trade with you guys.
“I know there are some specific issues still remaining to be resolved, but generally we have found the arrangements are to our advantage.”
He said Denroy’s internal digital marketing team has also been very successful in utilising social media platforms.
“TikTok has been phenomenal for us and we’re now selling on TikTok, which is a big thing.”
The company has just sent three employees to the USA, where they will sell products live via TikTok reels.
“They’re basically selling live on TikTok. It’s another leap forward for us. But you have to actually be in the USA to do it.”
You can listen to the whole interview by downloading the latest episode of the Trading Up podcast, by The Irish News.
