 You're listening to Around the Northwest now as a young woman from Bunkrana who is running her own luxury accessories brand that is in big demand. Orla O'Hagan is the creator of Oliveira accessories and they produce luxury leather products and include bags, glasses, cases, scrunchies and card holders and the company has a very strong emphasis on sustainability but it came about almost by accident. Orla joins us now on, well on the show and online as well where we're streaming so Orla good afternoon dear. Hello, how are you? What's crack? Good, all's good here and all's good with you as well and especially in the world of business because this has been just over two years it's really taken off and I had no idea I mean explain explain to us how it came about initially how it all started for you. So I always say like I never meant to start business and I am so glad now that it happened like happened the way it did but I was like when I was in college I did footwear and accessories design so I always had an interest in that kind of thing and that's where I learned to work with leather we only work with leather here and then I was working in a luxury design house in London for three years on their design team. It's a great experience I loved it but on COVID-19 hit I got made redundant so I was like 23 made redundant but I thought that was it. You didn't know at that stage what the future held? I didn't really know what to do so I thought I'll just come home for a while and apply for jobs back in London and at the time nobody was really hiring a lot of my friends over there was getting laid off and you know nobody was hiring in that industry so I came home and I was I was bored hey I was be honest um and I had a saw machine I bought a saw machine off my lecture when I was in second year to get better at so once we made all our own stuff and um I had a bit of leather left over from uni so went out to the garage and started to make up bits and pieces for like my mommy and my sister and then that wee brief time where you could actually go to restaurants and go to bars you know like my friends and stuff would take out my bags with them and then it just kind of slowly grew through word of mouth you know all the way to get that and all I made it for me and then kind of very slowly came in on Instagram so I started posting on Instagram then and as soon as I started doing that it just kind of really took off so all of a sudden I was finding suppliers and trying to get on my feet here so it's growing organically very organically yeah very organically like really through like word of mouth like local people and then on Instagram then it would just kind of all of a sudden it was like okay all of Ireland then England then Europe then Australia America and now we ship like every day well we ship our career comes here every day to collect but I'd say maybe three times a week we're shipping to America Australia all over Europe so we're we're getting there slowly and is it is it all is it all online or are there outlets to start the products so I was I had sex outlets in Ireland that stopped the product all last year and then in January 2022 I actually pulled out of all the stores because our online business like got such a push over Christmas that it was way more beneficial for us to sell on our own website so the only places now that you can buy our products is on our own website and in Ashford Castle in Quentomeo so they are the only two places that you can get them okay so not a not a bad exclusive stock is not not a bad one I have to say and do you have any plans for maybe taking control of that aspect and and opening your own place um not at the minute I think online is the way to go with the minute for us you never know in the future um but for the next while I know it will definitely be all online um we are really lucky here like I have myself and two employees um and we work completely out of the garage at the back of my dad's house he has like converted it into a full studio workshop for us so um now we're here six days a week and people call in or you can do click and collect online if you're from Johnny Gull or locals that are like paying shipping because I know people just call in and they want to see them in person so we're here all the time anyone can call in we're based in Montcran I just off the main street right and when you started you could notice um Michael Hennie's got in touch Michael Hennie's said yes so I was up and running probably in the September of 2020 and Michael Hennie's got in touch the beginning of December and they wanted my products on their shop floor for Christmas and I remember at the time I was it was just me so I had taken all these orders on that I was trying to fulfill for Christmas and I definitely had taken on way too much that I could do so I was out there like 12 hours a day seven days away trying to get through them and then people still looking for more and then Michael Hennie's came in and they wanted like 50 bags on the shop floor and I nearly had to be worked with I but I couldn't turn it down so I'm really lucky I had like my friends my family all out helping me trying to fulfill the orders and get it all done but we got it all done and now Michael Hennie sold out that Christmas so they were they were our main stop list um they were so so good to us starting off forever thankful to Amanda and the team up there so there's not the three of you there are your cousins that right and then so my big cousin Claire actually did her my big cousin Claire actually did her transition year work experience with me um and then I just ended up keeping her on because she's great and then last year I was looking for someone who could sew and Amor got in contact she's an LAT doing fashion um and she was looking for experience so and this all was like match made in heaven I was so delighted to get her in and she's here today actually working way and when you get back from England I mean your original plan was just to come home for a week while it started off the lockdown and then go back again but now now you're at home well established and the business continuing to grow and you're you're working from a converted garage could you ever see yourself in in England or or moving back is this you know are you happy with where you are well like I originally came home I'm not even like and like I honestly came thought I was coming home for two weeks and I thought I'd come home apply for another job and just go again um things worked out so differently and I'm so glad they did and like I think as well when you are creative and want to work in a creative industry in Ireland there isn't that there isn't that much on offer for like people like me who's like looking to start out so now in Donegal there is a massive creative hope and like I see it going all the time but like at the minute now I'm definitely well actually I can't really see myself going back to England though um I have a great set up here but you have so much control because you're working from home and it's pretty much all through your your own website and you've increased the range of products as well so it started off with bags but now it's it's grown it has definitely grown and earlier this year we launched our bridal range and that was just a bit of a gamble because I was getting a few brides and bridesmaids messaging me looking for white bags that they could use from their hand parties to the day of the wedding to hold their stuff to the night after the wedding to then bring on their honeymoon so it was kind of like a one bag that did it all um so I was getting a lot of that so I reached out to my supplier looking for a recycled like white leather that was really good quality and we worked out like a really good deal where I was getting like the off cuts of mulberry stock which is really so I use I use like mulberry my contacts are with mulberry rose rice and bmw so all the leather that I'm getting is their dead stock that would otherwise be destroyed so I buy that off them so it's safe and I just like you have to think about it like one lavish game could be one full cow that's getting destroyed so when we take that then you're like you're a magician you're a cardboard footprint by buying accessories from us rather than accessories from the high street that makes sense um but our bridal range has massively grown now this summer we're so proud of it um we've got loads of brides this summer that are using their recycled bags which is so nice to see well it's great because it's uh I mean it's from a sustainability point of view it's brilliant in that you're using leather that may otherwise be destroyed the big companies will just use it for you know whatever it is uh seats or clothing and you uh you on the other hand are making really conducive with obviously and continued success for you uh working people what so what's the website we'll see the website um so the website is our la vira accessories dot com and our instagram and facebook is our la vira accessories so you can get us anywhere there where did the vira come from that's actually my middle name okay now brilliant got a great ring to it uh for a business name as well thank you very much well listen uh the best love to you uh to all three of you in fact and uh continued success and it's a great story so uh well thanks so much for joining us thanks very much john thank you bye