West Enterprise Case Studies

The company also operates a retail outlet in Sligo which hosts an art gallery displaying Irish art, sculpture, fine art prints and photography.

The company was established by Martina Gillan, a native of Sligo, when she graduated from IT Sligo in the late 1980s. Amongst the key reasons for establishing the company Martina quotes “the young educated population of Sligo who have a great love for the arts, poetry and music.”

The Cat & The Moon employs 14 staff in total, 90% of whom have third level qualifications to diploma or degree level. Martina effortlessly recruits suitably qualified staff and comments that “Our employees talk about the benefits of living in the West – less commuting time, cheaper living costs, more affordable house prices, lots of family time and a greater sense of community, less stress and smaller class sizes in schools”.

Some employees live in Sligo town and others choose to live in more rural locations. The wide range of easily accessible leisure activities is another attraction for staff who list swimming, sailing, surfing, yoga, dance, theatre, music sessions (including jazz, traditional and indie), cinemas, part time education, night classes and sport amongst their interests.

Martina continually invests in staff training to ensure that the skill base and knowledge is regularly updated. The company has received funding to support this from the Crafts Council, FAS, Enterprise Ireland,  Sligo County Enterprise Board and Leader.

IT Sligo is a great source of new talent for the craft boutique and art gallery, both in terms of new craftspeople, qualified artists and other staff.

Martina believes that operating a business in the West of Ireland is becoming increasingly easy with improvements in recent years in telecommunications and access. The nearest airport is in Strandhill, Sligo which is very convenient for flights to customers in Dublin and international flights from Ireland West Airport Knock are just an hour away.

Martina has not experienced any limitations with the energy or telecommunications infrastructure.  She says “broadband has been a very welcome addition to the West; we do a lot of business with our international customers via email and our website and we look forward to making more of the social media opportunities that are out there now.”

When setting up The Cat & The Moon, Martina received state funding from the County Enterprise Board for equipment and training grants and from Enterprise Ireland for marketing and training. Martina owns her own business premises which cost less to buy in Sligo than would have been the case in the east of Ireland.

The company is looking forward to a promising future and believes that “with a growing population of young confident people who have a love of quality and beauty we can only benefit and grow in the future.”

Even the current change in the economic climate has not hampered Martina’s vision for the future; “Our customers have always been aware of the importance of buying from the local artists and craft-workers and are more conscious of this because of the recession.  We see great loyalty amongst customers who want to support the diversity and creativity to this region. Naturally people are cautious during these times but they always choose to invest in quality.”