Joe Queenan, managing director of Foxford Woollen Mills: ‘We had to modernise, we had to try and become a lifestyle brand.’ Picture: Michael McLaughlin
When Joe Queenan first arrived at Foxford Woollen Mills in Mayo in the economic depths of the 1980s, he was tasked with a rescue mission of saving a dying textile firm. Now he leads a modern Irish business that sells internationally and attracts 200,000 visitors to a village which he describes as “in the middle of nowhere.”
Changing tastes can often have a detrimental impact on businesses that fail to innovate. For Foxford, which...