Aer Shool Was Established By Arthurs Myth in Swords: Leadership and Management Development Assignment, NUI, Ireland

Aer Shool was established by ArthurSmyth in Swords, County Dublin in 1989 as Smyth’s Boots and Shoes. Arthur was a cobbler/shoemaker with a young family who repaired boots and shoes and other leather goods but also sometimes made handmade shoes at a premium price as well as football boots for local soccer, rugby, and Gaelic footballers. When he found that he was increasingly also being asked by players from top clubs in England and Europe to make handmade bespoke football boots he saw an opportunity to expand his business. He hired another shoemaker and gradually during the late 1990s producing football boots began to dominate the workload and provide most of his income. By 2001 Arthur was employing 15 staff and supplying ‘hand-crafted’ football boots to sports shops throughout Ireland as well as to some specialist shops in the UK and Europe.

In 2005, the company which had grown rapidly during the years of the ‘Celtic Tiger’ and was employing 50 people with a turnover of €22 million per annum, moved to a new factory in Drogheda. The company weathered the recession of the late 2000s partly because it remained a private company which enabled Arthur to plow profits back into the company and partly because as a specialist business with a reputation for high-quality sports footwear at a reasonable price it had held onto its customers. Most of its product continues to be sold either directly to customers or in specialist sports shops. Arthur has resisted his son’s suggestion that they reduce their prices and sell via Amazon.

Arthur has always had a very traditional, paternalistic management style and at times could be quite autocratic but he respected and valued his employees who in return were loyal to him and he was known to reward loyalty with one-off generous bonuses. As a result, employee retention levels were very good. But he was reluctant to lose control and rejected advice that he should allow the company to go public. He was often heard to say ‘This is my company. I’m in charge. If you don’t like it the doors over there!’

In the early 2010s, Arthur brought in his son and daughter as directors of the company. His daughter, Sinéad (33), who trained at Griffith College Dublin as an accountant, runs the manufacturing and administrative side of the company while his son, Liam (31), who studied Marketing at DCU, heads up distribution and marketing. Sinéad and Liam have persuaded their father that the company should be seeking to diversify its range of products and break into the lucrative market of high-end fashion trainers. To this end, an Italian designer has been contracted to come up with ideas for new products. It was Liam who suggested renaming the company Aer Shool to put consumers in mind of an Irish version of Nike Air without losing its existing brand image of Irish, hand-made, high-quality sports footwear. Liam believes the company should be making more of its ‘Irish’ image – all the footwear is still made in Ireland using locally sourced, renewable, and recyclable materials; and he also wants to highlight the ‘green’ credentials of the company and has suggested providing a 10% discount for customers who return their old footwear for recycling when buying new shoes or boots.

The Directors have also been mindful of the possible impact of Brexit and the effect this may have on Aer Shool’s UK trade and so Sinéad has suggested opening a branch of the business in Belfast – a small retail outlet with a repair shop – to make access to the British market easier. The Directors feel that the next CEO will need to demonstrate the ability to handle these new areas and to guide the company through the uncertain times following Brexit.