Home textiles company acquires the LoveOlli giftware brand.
Home textiles specialist Ulster Weavers is expanding into new arenas, acquiring Northern Irish giftware brand LoveOlli.
The move marks the first step in Ulster Weavers’ wider expansion plans, with the company having identified the giftware space as a complementary category to its existing business.
LoveOlli was founded in 2012 by former Ulster Weavers’ designer, Olive McCaughan. Its offering includes home fragrance products, stationery, giftwrap, bags and handmade soaps and is now stocked in around 300 retailers across the UK, as well as Switzerland, Sweden and Portugal.
Olive will continue to manage the brand, as an Ulster Weavers employee, as well as taking on the management of fashion brand Story Horse, which she originally co-founded with Ulster Weavers’ commercial director Wendy Hamilton in 2014. Story Horse comprises a range of fashion accessories such as hats, scarves, wellies, bags and jewellery.
Kenneth Webb, md of Ulster Weavers, commented, “We are delighted to welcome back Olive and are very excited about the future of LoveOlli, alongside Story Horse, as part of the Ulster Weavers family.
“The LoveOlli range of products shares the design, quality and attention to detail that we pride ourselves on and we are delighted to be expanding into home fragrance and bath and body.
“We are very much looking forward to growing LoveOlli and taking the brand to new audiences across the globe, with interest already secured in Asia.”
LoveOlli will be exhibiting existing ranges and new products at Autumn Fair in September.
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