Janice Pietrowicz and Charlie Lord, owners of CelticClothing.com, in their Chaddsford home, in front of a painting of The Odessa, a ship that carried Irish immigrants from Queenstown, Cork to America in the 1800’s.
Spend an afternoon with Charlie Lord and Janice Pietrowicz, owners of CelticClothing.com, and it doesn’t take long to see why their online business has not only succeeded over the past 20 years, but is now flourishing. And there is no end to the possibilities for their future growth.
For starters there is their company motto, “American First, Irish Always,” which they have trademarked into one of their most popular selling t-shirts.
But more than that is the hard work and dedication that the Belfast born Charlie put into building his own American dream. He wanted to bring quality Irish products to the United States, and from the beginning knew nothing was going to stop him.
After having spent some time in Boston in the late 1980’s, Charlie decided to pursue a degree in Business Studies at Derby University in England. As part of his program, he had to come up with a plan for starting a business. He directly created his own future.
When he returned to the United States through the Donnelly Visa program in the early 90’s, finding a job as an immigrant wasn’t easy. “I came back to America with a business degree and a green card. I had been in Boston initially, and a couple of the guys who were up there said they were going to Wildwood, NJ, and I thought I was going to stay in Boston on my own and try and play on a soccer team. But the guys were leaving, so I really thought about it and decided to go with them for the summer in Wildwood—one of my friends had been there before and said ‘All right, lads, there’s plenty of work in Wildwood, it’s the beach and it’s summertime.’ And we get there and I got a job for $5 an hour chopping potatoes through this big thing for the french fry machine.”
At summer’s end, Charlie headed to Philadelphia, the nearest big city, where he met Janice and decided it was time to put his business plan into action. As an immigrant with a green card, it wasn’t easy to get a loan. “Banks weren’t interested,” Janice explained. “So I co-signed a loan for him, not a big one, just enough to buy an old van, his first round of t-shirts, some tables and entry into an Irish event. Within two weeks he had the loan paid off.”
“If you want to do something, you’ll get it done,” Charlie added.
And it was Charlie’s idea to make it an online venture, even in the early days when the internet was in its infancy. “We started when mail order was definitely still the thing. So it would always be a kick, we’d be eating dinner and get an online order and go fill it,” Janice said. At that time, their warehouse was their garage.
“It just continued to get bigger and bigger, and the more I adapted to the internet, it was like turning a ship. We made a conscious decision some years ago that we were going to turn things into an e-commerce company primarily. In those early days, people kept throwing money at internet companies, but we just kept going along. So when there was a big implosion, we got through the smoke. We were still going and still going, and we’re still there. Visitors to the site are up 32% from November 2013 to November of 2014. That’s 33,000 visitors to CelticClothing.com,” Charlie explained.
In the meantime, Charlie got a Masters Degree in Business Education from Temple University and began teaching Web Design and Internet Marketing at Haverford High School, where he is now also Department Chair of the Business Faculty. Janice has always worked as a school psychologist for the past 25 years. And they had two children. Oh, and they still travel during the summer to all the big festivals, using at least a 10 x 20 truck to haul their inventory to the shows, and bringing a staff of workers with them.
And the business finally outgrew their garage. About three years ago, they rented a warehouse in Toughkenamon in Chester County and hired staff to answer phones and fill orders. Danna and Maggie are the two women who keep things going so Charlie and Janice can focus on expanding the business. “For years, it was clothing and caps,” Janice said. “Since then we’ve gotten into glassware, scarves, perfumes, jewelry, some food products. We have wine corks—they’re great for hostess gifts. We’ve added children’s clothes. And we have Aran sweaters, plus a lot of different designs of men’s flat caps. We started carrying the women’s caps this year, which are great—Downton Abbey style hats. And they look so nice on women. Sometimes a woman will say, ‘I’m not a hat person’ and I tell them to try it on. The purple one in particular looks good on everyone; it brings everybody’s eyes out. We also carry food items, from Barry’s Tea to Guinness Chocolate Truffle cups. Charlie makes sure we order the candies he likes,” Janice laughed. “That way, if they don’t sell, he can bring them home. But every Christmas we’ll do a breakfast basket and that is a really cool thing. It has Irish sausage, bacon, O’Hara’s Soda Bread, the puddings, the whole deal. It comes frozen and stays insulated.”
In order to find new products, Janice explained, they go to different trade shows, and to Ireland once a year “to see if there are any unique products. We have some people we’ve been dealing with for years. All our stuff is either bought from Irish companies or local based American companies. All our hats and sweaters, they’re made in Ireland. There aren’t many manufacturers still doing it, but it’s the old-timers, the families, people who have had them for generations are still doing them. With that the costs are higher, but you can’t beat the quality.
“Everything we buy is licensed from the company. All the t-shirts are good quality. We have a 100% return policy. And we have the girls here if you need to call us. Some people still don’t like to order online. Sometimes people want an opinion—‘which one do you like better?’ They may have seen it online, or they may have seen it at an event. We’re always adding new designs, we have a lot of new t-shirts. There’s really something for everybody. Every shirt has a life expectancy, so we keep them in and then try to come up with some new designs, whether they’re our own or somebody else’s. If you don’t come up with your own designs, you basically have what everyone else has. And we don’t carry anything derogatory—none of the drunken stuff. We really want to portray ourselves as a quality product company. We’ve got something for all ages, and we also do gift certificates online—that’s helpful because sometimes you’ve got last minute shoppers who don’t know quite what to get or what size someone is.
“Our customers are really faithful. They’ll come up to us at the shows and remember what they’ve gotten, and say ‘Oh, that’s a new one.’
“Customer service is very important to us. We send coupons with every order so the customer will get a discount the next time they buy something from the website. If you’re unhappy with something or something doesn’t fit the way you want, you just return it. It’s not a big deal. If there’s an issue, if we’re out of a particular size, the customer can call and we can say, ‘Do you want to wait a week for our next shipment, or do you want to try a similar style?’ It gives them an option what to do. We’ve definitely gotten bigger, but I still like keeping it small. I like keeping the personal touch and the personal sense. I just really want that customer to be a happy person. That’s important to us. Our customers are faithful, good people; they come from all over the country.
“And we like having the business where it is, because we support the local business community. We use the little post office around the corner; today we shipped 350 orders through them. We hire local girls who work for us, and we pay benefits to our full-time employees.”
And all the time, Charlie has his eye focused on the future and where online commerce is heading. “We have an extensive digital footprint. We have over 30,000 fans on Facebook, we’re on Pinterest, we’re on Twitter. We engage in email marketing, we have our website, we sell on other platforms. We explore Amazon, we explore eBay—we have stores on those sites. Amazon is the benchmark of e-commerce; so many people use it, you kind of have to be there. Any of these places, like Facebook, it comes back into what I teach and do everyday. If you’ve got all of those people on Facebook, you’ve got to have a presence there. You’ve got all these internet communities, you have to have some kind of presence.
“On the downside of all that, it’s very time-consuming. You have to think about the time concern and the return on the investment. For any small business, you survive on the sales and revenue that come in. That’s the bottom line. Whatever activities you’re doing, you have to see a return on them. You have to see money coming in. Otherwise, you’re not going to be in business very long. You have to pay staff, you have to pay electric bills, and rent, and hosting and festival fees. The money for that comes from sales. But social media is a form of advertising, and unless you have an advertising budget, it doesn’t really matter if you’ve got 500 fans or 5,000 fans.”
I asked Charlie if he were to come to the U.S. now, as a young man, if he thought he’d be able to accomplish all that he has in the past 20 years. His answer was “Yes” with a but: “The problem for the Irish kids who are leaving the Island now is that they can’t get into the United States. They’re going to Australia. And that’s a missed opportunity for both the young Irish people and for the Americans because you have a highly educated workforce that can’t get into the U.S. They’re willing to work and they want to work, but the immigration laws don’t let them in. So, Australia will benefit.
“It’s not a coincidence that Celtic Clothing is owned by an Irishman. It’s just something that when I came over at first, and I created my own job and I’m working in the Irish community, with the Irish people, it still gave me that connection with home. That was a big part of it because for me it was that cultural kind of need. Back then, you would have lots of Irish immigrants in Upper Darby and the Northeast. They’d come to Wildwood and then meet their cousins in the city. And there was a community. And that’s done now, that’s gone. Those people cannot get in anymore. It’s unfortunate because businesses grew up from that, but there’s no new Irish immigrants coming in anymore to keep these things alive and start these things up.
“At the heart of it, you have to love the business you create. You have to be enthusiastic, it has to be something you enjoy because in any business, that has to be there. You have to be answering the phone from Ireland in the middle of a conversation in the kitchen. Otherwise, it’s going to be too much like work, and you’re not going to want to do it.”
According to Janice, “There hasn’t been a day that’s gone by in 20 years where the words ‘Celtic Clothing’ have not come up in a conversation at our house.”
But at the end of the day, Charlie said, “What’s most important to Janice and me with our own kids is to make them aware of their family back in Ireland, so the kids know that story and that history that came across the ocean. I want them to understand their family background.” And Janice added, “We both work hard, and we want to teach that to our kids. We don’t just give them everything.”
American First, Irish Always.
To receive a special 10% discount for Irish Philadelphia readers, go to CelticClothing.com and enter the coupon code “PHILLY” at the checkout.
Check out the photos from my behind-the-scenes tour of CelticClothing.com’s warehouse:
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And to follow CelticClothing.com on social media, here are the links:
Twitter: CelticClothing.com on Twitter
Facebook: CelticClothing.com on Facebook
Pinterest: CelticClothing.com on Pinterest
Youtube:
