Expanding the Realm of Retail

SFW Distribution, owned by the Fagan family, is a 41-year-old business which continues to go from strength to strength, even with the challenges of post-pandemic retail

“Initially, we specialised in the distribution of video\DVDs for the major lm studios, with gaming from Sony to PlayStation and so on,” Vincent Lynch, a Director in the company explains. “We’re very proud to still be trading today.”

The reason for over four decades of success, is likely down to the fact that co-Directors Stuart and Declan Fagan expanded their impressive o ering, and began to diversify into pop-up retail and other distribution opportunities.

In 2012, they opened the rst pop up Halloween Store on Patrick Street, Cork, and it was the following year in 2013, the Fagans’ partnered with Vincent to launch Halloween HQ, with 13 high-pro le pop up seasonal stores. They more than conquered the pop-up space and have since opened over 300 Halloween HQ stores throughout Ireland and the UK.

“This year, we celebrate the 10th anniversary of Halloween HQ and we plan to open 15 stores across Ireland with some new, exciting in-store features and a doubling of the product range,” Vincent continues, before explaining they didn’t stop at all things Halloween, even with the pandemic.

“We established a partnership with the largest party company in Party City\ Party Delights and in 2019, we opened Europe’s largest party store at Li ey Valley, as well as creating a partnership with Liverpool Football Club to open o cial club pop-up stores in Ireland. Since then, we have opened 15 hugely successful LFC stores. And while Covid put a roadblock on our expansion plans, in 2022, we opened two more party superstores in Ireland at Mahon Point and Pavilions, Swords. The plan for 2023 is to add up to another three party stores in Ireland.”

“We also completed the acquisition of the Party Delights store in Manchester, and the same year, launched a concept party concession store in Asda Supercentre in Nottingham.”

“We now o er a full retail pop up solution for brands that want to activate in the Irish and UK markets,” he says, proudly.

He mentions Hale Vaping, launched by the group in 2014, as another highlight.

“In 2014, we launched Hale Vaping which is now Ireland’s number one Vaping Brand, with 70 Hale vape stores and in over 3000 convenience stores nationwide, including Musgraves, Dunnes, BWG and Applegreen. We currently have a network of over 70 Hale Stores across the country, adding another six in the past 12 months. We continue to look for retail locations for Hale and will continue to expand the retail network in the coming years.”