Gala night of Awards rewarding the best of Laois business

Excellence in Retail – Sponsored by Gerry Browne Jewellers

Winner: DS Sports. Finalists: Adora & Co. Portlaoise, Coco’s Quik Pick, DS Sports, Fruit N’ Nut Health Store, Mueller & O’Connell Bakery. To read more about the winner see below picture. To find out who won the next award TAP NEXT or ARROW.

Pictured: Excellence in Retail award sponsored by Gerry Browne Jewellers is presented to Darren Strong from DS Sports by Gerry Browne. Picture: Alf Harvey.

Since the founding of DS Sports in 2014, they have evolved from a GAA Gloves and socks company to a business which supplies sportswear to teams, clubs and the general public not only in Laois and Ireland, but also across the world. They now employee 12 staff.

Although during Covid their business took a huge hit with the majority of their target market being withheld from playing sports, they used this time wisely to improve their retail systems. They pushed the boundaries of their E-Commerce platform, which was a huge success. In the meantime, they also built their very first physical shop in Emo which is open to the public.

DS Sports work incredibly hard with existing and new suppliers to create new product ranges, using different materials which are more sustainable. Another move they are making to reduce their carbon footprint is the process of creating their own jersey manufacturing plant in Emo, which will help reduce their carbon footprint and also reduce lead times from 4 weeks down to as little as 3 days.