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Irish American Entrepreneurs Awards in New York

CelticClothing.com Logo

A few weeks ago on a lovely April evening we traveled to NY for the Irish Small Business Awards, sponsored by the Irish Echo and Tourism Ireland. The event was held in Mid-Town Manhattan, with Irish American entrepreneurs starting to gather from 6pm.  Attendees included Mr Peter Ryan the Deputy Consul General of Ireland.

On the evening our very own Charlie Lord was among the lucky Irish-American Entrepreneurs being honored. It was a wonderful evening rounded off with a stroll along Broadway in the footsteps of Brendan Behan.

The awards ceremony honored the entrepreneurs and business leaders who form the backbone of the American economy; the doers and risk-takers who have ensured that, where businesses are being built and wealth created, you will find the Irish.

All nominees were companies or individuals who have displayed entrepreneurial excellence and traditional Irish-American determination to make their businesses succeed. Congratulations to recipients. Here is a short video of Charlie being presented the award by Peter Ryan the Vice-Consul General.

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CelticClothing.com – Irish Festival Vendors

The Celtic Clothing Company has been a major vendor at Irish music festivals in the US for the last 24 years.  If you would like us to participate in your event you can contact us directly at 484-612-2827 or via e-mail to charlie.lord@celticclothing.com.  We look forward to hearing from you.

Festival Customers
Irish Music Festivals USA.

Each year we participate as Irish Festival vendors at over 20 of the biggest Irish Music Festivals in the United States. Our schedule includes major Irish events such as:

  • Milwaukee Irish Fest – WI.
  • Dublin Irish Fest – OH,
  • North Texas Irish Fest – TX.
  • Wildwood Irish Weekend – NJ
  • Bethlehem Celtic Classic -PA

Below we have selected 6 of the main reasons why Celtic Clothing is such a popular company at Irish Music Festivals in the US. We feel they capture the essence of our organizational culture and the secret to our success.

1. Great Selection:  There is no doubt Celtic Clothing is the market leader providing the best selection of quality Irish clothing options in the United States.  We are often told at festivals that we “have the best stuff”, and our website confirms the huge product selection we have available.

2. Reputation for Excellence:  Celtic Clothing is one of the best known Irish companies at Irish Music Festivals. We are very good at what we do, but don’t just take our word for it; Mike Gibbons, the President of the Irish Fair in Minnesota, said it all when he recently said of us: “Celtic Clothing has been a presence at the Irish Fair of Minnesota since before I was on the Board. I always look forward to seeing them at our event every year. They provide the attendees of the IFM a great selection of quality products at reasonable prices. They are always ready to go on time and keep their area looking inviting. I would not hesitate to recommend having them as part of any other festival!“.  High praise indeed from an event that attracts over 80,000 people each year.

3.  Experience: Over the last 2 decades Celtic Clothing has built up a vast working knowledge of festivals. We are fully prepared with the vehicles, equipment and staff necessary to create impressive booth displays.  We would be happy to provide references from any of the major Irish Music Festivals mentioned above.  Celtic Clothing festival staff

4. Customer service is definitely an area we place a lot of emphasis on.  We have a 100% returns policy so our customers can buy with confidence, both at festivals and online.  We do this to show our customers our total commitment to ensuring their complete satisfaction.  If for some reason the customer is not completely happy they may simply return the product for an exchange, or get a 100% refund.

We are always available via e-mail and our warehouse phones are answered by a real person during business hours, just call 610-662-9154. Our sales staff provide excellent customer service both at festivals and online.  Our customers are consistent in their praise, at festivals, on our website, on our Facebook page. Ebay has us rated at  4.9 our of 5.0 for customer service. Our own internal customer surveys are equally impressive. As you can see from the data, of 794 recently surveyed customers a massive 93.3% stated they were “Somewhat Satisfied” to “Very Satisfied” with our service.  In addition 92.5% said they would shop with us again, with 95.2% saying would recommend us to a friend or family member. These number speaks directly to the quality of our products and professional service we provide to the consumer.  Combined they create a positive customer experience, and that is what gives us our competitive advantage in the marketplace.

5. Quality Products and Global Brands:  Since our early beginnings we insist on providing only comfortable and durable Irish clothing to our customers. We have long standing working relationships with Global Brands such as Guinness who provide us with officially licensed Guinness rugby jerseys, caps and t-shirts.  Like our Guinness range, the Jameson brand is known throughout the world and our Jameson products are perennial favorite.  We also have extensive relationships with other significant brands in Ireland; such as Hanna Hats who make the famous Irish Tweed Cap, Boru Jewelry, Fragrances of Ireland who are responsible for the famous “Inis” perfume, Butlers Chocolates and a long list of other significant Irish manufacturers.  We are very proud of our long standing connections to Ireland and the relationships we have built with Irish companies over the last 18 years. We feel these types of relationships and investment in our brand are important to building long term relationships with our client base.

6. We help promote your festival:  We have 42,000 loyal fans on Facebook and an additional 20,000 on our “in-house” customer database.  When Celtic Clothing works with a festival we put our web skills and internet presence to work for you by helping to promote the event to our customer base via e-mail marketing and across social media platforms to create an exciting “online buzz”.  As we like to say, all boats rise on a high tide 🙂 There are lots of photos here to give you a sense of our products, our customers and our fun approach to being Irish in America.

7. We have fun:  We learned a few American expressions since arriving here over 24 years ago.  One of those expressions was “straight off the boat”.  As it happens we arrived on a Jumbo 747 but “we get it”, and that is probably the main reason for our success – we are Irish, we love what we do and we have fun doing it.  Here are a few pictures of some of the great people we have met over the years and who we now like to call our friends. Take a look and see if you know anyone:

If you would like us to participate in your event you can contact us directly at 484-612-2827 or via e-mail at charlie.lord@celticclothing.com.  We look forward to hearing from you.