Making workies look a site better
Claire Donnelly tells Maria Croce how her years working in women’s fashion retail helped launch business kitting out construction workers
A BUILDING site isn’t usually somewhere you’d expect to see someone in good-looking clothes.
But Claire Donnelly has taken her background in fast retail fashion to shake up what’s on offer in protective gear for construction workers.
The 35-year-old went into business with her brother Marc Cruickshank, 31, an asbestos surveyor, to launch Aspire Industrial Services in Glasgow.
And with her background in female fashion shops – she felt she could improve what was on offer for members of the predominantly male construction industry to wear.
Claire looks after the business side as MD and Marc is operations director, specialising in the technical aspect of what products should be on offer.
The firm hires out equipment and sells everything from building supplies to masks and workwear.
But Claire felt those in the building trades should have the chance to still look good even when they’re wearing their work gear.
Claire is married to Anthony, 35, a compliance manager and lives in Glasgow with their three children, Rebecca, two, Austin, five and Nathan, nine.
She started her retail career at Next Clearance and at the age of 21 became operations manager with the firm. She was then headhunted to become manager of New Look in Silverburn and was with the company for nine years.
Claire went into business with her brother in 2017 – but she says the skills she learned in fashion shops transferred to the building industry.
She added: “People are fascinated that I came from such a woman’s world and then I’m in the thick of a man’s world. But the skills were transferrable.
“When you work in retail, you spend your life thinking about how people shop and how they feel when shopping.
“When girls shop, I would say they want to look good and feel great. When we opened Aspire, gradually we realised with my retail experience we needed to bring in the workwear and create a one-stop shop.
“We’ve seen a real shift of young guys taking care of themselves. People assume men don’t want to look good. Nobody has ever challenged it. And we did that as Aspire.
“We thought, ‘Guys are wearing their work gear for 12-13 hours a day’. I thought this would be a great opportunity to say to the guy, ‘We’re going to look at your needs’, and it worked.
“Guys are wearing work clothes Monday to Friday and still want to look nice.”
The company has invested in an embroidery machine so businesses can have their own branding on workwear.
Claire said: “Our company is a one-stop shop selling branded gear for several large companies. And individual site workers can come in and buy a new pair of branded boots.
“A lot of what we do was learned from my work with New Look.’’ The company now employs 11 people and has gone from its first full year turnover of more than £1million to £1.5million for the current year. Claire is now planning to expand the range of clothing to include school uniforms. As a mum-ofthree, she’s keen to offer affordable yet hard-wearing clothes for youngsters. And she’s even asked her kids for their advice.
“Everyone in the family is involved. The kids have been involved from the start – they come up with ideas.
“As a mum, I understand what it’s like shopping for schoolwear at the moment and it’s a nightmare.”
Claire plans to change the experience of school uniform shopping.
“A lot of the suppliers we deal with in the industry also manufacture schoolwear,” she said. “I want to bring a modern approach to how we shop for schoolwear. It’s the same ethos. They want good service and they want someone to understand what their needs are and they don’t want too much hassle.”