After running one of Ireland’s most successful athleisure clothing brands for over eight years, the founder and former CEO of Gym+Coffee, Niall Horgan, says it was the right time for him to take a step back from the company.
Now in his new role as company chairman, Mr Horgan has welcomed the change, acknowledging his additional free time to enjoy and focus on the big picture.
Speaking to the Irish Examiner, Mr Horgan says: “It’s definitely a bit of a change. It’s different, not having to be in the office all day, every day.
“After running the business for eight years, we got to a good stage of growth, and it’s really time now to bring in new expertise.”
In June last year, Mr Horgan, along with his two Gym+Coffee co-founders, Diarmuid McSweeney and Karl Swaine, announced they were taking a step back from the day-to-day operations of the company.
In an open letter to the Cork-founded brand’s more than 240,000 social media followers, the trio wrote: “After 20,000 coffees, 2,000 products, 400 events and a community of over 1m people, we believe Gym+Coffee is starting a new chapter.
“This wasn’t a decision we took lightly… At its heart, it came down to this: after nine incredible years of building Gym+Coffee, it feels like the right time for us personally and for the business as it enters its next chapter of growth.”
Founded in 2017, Gym+Coffee was inspired by Mr Horgan’s travels and tech experience. Before the athleisure brand’s establishment, the UCC graduate recalls being the 10th employee at Twitter’s Irish base, now X, noting it “was a bit better back then than it is now”. He moved from Twitter onto work communication platform, Slack, where he came up with the idea for Gym+Coffee.
As Mr Horgan recalls: “I always wanted to work on my own thing and was inspired by the growing health and fitness industry. It went from being a niche area to more of a social outlet for people, and we wanted to be part of that.
“We established ourselves in 2017, and it’s been a rollercoaster ever since.”
Gym+Coffee counted Irish rugby legend Brian O’Driscoll as an early investor, with celebrities like Niall Horan and UK fitness star Joe Wicks among fans of the brand.
Now, the company currently operates eight stores in Ireland and sells clothing through its e-commerce platforms in Europe, the UK, North America, Australia, and New Zealand.
“We’ve had some great years, and some really tough years, but all in all, it has been a phenomenal experience.
“We’ve really tried to fly the flag for Ireland against the larger international players.”
Now headquartered in Dublin, Gym+Coffee employs around 110 people, led by the company’s new CEO, Jason Crawford. “It’s great having [Jason] there,” Mr Horgan says. “He’s worked with major brands like Nike and Adidas and has got great calibre behind him.
“As for me, my role as chairman is to make sure the business stays true to what has made it so successful to this point, but also help guide the north star of where we are going, especially on the international side of things.
“The UK is a massive source of growth for us. We are seeing huge activity, both across our own digital channels as well as the wholesale side.”
The brand now has 60 different partnerships, the former CEO notes, including ones with major players such as Next and Debenhams.
“They are obviously very large accounts for us. We hope to see the UK accelerate even faster over the next few years. The market makes up about a third of our business now, and we’d like that to be up to half by 2030 and beyond.
“We’re always looking at other markets as well. We did previously look at the US, but it doesn’t look like that will come to anything too soon. We definitely see potential around ,ainland Europe, like in Germany and the Netherlands for example.”
As Mr Horgan takes a break from the rollercoaster, he steps back on a high, noting: “2025 has been the company’s biggest year ever both in terms of revenue and profit. The business is in a great place and has the ability now to keep going from a strong position.”
