From drawing a sketch at his kitchen table, to discussing design options in Russian with his Latvian manufacturers; starting his own business has been a difficult but rewarding road for Declan McDonnell.

The father-of-two always wanted to create his own product or business but he never imagined that the product would be a nursing bra.

Xpanda Bra is a new maternity nursing bra with adjustable cup sizes, so a bra continues to fit during and after pregnancy. Rather than buying a number of different sized bras, mothers can change the size to accommodate the fluctuation in the breast size. The innovative design is now being sold in eight well-known stores across Northern Ireland and one in the Republic.

“I originally came up with the idea after my wife Diane had our first child Cora,” Declan explains. “As a breastfeeding mother, she often felt pressure, discomfort and pain.” Returning to work was another difficulty because it was not always practical for her to leave her desk to express milk. On one day in particular, when his wife had to go home early due to discomfort, Declan thought: “There has to be something better than this.” He and his wife decided that an alternative would be a good quality cotton nursing bra on which straps and cups could be adjusted in under one minute. They searched online for such a bra but could not find one on the market.

“I sat down at the kitchen table and drew a sketch,” Declan recalls.

Formerly an employee of Daintyfit textile factory in Irvinestown (the bra manufacturer which supplied Marks and Spencer before closing in 1999 with the loss of 120 jobs), Declan went on to work for various government departments in Enniskillen. All the while he wanted to run his own business and in 2009, he decided to take the plunge.

He points out: “It takes a lot of googling and research to find where I could go with a sketch on a piece of paper to a finished product.” His first port-of-call was Innovate Design. Based in Sailsbury, the team of design engineers, researchers and intellectual property experts advise on patents, design, prototyping and marketing.

“They were extremely helpful. They carried out a patent search to check that this nursing bra wasn’t already out there,” Declan explains. “They advised me to apply for a UK patent. When the legal jargon became more complicated they recommended a patent attorney.” Innovate Design also guided him in securing a Registered Community Design (RCD) from the Intellectual Property Office, meaning that the Xpanda Bra trademark and design is protected across the UK and Europe.

Declan had also approached Fermanagh Enterprise for advice on how to sell his product. “Fionna Martin was very helpful, gave some great advice and got me onto the Go For It programme.” Invest NI then funded the trademark, patent and website work. Declan also went on an Invest NI course which put him in touch with a design team which helped create his Xpanda Bra logo.

With his prototype designed and his IP protected, Declan’s wife (who is a peer supporter for Irvinestown breast feeding group ‘Milky Mommas’) asked local mothers to try out the bra. “The first thing they said was that it was so comfortable,” Declan reports.

Declan then managed to secure a meeting with one of Marks and Spencer’s well respected technologists at its London headquarters. “I initially wanted to licence my idea,” he explains. “The technologist I met loved the concept and trademark, but after they had a meeting with other people within M&S, they thought it was not for them at that time.” He was not put off and decided to go down the line of getting it manufactured himself. “I believe it was not meant to be as it made me source a manufacturer myself and meet people within the lingerie industry whom I would never have met.” Next, Declan contacted manufacturers in China, Turkey and Latvia. He and his wife were not happy with the quality of the product made in China or Turkey but were pleased with the Latvian company’s finished product. They decided to go with the most expensive cotton to ensure high quality as well as innovative design. Delivery time and remaining within EU legislation were other important factors, (the product would take six weeks to be shipped from China but only three days from Latvia.) “The Latvian manufacturer created a higher quality bra and they were willing to make the tweaks we required to make it perfect at no extra cost,” Declan explains. The only problem was he didn’t speak Russian.

“It just so happened that I had advertised for a seamstress/technologist and a lady called Anna Sanders applied. I hadn’t realised I would need a Russian speaker at that stage, but she spoke Russian!” he laughs. He and Anna travelled to Latvia in October 2012 and placed their first order in November. “They don’t work in hundreds so we had to order in thousands,” he explains.

After over two years of pumping money (personal savings, business loans and Invest NI funding) into his venture, Xpanda Bra began to sell online this year. Declan set up xpandabra.com and sells on Amazon and Esty to UK, Ireland, USA, Canada, Russia, Belgium and Spain. Online, he sells approximately 50-100 per month on Amazon and between 20-30 on Esty.

Upon showing the bra to local retailers “none of them had any hesitation in taking our product because they all like to support local,” Declan states. Xpanda Bra is now available in Bey-Bee mother and baby shop in Irvinestown; SD Kells (in Enniskillen, Lisnaskea, Irvinestown, Omagh and Lurgan); The Lingerie Room in the Linen Green; and Orchid Lingerie on the Lisburn Road. As of last week, it is now being sold in McElhinney’s, Ballybofey.

“The quality of the innovation speaks for itself when these very established retailers with high quality lingerie brand names have taken it on,” Declan comments.

He is very thankful to all the retailers that have stocked Xpanda Bra, saying: “Without their help and support, small start-up businesses like my own would never go anywhere or be able to move forward.” Although some of Declan’s friends and family initially asked: “Are you crazy?”, he finds that being a man in the lingerie industry is not unusual and points to Dragon’s Den star Theo Paphitis, owner of online lingerie store Boux Avenue, as a prime example.