Interview: Alex Feechan, CEO of Borders-based activewear firm Findra, on returning to its roots
Alex Feechan founded female-focused, high-end outdoor apparel firm Findra ten years ago next year – and has now set off on an invigorated new chapter after undertaking a major review of the firm’s progress to date and purpose-led ambitions.
“It’s reinvigorated our passion and our focus. We’re really excited about where we’re going, and what we’re going to do,” the entrepreneur says. It marks a major step forward from when she reached a point of feeling burnt out, and asking herself what she would do if she could pick anything in the world to do work-wise.
She realised her true aim was to design outdoor clothing for women, and then ran a finetooth comb over her business to take forward its 2.0 version. It made her realise what she had already achieved, saying: “I’ve learned a huge amount about business, about building something from nothing, about the challenges – and about myself and about how you overcome the ups and downs.”
Findra, based in Walkerburn in the Borders, has now revamped its brand aesthetic and online offering, has new products in the pipeline, and has implemented a three to five year plan. A key decision has been to return to its original sole focus on womenswear, after having added a men’s range, but finding that that never reached a significant proportion of turnover and was stretching company resources.
“We just felt that we had kind of diluted our [unique selling point], which was to design great womenswear… We’re a purpose-led business – I’m driven by the desire to design sustainable, stylish, versatile outdoor clothing for women. When I made the decision, I felt hugely excited about the future, and about the prospects of where we were going to go. And I just felt that I got my mojo back for it all.”
Findra says its name comes from a mix of words of Scandinavian and Gaelic origin that combined translates into “a strong and powerful mythical female spirit, who is the keeper and protector of the forests, lands and oceans”.
Feechan had in fact started the firm in the first place after finding a lack of decent female kit to wear while mountain biking, and was able to tap into her 20-year career as a designer, having worked on knitwear for fashion houses such as Chanel, Calvin Klein and Escada.
The firm, which uses Merino wool that it says is eco-friendly and suitable for all weathers, would go on to notch up milestones such as securing funding of £200,000 from parties including Scottish angel syndicates Tricapital and Investing Women followed by a second round of £250,000; win several awards, including Scottish Borders Chamber of Commerce’s Micro Business of the Year in 2022; and see Feechan become an established entrepreneurial voice, recently a contributor to a discussion on women in entrepreneurship led by Pathways author Ana Stewart, for example.
However, Feechan notes the under-representation of female entrepreneurs when it comes to obtaining funding, and a recent study showed that companies in the UK led by women were more likely to have received no external investment (at 16.9 per cent) rather than be given any category of this type of funding. The report by money.co.uk business loans found that angel investment was the top source of outside capital at 12.2 per cent.
The reinvigorated Findra of 2023 comes after a 2022 that was tough personally and professionally, but Feechan now says: “I feel so much stronger within myself because I have had that learning experience, but also because I look back and think, ‘I believe in what I’m doing, and I believe I can do it, and I believe that I can power my team to come with me.”
She is also keen for Findra to encourage and empower women to get outdoors more, something that was boosted by the pandemic, and the firm’s online sales grew by a whopping 173 per cent between 2020 to 2021.
Amid Findra’s “triple bottom line” of “people, planet, and profit,” in terms of its topline, it now makes 90 per cent of its sales online, and is currently focused on growing across the UK, but is also looking to build an export strategy, with Europe, North America, and Australia in its sights, seeking to foster existing “green shoots” in these marketplaces as of 2025.
The business has just hired an ecommerce marketing executive, while it also has a shop on Innerleithen High Street (having previously also tried a move into Edinburgh), that after a refurbishment has a cafe plus event space with yoga and Pilates classes and also on occasion hosts talks and art exhibitions. “We still feel it’s important to have that face-to-face connection, be able to give feedback and talk to people, and build community around the brand.”
The firm is looking to double turnover in 2024 and again in 2025 “so that we can really start to scale Findra”, with this metric having grown by about 35 to 40 per cent on average year on year since the firm started, apart from a blip last year. “As we go into this year, we’re starting to see that growth happen again.”
Feechan says she now feels like she’s come out of a dark place into the light, and is more confident in herself. “I definitely can see where I’ve grown a huge amount, believing in myself more in terms of my own intuitive approach to things and my instinct about decision-making, and just cutting out a lot of the noise. It doesn’t mean I’m not going to continue to learn – I will, and I’m very open about that. But it’s about having that conversation with yourself, where [you say], ‘wait a minute, you know what you’re doing here – you can do it, and that’s really quite a lovely place to get to.”
