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How TikTok is helping businesses to take off

Think the platform is just for entertainment? Irish companies like Gym + Coffee are finding TikTok can also help turbocharge sales

Karl Swaine, Niall Horgan and Diarmuid McSweeney, co-founders of Gym + Coffee: the athleisure company, which has 73,000 followers on TikTok, is one of a growing number of SMEs using the platform to turbocharge their business. Picture: Fergal Phillips

In Manchester, a bronzed brunette dressed in millennial-friendly shades of pink stands in front of a rack of athleisure gear. From the reams of pastels, she plucks out a Gym + Coffee branded cornflour blue zippy jacket and points to the stitching on its shoulders, explaining that, for comfort, users should buy a size above what they would normally wear when buying this product. There is a full studio set up -- three cameras, lights, ...