EY Entrepreneur of the Year industry finalist: Jack Dobson, Dunbia Group

Jack Dobson is a co-founder of Dunbia, a company that specialises in sourcing and manufacturing beef, lamb and pork products for retail, commercial and food-service markets.

Dobson founded the Tyrone based business with his brother Jim.

Dobson’s father, Fred, traded cattle and when Dobson left school at 15 he joined his father in buying and selling cattle around Ireland. He has always worked closely with farmers and understands that his business depends on their supply of quality animals.

In 1976, Jack, Fred and Jim Dobson opened a small butcher’s shop, Fresh ’n’ Frozen, which was subsequently renamed as Dungannon Meats and then, in 2006, as Dunbia.

Dunbia has grown organically and now processes 350,000 cattle, 1.8 million lambs and 700,000 pigs a year.

Turnover was €1.15 billion in 2014 and the company employs more than 4,000 staff.

The company has offices in Holland, France and China, as well as a strategic alliance in Italy. Europe is a key market for beef, pork and lamb but emerging markets include exporting hides to Italy, sheepskins in China to produce Ugg boots, porkto Japan, lamb loins to Dubai and beef offal to Africa.

The company recently announced a £27 million expansion to its Dungannon operation which will create 209 new jobs over the next three years.

What was your back-to-the-wall moment and how did you overcome it? In 2008 the whole beef business for Sainsbury's was put out to tender and we were unsuccessful. Overnight we lost 65 per cent of our business. This made us more focused and we concentrated on winning new business contracts with Co-op, Iceland and Asda; and we diversified into pork.

Eight years later we retendered for the Sainsbury’s contract and have regained our lost percentage share of the Sainsbury’s beef business. The biggest blow for me was walking into my own production plant which was two-thirds empty of product.

Describe your growth funding path. The business started with a £995 cattle lorry. Ten years later I secured a £1 million loan from Danske Bank on the business.

Today, Dunbia is still 100 per cent privately owned by my brother Jim and I. Our business has only ever been funded by bank loans and reinvesting profits back into the business. As we work on very tight margins we have taken no dividends as we are focused on growing the business into the future and as such, each business decision needs to be carefully considered.

Have you started to feel the effects of the economic upturn within your sector/industry? Statistics show that red meat consumption grows during a recession; therefore we have not seen much change due to the economy. However, when meat prices are too high, consumers stop buying high- priced red meat cuts and opt for cheaper cuts, ie from sirloin to rib, rib to topside.

What is the hardest thing you have ever done in business? I set up a tannery business in Italy 10 years ago. The price for raw sheepskins was zero, so I thought if I could semi-process these and they cost nothing it must work.

We had a Chinese partner who said they would invest in another, complementary business, that is, he would buy our semi-processed skins from us and process them into fine leather at his plant for children’s shoes. On this basis I went ahead and set up the business. Then the Chinese partner pulled and we were on our own. We did not understand the finishing process and sales lead times therefore the business failed and we lost money.