Family business overlaid with agility, adaptability and quality

Merenda is a family-owned firm specialising in wood veneer products which are made in their factory in Manorhamilton, Co Leitrim.

The company celebrates 30 years in business this year, has survived two recessions and looks forward to a new period of growth in the Middle East, US and domestic market.

Ronan Haslette is managing director of Merenda and says that the business was like the other family member at the dinner table as a youth.

He took over the position in 2007/2008, having done a master’s in business development and worked for Coca Cola. He says that his father Oliver, who founded the company, is in semi-retirement: “Though you never fully retire when you’re an entrepreneur.”

Merenda uses wood veneer sourced globally to create a functional product that can be overlayed on to an MDF or chipboard foundation of the kind that is used in kitchen, bedroom, and office furniture. Merenda is the only producer of “edge bandings” (the material that runs along kitchen cupboard door frames) in Ireland and the UK.

“We are a small family business so we pride ourselves on offering the industry as much flexibility as we can,” says Haslette.

“We are the only manufacturer of the product but we have significant distributor competition so the challenge for us is to make sure that we are on a similar cost-base, but also make sure that people have a reason to buy from us rather than our competitor.”

Merenda exports to 16 countries worldwide including seven in the Middle East, the US, New Zealand, and some central European nations. Being a manufacturer in Ireland, as well as a distributor, has enabled them to stay nimble in a competitive market. “We have a quicker route to market, at the plant we have multiple flexibilities in what a customer might want and we can offer bespoke solutions to customers where elsewhere they might have to enter a pecking order,” says Haslette.

Focusing on the quality and diversity of equipment, and on staff, has been essential to the survival of Merenda over the years. “We have the ability to do things that other people can’t. In the Irish market it’s an advantage to be based here. In the international market all is fair in love and war but as a family business we bring a personal approach to the table and we offer technical advantages in terms of what we can make.”

Haslette handles the Middle Eastern business himself and finds the familial aspect advantageous in a culture that values family businesses. “I leverage that, as my father has done, to bring that approach. You can make decisions on the spot, for example.”

The ethos of a family business has meant that during tough times such as the recent recession the business was able to survive. “Everybody is treated as a family member. We wouldn’t have been able to survive the recession if we hadn’t had flexibility from our staff.” The company employs 16 people and is in the process of hiring three more.

The recession was challenging and Haslette had to reappraise the business model: “Faced with the imperative for Merenda to adapt and be more responsive to the rapidly changing recessionary marketplace, and supported by Enterprise Ireland, we introduced lean manufacturing and the principles of continuous improvement into our business. The advantages gained have been transformational for the company – we have increased the company productivity by 21 per cent, increased our turnover by 18 per cent while reducing our average waste levels by 11 per cent and our stock holding by 19 per cent.”

The decline of the building industry has been difficult as Merenda products are used a lot in kitchen production but conversely, during the boom, there was significant competition and price pressure in the domestic market. “There was a false demand there all the time. We didn’t necessarily see the benefits of the boom but that also meant that we could sustain ourselves after the boom if we modified our business model,” says Haslette.

Merenda is FSC-certified, something which has become essential to the business. “Our customers work with clients in fitting-out rooms and buildings, and the clients specify that the products used must come from FSC certified sources,” he says. “We also produced a product called Manorbloc which is made from the wood waste from the factory and sold locally as a domestic fuel. Sustainability is important to us because wood is our raw material so we try to minimise waste.”

The company also minimises innovation costs by partnering with institutes such as Cork Institute of Technology, Sligo IT, GMIT, and Queens University to develop their skills base and to utilise prototyping development resources. “As a small business, you don’t have the budget for significant R&D expenditure so you need to try to leverage the support that is out there whether that is third-level or within the industry.”

The future for Merenda is a focus on innovation and adding value to the product they produce, as well as copper fastening customer service and developing a greater web presence. “We are going to innovate ourselves to be more of a full-service offering in the Irish marketplace and then internationally to sell value-added products as well as our core products.” merenda.com