The inventor of the indispensable "multi-bucket" has moved into medicare. Mr John Concannon, who made a name for himself when he demonstrated the ingenious feeding device for calves on television a decade ago, is now diversifying at his factory in Tuam, Co Galway.
His company, JFC Plastics, now makes and exports over 100 different plastic products for the home and export market and employs 60 people. Mr Concannon, who first began making multi-buckets in a shed in his back garden in 1989, has customers in 19 countries.
With the recent opening of his new firm, JFC Technology, Mr Concannon is creating 10 new jobs in the design and manufacture of specialised medicare products. His Tuam factory has expanded by 12,000 sq ft to cope with the manufacture of products such as hospital trolleys, drug boxes, medicine containers and first-aid storage safes. One of the company's existing agricultural products, and a big seller in Finland, is an insulated double-walled drinking trough for cattle and sheep. The design virtually eliminates the problem of water freezing during Scandinavian winters.
The JFC plastic calf-hutches have also become a very successful export, with the most recent market in Jordan secured through the company's Internet website. In a further expansion planned for later this year, the company will be building another 8,000 sq ft plant. This is to cope with the anticipated demand for some of the new products aimed at the medical and technology sectors.
Mr Concannon has established branches of the company in Britain and Holland, and the firm has also carried out a lot of customised contract moulding and plastic coating of metal items for other Irish companies - mainly in the engineering and agricultural machinery sectors. Major motor companies have been fitting plastic protective inserts made by JFC into vans, jeeps, space wagons and pick-up trucks used by builders, plumbers, electricians and farmers, as a protection when carrying heavy pieces of machinery and tools.
Mr Concannon has come a long way from an experiment in a garden shed, but he still makes the indispensable multi-bucket.