CATEGORY: IndustryThe Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award, now in its 12th year, aims to recognise and acclaim Ireland's entrepreneurs. The Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year is run in association with The Irish Times, RTÉ, Enterprise Ireland, InterTradeIreland, Invest Northern Ireland, Trinity Business School and Newstalk. Eight companies have been chosen in each of the three categories: International, Industry and Emerging. The winner will be announced at a televised awards ceremony on Thursday, October 22nd.
Nominee: John Flahavan, E. Flahavan Sons Ltd
E FLAHAVAN Sons Ltd was established as a family company around 1790 and was incorporated as a limited company in 1940. John Flahavan spent all his school holidays working in the family business before entering it full time on completion of his third-level education in 1972. John recalls reading in an old Irish directory that in the 1930s there were 52 oat millers in the country. This number had gone to five when he joined and now following the recent announcements of other closures Flahavan mill will be the only oat mill remaining in the country. From his late father John inherited 16 per cent of the business but over the years has been able to buy out the other 84 per cent from other cousins and family members.
Fragmentation of shareholdings, he believes, can cause huge problems in family companies. The company has had an oats mill at Kilmacthomas since the late 1700s where the mill was powered from the nearby River Mahon. Initially used for contract milling of pinhead-type oat, the mill was later expanded to include an oatflaking facility, producing a faster-cooking finer “rolled” oatflake. Today, Flahavan’s Progress Oatlets, Organic and Quick Oats are the leading porridge oat brands in Ireland.
The Irish Hot Oats category is worth €20.3 million at retail level and Flahavan’s has over 65 per cent share of this category. In the Irish market, Flahavan’s also holds a significant share of the Muesli market. The company employs 50 and awards include the 2008 Sial d’Or Awards – third in the savoury grocery category with 29 countries represented – and the 2007 Euro-Toques Award for commitment to food quality and production.
Product
The company has a history and expertise in milling oats that spans over six generations using locally-sourced oats and environmentally-friendly manufacturing processes. The product range is hot oat products, muesli cereals and baked goods. The main brands sold on the domestic market are Flahavan’s Progress Oatlets, microwaveable Quick Oats drum, sachets and pots, Organic Porridge, Hi8 Muesli, Crunchy Oats and Flapjacks. Flahavan’s confirm that oats, a superfood, are a rich source of soluble fibre, proven to reduce cholesterol. With a low GI index, they are naturally low in salt, sugar and fat and release energy into the bloodstream slowly and evenly.
Customers
The company’s key customers in domestic and UK markets include Musgraves, Tesco, Dunnes, Superquinn, Waitrose, Sainsburys and Asda.
What is the biggest challenge you faced and how did you overcome them?
The biggest challenge we faced was the repositioning of porridge. A few years ago it was coming to be regarded as an old person’s food. By overcoming preparation and convenience barriers and by bringing out new variants and by targeted marketing activities about the compelling health benefits of oats, we have brought a whole new generation into the market. Young men and women are using it for weight control and because of the slow energy release.
What motivates you to succeed?
I get a buzz out of the business and I want to be able to pass on a thriving company to the next generation.
What is the best business advice you ever received?
My father had a saying “leave a bit for the other fellow”. By this he meant that we should not be too greedy and try to get to the “win, win” situation.
Nominee: Vincent Carton, Carton Group Ltd
VINCENT CARTON is managing director of Carton Group, one of Ireland’s oldest family businesses. It can trace its origin back to 1775 when Peter Carton set up a livery stable around Dublin’s fruit and vegetable markets to look after the horses of shopkeepers while they bought their provisions and meat for their shops.
Recognising some time later that there was no poultry market, he set one up and became a poulterer, trading all forms of poultry and game which was sent to Cartons by rail from the farmyards of Ireland.
Today, Carton is Ireland’s largest integrated chicken processor, based in Shercock, Co Cavan, where it processes 600,000 birds per week and produces 120,000 tonnes of chicken feed a year.
Integrated, in that Carton is responsible for all stages of the life cycle of the chicken and works closely in long-term partnership with farmers, suppliers and customers.
Vincent and his brother Justin are the eight generation to run the business. Carton employs 640 people throughout the year and 750 during the summer months.
In addition to this the company has 150 breeder, broiler and free-range farmers. The company recorded a turnover of €165 million in 2009 and the payroll costs came to €20.3 million.
Product
Ninety-nine per cent of wholebirds and fillets are sold fresh either packaged or loose. Chicken is Ireland’s favourite meat but Irish people tend to like white meat over dark, so for every eight fillets sold in Irish retail only one leg is sold leaving seven legs to be frozen down and sold in foreign markets, primarily Eastern Europe.
The company launched 122 new chicken products in the Irish market in 2008.
Customers
The company’s primary market is the Irish retail market where the main multiple groups dominate. SuperValu/Centra, Dunnes Stores, Tesco Ireland and Superquinn are the key customers but the company also has a significant share in the independent retailers/butchers segment.
What motivates you to succeed?
My motivation comes from producing great chicken, from working with a great team of people in a part of the country that I love and with customers who constantly challenge us. I firmly believe that Irish chicken is better and fresher than our competitors and I am immensely proud of our ability to compete effectively with massive international chicken corporations.
What is the best business advice you have ever received?
Integrate as much as you can. That is, try to cut out middlemen between you and the customer and always in food – get closer to the mouth!!
How do you recharge your batteries?
My wife and I have five wonderful daughters who occupy most of our quality time. Outside of family, tennis, gardening and following sports are my main interests.
Nominee:
Cathal O'Connell, Paddywagon Tours
CATHAL O’CONNELL or “Charlie” as he is known throughout the global backpacking world, started Paddywagon Tours in Dublin on St Patrick’s Day 1998 after several years roaming the planet as restless free spirit, safari driver in Mozambique and a cook aboard a luxury yacht in the Indian Ocean. He was 29.
He says his eureka moment came in a backpacker bar in New Zealand when he devised and wrote down his business plan on the back of a beer mat, a sacred object he still possesses. Paddywagon has grown to become the second largest backpacker tour operator in Europe and one of the few not owned by a multinational conglomerate, despite, O’Connell says, many juicy offers.
It brings 90,000 tourists, mainly 18-35-year-olds round Ireland on budget, fun-filled trips each year. Tired of driving into a town each night and dropping off 50 high-spending backpackers into hostels that rarely even said thank you, O’Connell founded Paddy Palace Hostels and his vision of an all-Ireland network of budget accommodation is rapidly taking shape with hostels now in Dublin, Cork, Killarney, Derry, Belfast and on the Dingle peninsula. He has added apartments and BBs to his growing portfolio, with his biggest acquisition to date being Kinlay House, Cork, purchased for €3 million in 2005.
Paddywagon makes a considerable contribution to local economies. Its “backpackers” are overwhelmingly young professionals and their disposable income while travelling is considerable. The company employs 50 full-time staff.
Service
Paddywagon has a fleet of 20 modern Mercedes luxury coaches, emblazoned in green with leprechauns and shamrocks. The company provides all-island tours and accommodation through the group’s portfolio of hostels, apartments and BBs.
Customers
90,000 people are carried on Paddywagon buses each year around Ireland. A larger amount stay in the company’s hostels annually, as many as 250,000 people.
Its customer base is 50 per cent antipodean. Another 25 per cent are North American and the rest are mostly of European origin, in particular Germany and Spain.
What are the biggest challenges you faced starting up?
Naivety in the transport business was a huge challenge. I grew up with a financial and pharmacy retail background and knew nothing of buses. I went from my only knowledge of an engine being restricted to the Thomas the Tank variety to owning a fleet of coaches with all the grease, heartbreak and roadside breakdowns that entails.
What motivates you to succeed?
My absolute determination never to fail and for my business to thrive. I care not for the profits, riches and rewards but the glory of seeing my business succeed. I have never thought of myself in an employee mode and was aware from an early age that, for better or worse, I was to be an entrepreneur and not an employee of someone else. My wanderlust, my sparkle and my burning desire to build a business of my own led to the birth of Paddywagon Tours.
What advice would you give an entrepreneurs starting out today?
Young blood must have its sport and every dog its day!
Nominee: Philip Morrow,
PRM Group
PHILIP MORROW established PRM in 1988, a dedicated chilled distribution business located in Lisburn, Co Antrim.
Starting his career in the financial world, Philip moved to a commercial role in food distribution in the late 1970s, successfully reaching the post of general manager of a Northern Ireland grocery sales and distribution company. It was within this role Philip recognised the increasing consumer trend for chilled foods and the limited options available for brand owners to find a specialised route to market for their products.
This knowledge, experience and the contacts gained helped Philip form his business, which is now recognised as one of the leading independent chilled operators in Ireland providing an economic solution to distribution for brands to central depots and independent outlets across the island.
The group now consists of six companies, two trading (sterling and euro), one haulage, one logistics and two manufacturing factories in Drogheda and Derry.
Operating from a purpose-built modern office and multi-temperature warehousing facilities in Lisburn, the group serviced over 13 million cases of chilled products to its customer base throughout Ireland from over 40 manufacturing and brand-owner partners across UK, Europe and Ireland in 2008.
The company achieved a combined turnover of £86 million (€98 million) in 2008 – trading £80 million and service £6 million – with a workforce of over 300 direct and indirect employees.
Product/Service
PRM group provides a route to market for national, local Irish and private label brands.
This range has been recently enhanced with the addition of PRM’s own products trading under the Fresh Food Kitchen and Galberts brands, manufactured in its two factories.
Customers
The PRM trading and manufacturing companies’ customer base extends across Ireland to include UK and local multiples, the independent and foodservice sectors.
PRM Haulage has customers in the UK, Ireland and across Europe, including both manufactures and retailers.
What are the biggest challenges you face now?
The biggest challenge that the group faces today is maintaining growth and, more importantly, ensuring viability through professional management and profitability.
I believe to date this has been achieved by remaining competitive, recognising changing consumer trends and customer needs. [This] drives the ongoing change and the need to respond and diversify the business model.
What is your biggest business achievement?
A key element of the success was securing the distribution of the Muller brand to Ireland, which we launched in 1990, establishing a long-term trading relationship which is in its 20th year.
What is the best business advice you ever received?
I was first introduced to the food distribution business by an accountant who became my financial adviser for 30 years and supported me through the challenging days.
He strongly encouraged good management information systems, financial controls, cash flow management and profit retention for financial stability and always advised “don’t spend today what you hope to earn tomorrow”.
