For a couple of weeks in January, the Cavan County Board was the envy of many of its counterparts throughout the country. And how did this state of affairs arise? Well, it was all down to strategic planning, and a vision for the future.
As 2010 dawned to a vista of ice and snow, and the Big Freeze took hold for the early weeks of the year, county teams around the country were left kicking their heels in anticipation of the thaw. The recently-introduced moratorium on intercounty training, which prevents senior county teams from doing any collective training during the months of November and December, means that in GAA terms, January 1st heralds the start of a New Year in more ways than one. This year, the return to outdoor training was delayed for many teams, but Cavan were one of the few counties able to get the ball rolling as early as possible - and it was all down to the new synthetic 3G pitch at Kingspan Breffni Park, which staged senior challenge matches before its first competitive game, an U-21 Hastings Cup match, on January 16th.
The renowned Fermanagh firm of Prunty Pitches, which has been leading the way in GAA pitch development for 40 years, developed the new playing pitch, and Cavan company Pitwood Quarries supplied stone for use in the development.
Director of Pitwood, Charlie Moen, said: "We worked alongside Prunty on the new all-weather pitch at Breffni. The base of the pitch is built on screened clean stone of various sizes. It's all designed to give maximum drainage so the water won't lie on it, and it works well."
Having seen Prunty Pitches in action, Charlie attests to the excellence of their approach. "They're very professional and do a great job," he declares. "They've been doing pitches for such a long time and I suppose a lot of people are very familiar with the name Prunty Pitches. I'd say they're the best there is at that job."
Other projects taken on by Pitwood Quarries include a lot of work for the agricultural community as well as local authorities.
The economic downturn which has gripped the country over the past 18 months has inevitably had an effect, with constrained cash-flow leading to a more parsimonious approach by individual farmers and County Councils alike. Given the current financial situation, then, Charlie concedes that the onset of flooding and freezing throughout the country in late 2009 and early 2010 has had an adverse effect on the economy at both local and national level.
"With the way the economic climate has been the last while," he says, "we didn't need the bad weather to come when it did. Everyone is suffering but you just have to keep plugging away and hope the country turns the corner. We're hanging in there, and hopefully we'll have a better summer, the weather will lift and the country will start ticking again. Things are starting to move again so hopefully that will continue."
So what is the main thrust of the company's operations these days? "We still do a lot of work for farmers and County Councils," says Charlie. "We supply all crushed stone to farmers for draining their land or make roadways through their fields. There was also a focus on developing new slatted houses for housing cattle, there were grant aids available for things like that but those grants finished last year and that end of things has slowed up a bit since then."
Having taking its first steps in County Monaghan in the 1990s, Pitwood Quarries purchased its first quarry in Cavan at Ballyhaise in 1998 before the company expanded again with the acquisition of a second at Bailieborough in 2006.
"We had the business in Monaghan before but in Cavan we had to build the company up from nothing over the last 12 years," says Charlie. "But we've done that and we've got a lot of good customers in that time."
The two quarries generate a similar amount of output, with both plants supplying farmers, builders and local authorities. The new plant in Bailieborough concentrates more on producing chips. Implementing a chip-processing facility required sizeable investment but Charlie acknowledges that such expenditure is unavoidable in the industry. "We spent a right few pound on the chip processing," he says, "but it had to be done - there's a lot of quarries producing chips and you have to be able to compete."
Another string to the Pitwood Quarries bow is the modern mobile plant, which pares down vast lumps of rock to produce the sort of gravel required by all facets of the building industry, as well as road repairs and resurfacing projects taken on by the local authorities. "We blast the rock, crush it, screen it and eventually we take it down in various sizes and grades," he says.
A proud Monaghan man he may be, but Charlie's day-to-day work has centred around Cavan for a dozen years and he takes an interest in the fortunes of some of the local GAA clubs. "Where we're based we're close to Ballyhaise, Killinkere, Butlersbridge and Redhills so we keep an eye on how things are going for them, and try to help them out with fundraising race-nights and the like."

For more information on the products and services provided by Pitwood Quarries, contact the company at 049-4338343 (Ballyhaise) or 042-9694450 (Bailieborough). Tweet

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