The meat in Meath
November 27, 2010At a time when companies all over the country are thinking about downsizing, consolidating - or worse, given the well-documented troubles in the economy at large - the folk at Euro Farm Foods in Duleek are bucking the trend.
The company is putting plans together to launch a further expansion programme over the coming years, which will create much-needed employment in the north-east area and looks sure to take its total number of employees into three figures.
Ciaran Boyle, who was part of the Louth senior football panel for five years in the 1990s, is Euro Farm Foods' Financial Controller having joined the firm during a previous expansion and recruitment drive in 2004. Speaking to Royal County recently about the company's latest aspirations, he said, "There are around 80 full-time employees at the moment and the company has plans in the near future for further expansion. Despite the state of the country at large, we aim to expand with further capital investment from Michael and Agnes Fox to develop a boning hall onsite. That will lead to the creation of a further 40 jobs taking employment up to 120 people, which will obviously be a huge benefit at the moment when everything seems to be going in the opposite direction."
The Euro Farm Foods success story started in 2001, when Michael, a Leitrim native long domiciled in Meath, and his wife Agnes, originally from Naul, Co.Dublin, purchased an existing abattoir in the townland of Cooksgrove just outside Duleek. A capital investment program over the next three years culminated in 2004, when Euro Farm Foods was granted an export licence by the Department of Agriculture, a key driver in maintaining the perennial upward curve of the company's graph of success.
"There's no doubt that we wouldn't be where we are without access to the export market," says Ciaran. "The ability to trade into Europe as well as the home market allowed for a significant expansion and growth of the business in the course of a few years". After 2004 it went from strength to strength because of the access to European customers and for the next three years the company grew rapidly, slaughtering between 60,000 to 70,000 head annually. The business is extremely valuable annually to the local economy through payroll costs and the use of local service suppliers.
"We serve the local butcher trade in Louth and Meath.We also have a significant list of customers abroad and approximately 50 per cent of our produce is bound for foreign markets, the UK, France, Holland and Spain."
Irish beef received a set-back during the early part of the decade following the Foot and Mouth Crisis, but the long-term reputation of Irish meat produce remains as solid as ever, says Ciaran: "Irish beef is a premium product. What the farmers produce, and what we sell in the marketplace, is a premium product. There's always a demand for our premium product in comparison to non-EU imported beef from countries where food safety standards are generally accepted as being lower than European standards."
As well as the slaughtering facility and company administration offices in Duleek, Euro Farm Foods has a separate facility in Ongenstown outside Navan, where cattle hides are processed for distribution around the world. "That's another string to our bow. The hides are processed, graded and salted in preparation for export to Italy, Turkey and China to be used in a range of different sectors from furnishings, luxury goods, the fashion business and the automobile industry for luxury car-seats."
Monday mornings usually bring a healthy dose of GAA banter around the Euro Farm Foods offices, and 2010 saw plenty of talking points. Ciaran was part of the Louth senior set-up for five years in the mid-1990s, when he was the back-up goalkeeper to fellow Dundalk man and Navan-based Garda Niall O'Donnell.
Although he wasn't present at Croke Park when the Wee County took on Meath in the Leinster final in July in one of the most dramatic games in Gaelic football's long and storied history, he was an interested spectator nonetheless.
"I was on holidays in the Canary Islands for the Leinster final, so it was hard for me looking at it from afar," he says. "The way the game finished was very annoying at the time but from a player's point of view, once Nigel Crawford lifted the Cup that was it over and done with. The rest of it was all a sideshow. Talk of a replay was irrelevant and whether what happened was right or wrong, once the final whistle went that's all that mattered."
On the bright side, he did at least manage to get his hands on the Leinster Cup in 2010. "Dominic Mullen from Slane, one of our valued employees, and son-in-law of Barney Allen, brought it in and made sure I saw it! I've a feeling I was the only Louth man to hold the Cup this year."
Looking back at his own career, Ciaran points to his Louth debut, against Limerick in a National Football League game in 1992, as a proud moment. His biggest disappointment, though, was the day his Dundalk Gaels side came so close to lifting a first senior championship in 40 years in 1992. The club's long thirst remains unsatisfied to this day, and Ciaran recalls how close it came to ending 18 years ago. "My good friend Niall O'Donnell was at the other end of the field that day for the Clans. They were very strong back then, they had the O'Hanlon brothers, Stefan White and Peter Fitzpatrick playing with them. We had come straight up from Intermediate and got all the way through to the senior final, and we could have won it too. Seamus O'Hanlon scored an equalising point with the last kick of the game the first day to deny us, and they went on and won the replay."
If that is football past, then Patrick Fox, is certainly part of the future. Patrick enjoyed an exceptional 2010, helping St Patrick's Navan to victory in the Leinster senior colleges', representing Meath at minor level and winning a Meath senior football championship medal with Skryne in October.
"We were wondering where Patrick got the football ability from, because his father's from Leitrim and we don't think it's from him," jests Ciaran. "It's probably from his mother Agnes' side of the family. But fair play to Patrick, he's had a great year with St Pats, Skryne and Meath. Every Monday we have a chat in the office about the weekend's fare, and as any parents would be, Michael and Agnes are very proud of Patrick and rightly so."
As a keen GAA follower and proud mother, it must also be mentioned that Agnes and family wrote the lyrics and sung a tribute song to celebrate the Keegan Cup win by Skryne this year. The recently released song called "The Boys from Skryne" recalls the events that unfolded on the day of the very exciting 2010 Meath senior football final, which resulted in a dramatic win for Skryne over near neighbours Seneschalstown. All proceeds from the sale of the CDs are being donated to the Fr. McVerry fund for homeless youth. Sales of the CD have been excellent thus far, with CDs available directly from Agnes and from shops in the Skryne area. Tweet
