Let me start by thanking all those that have in any way helped or supported our business over the past 30 years since our beginning on April 11th, 1994. Our loyal and engaging customers, our hugely supportive suppliers and particularly our fantastic staff past and present. As a family business, we are so grateful for the support and commitment we have received over that time from all of the aforementioned. Through some difficult and very challenging times coupled with some great successes and achievements along the way, the motto is and continues to be “always do right by the customer – and the staff’’.
For myself and Bridget, neither of us having a business background, it’s been a roller coaster ride from the very start. The great people we have met along the way, their advice, encouragement, support and most importantly their continued friendship means so much to us. The business has grown significantly from that time when it was just myself and the 1st man brave enough to join the company – Jerry O’ Brien. Today our business group is a team of over 60 operating out of 8 locations across the south of Ireland, and all of whom do their best for the business every day, and by the way Jerry O’Brien is still coming to work and doing a great job, thanks Jerry and all the team.
We certainly consider ourselves fortunate to have our next generation in the business now and so interested and committed to its future. Cormac our eldest, is now a director in the company along with being general manager and leads the team by example. Mary our youngest, has started full time in the last 12 months after returning from New Zealand and previously completing her degree in Agricultural Science in University College Dublin. Very like our farmer customers and their family farms we see our business in a similar way. You work for years to develop and build the business / the farm and hopefully when the time comes you hope that your next generation see enough in it, to see a future in it for themselves.
We certainly continue to see a strong future in farming, in Agri business and food production. Sure, it’s a tough place to be at times. But people must eat and farmers by their endeavours on the land are really the only ones that can provide the food now and for the future. Science & technology and the huge advances in same are changing the way in which farmers farm. We can’t hide from change, so it’s best to be open to it, in fact to seek it out, and to embrace it, to research it and to choose carefully how we go forward with it.
Sustainably, reducing our carbon footprint and protecting the environment for future generations is now the order of the day. Farmers and those associated with agriculture have a vital role to play in this regard. I know of no other sector in society other than farmers that have the ability, mindset, and capacity needed to have the greatest positive impact on the environment.
In spite of the really great strides and advances made, the green agenda seems hell bent on implementing and enforcing farm gate production cuts, before real progress in science & technology has a chance to prove that both the green agenda and productive farming in Ireland can co-exist and actually thrive in that cohabitation. At the very least, farmers deserve time and every possible support, encouragement, and reward in this regard.
Maurice Smiddy.
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Midleton –