LIFE without him at the helm in the company which still bears the Sean Quinn name is suddenly looking rosy again.
For in the nine months since a new management team took control of what’s now known as Quinn Industrial Holdings Ltd (QIHL), its businesses straddling the Fermanagh-Cavan border, the company has enjoyed something of a renaissance.
Some 74 new positions have been created across the various divisions, managing director Liam McCaffrey confirmed yesterday.
And he revealed that turnover in QIHL – which acquired the construction industry supply (cement and therm blocks primarily) and packaging businesses of the former Quinn Group from Aventas two days before last Christmas – will creep towards the £140m mark in 2015.
The additional posts at QIHL - which is majority-owned by three major American-based private equity funds with a combined $60 billion under their management – take the total payroll to 731.
“It’s been a positive time overall since we acquired control of QIHL last December, and a major effort has been made to refocus the business towards a rapid return to profitability and growth,” McCaffrey said.
“We have a hugely experienced team in place now and are fortunate to have had the benefit of Sean Quinn’s experience in a consultative role.
“We’ve made a significant investment in staff and will be commencing a rolling plant and equipment reinvestment programme in the coming months,” he added.
Some 17 of the 74 new posts are apprentice or graduate roles, part of an orchestrated programme in tandem with the South West College in Enniskillen which QIHL sees as vital in its future skills search.
But the other roles are evenly spread across its construction industry supply (CIS) operations (25), packaging division (12), distribution (8), engineering services (7) and product development (5).
The CIS business has its roots in what was the original business of the Quinn Group, which was founded by Sean Quinn in 1973.
Once Ireland’s richest man and a billionaire, Quinn had a very public fall from grace when his dealings with Anglo-Irish Bank were played out in the courts and he was declared bankrupt (he has since exited from bankruptcy).
And while he isn’t involved in the day-to-day running of QIHL, his counsel is still called upon and his presence is omnipresent.
QIHL operates around a fifth of what was once the Quinn empire at its height, with its manufacturing facilities located in Derrylin and Cavan and a distribution facility in Rochester, Kent, which handles bulk cement export to the UK.
The company is also in the process of significantly enhancing its in-house Building Information Modelling (BIM) capability which will be deployed in support of its building and construction product range across the UK and Ireland.
