Address by the Taoiseach, Mr. Bertie Ahern, T.D.
at the launch of ‘The Kerry Way’
The History of the Kerry Group 1972-2000
Acknowledgements
Author of ‘The Kerry Way’, James Kennelly
Managing Director of the Kerry Group plc, Denis Brosnan
Publisher, Oaktree Press, David Givens
Ladies and Gentlemen
Introduction
It’s a great pleasure to be here this evening among old friends to launch ‘The Kerry Way’ and to wish James Kennelly and Oaktree every success with this very well written and absorbing history of the Kerry Group. All credit to the team involved in the telling of the story of the rise, and the rise, of the Kerry Group. I hope the book is widely read as a timely record of Kerry Group’s hard-earned, and well deserved, success.
This is a book which shows how things have changed for the better in Kerry, and in the country as a whole, in the last thirty years. It shows that business success is now at the heart of the Irish experience in the way that mass emigration and mass unemployment once were. The book offers an unique tale of how a small business rooted in a poor rural community is en route to becoming one of the largest global players in the food industry.
It shows why there will be no going back to the old days and old ways, when lack of skill, lack of vision and lack of capital held this country back. Above all this book sends a clear message about where this country is headed as an open, internationalised economy and the part which a trailblazing, world class company like Kerry Group is playing in sustaining long-term growth.
Since its early days, the Kerry Group has been a company with a keen sense of the future and where it wanted to be. This year the Kerry Group marched into a new century as a world leader in the global food industry with a turnover in excess of £2 billion. It now gives employment to 14,000 people in 15 nations and on 5 continents.
Dr Kennelly explains the decisive role played in the Kerry success by past leaders like Eddie Hayes who was a man with deep pride in Kerry and a determined faith in all the Kerry Group could be. Dr Kennelly says ‘He was the sort of man to whom it was always better to light a candle than to curse the darkness’.
Regrettably, we have tended to have a lack of that personality type in this country over the years. But, Eddie Hayes was one of the rare visionaries and he proved to be an exceptional man for the Group. It was he who in the late 1960’s came to the unwavering belief that a milk processing factory was essential if Kerry farmers were to take hold of their futures.
The book captures the key milestones and vivid detail very well, and I commend it to you all, and particularly to students studying commerce or economics. It shows the path which led from the casein factory, to Kerry Co-op and the planned diversification by domestic acquisitions such as Denny’s. It sets out the story of the public listing in 1986 and the strategic international acquisitions. As a result the Kerry Group is now a global player in the food industry with annual turnover of £2 billion and with well-founded ambitions and capability to do even better.
The Kerry Way is a balanced account of the parts played by many people in the early days. The unwavering role played by Eddie Hayes assisted by Jim Moloney and Jack Hennigan, is clear. That trio have many claims to fame including being the three on the interview board that selected Denis Brosnan and negotiated the crucial deal that landed him for Kerry. The package included a Rover 2000 in recognition of Denis’ long-standing liking for sporty, high performance cars. A small price in retrospect!
The role played by Denis Brosnan in the Kerry Group story reads like the stuff of Hollywood and maybe Oaktree should be careful about the movie rights! For example, in 1972 when Denis arrived as General Manager, he had no staff, no office and no telephone. His first major investment decision concerned the rental of a 22 foot caravan form Barrett’s Garage in Listowel for £4 a week which was placed in the parking lot of the construction site as the Corporate headquarters.
I don’t intend to spoil the story for you, but the fact is that it was in these conditions that, in the first months of 1972, Denis assembled a team of people, including the highly able Denis Cregan and Hugh Friel who have been decisive in developing ‘the Kerry way’ and the success it has brought with it.
Dr. Kennelly also rightly emphasises the important role which Frank Wall played in the setting up of Kerry Co-op and the way in which Frank and Eddie Hayes, though of different party affiliation, joined forces and lead farming opinion to accept the proposed Kerry Co-op as a mechanism which they rightly saw as being in the long term interest of Kerry farmers. Frank’s leadership at ICMSA level was a rarity in those days when short term reactions and the parish pump tended to be the order of the day. I am sure Denis Brosnan will agree that both men played a pivotal role in those days. I think it fair to say that the role played by the Department of Agriculture and the then Minister Mark Clinton was also crucial.
Commenting on the way to run a successful business in the book, Denis Brosnan says ‘it takes three people to run a company successfully: a dreamer, a businessman and a S.O.B. And I’m the dreamer’. This book shows clearly how the complementary skills of Denis Cregan as operation manager, Hugh Friel as Finance Manager and Denis as General Manager have helped Kerry scale the heights of international success since it became a public company in 1986.
This book shows clearly how a strategic approach to planing has been vital to the Kerry Group becoming a multinational company. It gives a fascinating insight into the acquisitions in the US, Mexico, Brazil, UK, France and in Asia. I hope those stories earn a wide audience as examples of what Irish ‘can do’ means.
The skilled teams of people who prepare these deals and who manage the integration of the companies into the Kerry organisation remain largely anonymous in the book. But it’s all Kerry. As a sports fan reading the book I have a sense that in business terms these teams are as sure-footed as any Kerry team that ever graced Croke Park.
As Denis Brosnan himself says 80 per cent of a company’s performance is linked to strategy and 20 percent to organisational performance. Which I suppose is one way of saying that Kerry Group is as much a knowledge business as any in the e-business or the software sector. Much of the Kerry Group’s success has been knowledge and people driven.
And this book offers a special insight into the international food industry as a creative person's industry and a growth industry which is vital to a strong modern economy.
Knowledge, world class people management and know-how is why Kerry has been selected, for the second year, for the 100 Best Managed Companies Award by Industry Week magazine.
It is also why once again this year, the Financial Times Annual European Company Survey for food processors ranked the Kerry Group Number 1 in total shareholder return. It is all a far cry from when Denis Brosnan took over with £9 in share capital, 9 shareholders and £2.85 million in borrowings without an office, staff or a ‘phone.!
While the Kerry Group has become an expert at international acquisitions it has wisely stayed close to the Kerry farmers who stepped up to the challenge of capitalising the project all those years ago. There is a debt of honour there and I was glad to read that a significant holding of shares remain in County Kerry. I loved the story of the farmer who decided he was going to rise above the utter lack of opportunity in the local economy and to risk an investment in the new co-op all those years ago. He arrived into the local bank and emptied a small churn containing a mixture of coins, notes and cheques with the statement that ‘I want to invest £500 in the co-op’. The poor teller had a job on hand and after a long effort at counting, announced to the farmer ‘ You have only £499 there.’ To which the farmer replied ‘Oh, God, I have brought the wrong churn’ .
Conclusion
I am very glad to be here this evening to launch this book and to publicly applaud the men and the women who have made and continue to make the Kerry Group such a success. I hope your effort, your skill and your courage inspires others to follow the Kerry Way.
I for one sincerely hope that this publication promotes better understanding of Kerry’s success and inspires others to achieve global profitable business success from an Irish base. Strong global Irish industries are fundamental to continued progress and prosperity in this country and I would conclude here this evening with the promise that my Government fully backs industries like the Kerry Group as the backbone of an open, trading, international, knowledge economy.
Warm thanks to Kerry Group, to Dr Kennelly and to Oaktree on this excellent publication and best wishes to you all for continued success.
ENDS
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