Derrylin man started locally but had international success

SEÁN QUINN is the most successful Irish-based businessman of recent decades. He started a small quarrying operation in Derrylin, Co Fermanagh, in 1973. From that base, he has established a series of hugely successful Irish businesses that now form part of an international group employing more than 6,500 people.

The group has its headquarters in his native Derrylin. Mr Quinn, who is a former captain of the Fermanagh GAA team, is a huge employer in the Cavan-Fermanagh region.

"We always try to go for higher-value products because we felt we had a tremendous commitment from the workforce in the local area and we were successful at anything we took on," he said in a rare newspaper interview in 2001.

"We thought that was better than trying to develop new relationships hundreds of miles away where we wouldn't know who was who."

Mr Quinn has had a track record of taking on established companies in sectors that many felt were in need of competition. The diverse industries he has ventured into include: cement and concrete products; container glass; general insurance; radiators; plastics; hospitality; and real estate.

Since 2004, the group has been expanding throughout Europe. It has radiator and plastic manufacturing plants in Britain, Germany, Belgium, France, Spain and Slovakia; and property in Poland, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Turkey and Russia.

Quinn entered the cement industry in 1989, launched its general insurance arm, Quinn-Direct, in 1996, and commissioned its first container glass plant in 1998. It acquired health insurer Bupa Ireland in 2007.

The group has been hit previously by investments that worked out badly. Losses in technology stocks hit Quinn-Direct hard in 2000.

"Quinn-Direct is not in trouble," Mr Quinn said at the time. "The only time that Quinn-Direct will be in trouble is when Seán Quinn is in trouble."

During the 2001 interview, he said he was considering bringing partners into the business. "With over 2,000 employees, it's important that we make the right decisions and get a good board of directors in place so that the company is not dependent on family rows.

"The Quinns don't have a divine right to make decisions on the company over the next few years, because the Quinns wouldn't have the company if it wasn't for the support that we got from our staff.

"It's important that we make the right decisions, so that when Seán Quinn is dead and gone, the group survives and the 2,000 jobs we created are sustained."

In the event, he never did bring partners into the group, but has built up its company boards with respected non-executive directors.