Visionary C&F boss is one step ahead of pack
C&F also also build server racks Big Blue
Monday October 20 2008
What with the hairshirt Budget, banks on the floor, rising unemployment and no end to the property crash, you might be tempted to pull down the shutters and go into hibernation for 2009. But amid all the doom and gloom, there are reasons to be cheerful.
Ireland has a fantastic cadre of entrepreneurs and some of the best will be showcased on Thursday evening on RTE, when the annual Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year awards are televised.
The business sector could do with a bit of inspiration at the moment. In the autumn business sentiment survey conducted by IIB Bank, six out of 10 firms reported weaker activity.
One sector with a slightly more optimistic outlook was manufacturing. For all the doom and gloom, it's worth remembering that Ireland continues to punch above its weight in selling to the world.
The latest trade data shows that through the first half of the year, Ireland exported 40pc more goods than we imported. If someone could deliver that sort of outcome to the next president of the United States, he'd bite your hand off. In terms of providing jobs in the economy, manufacturing has decreased in importance -- only one in eight jobs are now in factories, compared with one in five a decade ago.
But manufacturing is still a very important platform of Ireland's economic prosperity, so it's fitting the star performers in the sector are celebrated.
Among the 24 finalists in the entrepreneur awards, one company that must have impressed the judges is C&F Group, led by John Flaherty. The company was established in 1989 in Galway to design and make press tools used to cut metal.
Since then, C&F has expanded into metal manufacture itself, specialising in such items as server racks for data centres, housings for mobile refrigeration units, and grilles for air conditioning.
C&F has its headquarters in an 180,000 sq feet facility in Athenry, from where it exports to multinational customers around the world. But for many years, John Flaherty's horizon has been looking east of the Shannon.
In 2002 he set up a factory in the Czech Republic and followed up two years later with another in the Philippines. His thinking was that if C&F stayed local to Athenry, the business would stagnate as some clients deployed operations out of Ireland.
As Flaherty puts it: "We had the choice to fold or follow."
This year Flaherty landed in China. C&F is a long-time supplier to IBM and has established a factory in Dongguan to build server racks for Big Blue. It's not cost effective to shift these racks from Europe, so Flaherty has followed his customer to where he's needed.
Flaherty is effectively exporting the knowledge of the Irish manufacturing process to other parts of the world. And the profits C&F Group makes overseas can underpin jobs in Ireland.
In 2007, C&F grew its annual profit from €560,000 to €3.7m. That gave Flaherty the wherewithal to step in recently to buy Westmeath car parts manufacturer Iralco from the receiver, securing the employment of 300 people.
This week, Brian Cowen is planning to lead a trade mission to China. The Taoiseach will see for himself this low-cost powerhouse in action, and hopefully form a better understanding of the threat China poses to Irish factories in future years. The challenge for his government is how to persuade and facilitate more Irish firms to follow Flaherty's example.
Nick Mulcahy is editor of 'Business Plus' magazine
- Nick Mulcahy
