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| John Flahavan of E. Flahavan & Sons , Ireland Leading Oat Maufacturer accepting the 2009 Exporter of the Year Award from An Taoiseach Brian Cowen T. D. and IEA President Liam Shanahan.
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E. Flahavan and Sons Limited, the County Waterford food company, scooped the Irish Exporters Association’s overall Exporter of the Year Award 2009 and Guinness- Diageo Ireland won the Multinational Exporter Award 2009, at the annual Export Industry Awards dinner at the RDS Concert Hall in Dublin, Thursday night. An Taoiseach Brian Cowen was guest speaker at the ceremony and presented the awards.
Liam Shanahan, President of the Irish Exporters Association, said the judging panel was particularly impressed with Flahavan’s continued strong focus on research and its ability to identify customer trends in their markets. He also commended Flahavan’s successful product development strategy to grow the overall business despite the recession and the very difficult trading conditions in the UK, its main export market. The Flahavan’s brands were first launched in the UK market in 2003 and are now on sale through retailers such as Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury’s, Waitrose, and Wholefoods. Flahavans have also begun to export its oat products to Spain and the USA.
Over the past 12 months the company has embarked upon a large strategic investment plan, committing €1.6 million in capital investment in more energy efficient grain dryers, as well as new storage units specifically commissioned for organic oats, with capacity for 4,000 tonnes. Flahavans has been operating in Kilmacthomas for over 200 years and has been a source of local employment for six generations.
The Multinational Exporter Award 2009, sponsored by IDA Ireland, recognising the exceptional performance of multinational companies in contributing to Ireland’s impressive export performance, was presented by Taoiseach Brian Cowen TD , to Diageo Ireland, for their Guinness brand export performance. The winner Diageo Ireland sells half of the Guinness brewed in Ireland in 120 countries worldwide.
Liam Shanahan said: ‘’Irelands most iconic brand continues to show that after 250 years it can still out perform on global markets, despite changing tastes and the shrinking international beer market. Guinness export sales from Ireland over the past year showed an impressive growth to reach €622 million.’’
Government is only paying lip service to an export led recovery Liam Shanahan said at last night's event.
‘’There is the inexplicable failure by Government here to provide export credit insurance support to it’s most vulnerable indigenous sector attempting to export against the odds into the UK. Credit insurance is something that our competitors in most of the EU countries have with their government support," he said. "Other measures that seem, at best, to be tepid include the slow roll out of the Stabilisation fund and the even slower roll out of the Employment Subsidy Scheme.’’
The IEA president concluded by stressing the need for Government ministers to listen closely to what exporters are saying is required to support their efforts and to act early and with real conviction that the way forward really is through an export led recovery.
