“It’s been a difficult year but people are quietly optimistic.” “Fermanagh people are very prepared to take responsibility for their own economic future by setting up their own businesses … however the trading climate for both established and new businesses has been very tough in many areas and it would be good to see an improvement in 2015.” Those are some of the comments from local business representatives as 2014 draws to a close.

Whilst small businesses continue to pop-up across Fermanagh, the county still employs a large number of people in the following sectors: human health; agriculture; construction; education; wholesale and retail; manufacturing; accommodation and food and mining and quarrying.

There are 6,981 public sector workers in Fermanagh (including public administration, education and health) and 14,000 private sector workers (across all other sectors). The construction and retail sectors in particular have little export potential – in an era where Northern Ireland is focusing on export led growth – and do not attract back those who leave to pursue a higher education.

Unemployment has fallen by 12.5 per cent over the last 12 months, with 1,673 people currently registered as being out of work, 239 fewer than last year.

AGRICULTURE Agri-food is the largest manufacturing sector in Northern Ireland, valued at £3.2 billion every year and worth £1.2 billion of exports. There is an increasing demand for food and milk around the globe e.g. in China. There are 2,928 farms in Fermanagh (mainly cattle and sheep). Only 65 are registered as ‘large’ farm businesses, while 86 are ‘medium’; 296 are ‘small’ and 2,481 are ‘very small’. 5,250 people were registered as farm labourers in 2013: 1,813 full-time; 1,585 were part-time and 770 spouses.

Locally, more than half the workers at one of the Clogher Valley’s most iconic agriculture business – Fivemiletown Creamery – lost their jobs in April this year when Glanbia Ingredients Ireland bought the milk pool and cheese brands from Fivemiletown and Brookeborough Dairy and Agricultural Dairy Society. Twenty staff were retained under a new agreement which saw Dale Farm acquire the speciality cheese brands from Glanbia Ingredients Ireland and continue to produce the cheese on the Fivemiletown site in a leased arrangement with the Fivemiletown Society.

Local business consultant Peter Quinn, who is part of the First Stop Shop initiaitve that offers funding and advice to local businesses, recently blogged about Fermanagh’s agri-food industry.

He wrote: “There has to be scope for a number of niche food businesses in Fermanagh, especially given the recent closure of Fivemiletown Creamery. But there are other options for specialty dairy products, for new and innovative beef and mutton products, for vegetable products (we have some good vegetable farmers too, but unfortunately only a small number of them); opportunities in these sectors are being wasted, because farmers are neither being encouraged nor helped to start businesses in these sectors.” He added: “If any Fermanagh business decides to produce a new dairy product and can provide evidence that a market exists, the First Stop Shop will connect them to help to source the raw material, in whatever quantities are needed and to whatever hygiene and quality standards are necessary.” He added that the First Stop Shop would “help any other sector of the agri-food industry to develop his or her ideas and to produce a product which has the potential to be successful and to add value to Fermanagh’s agricultural output”.

He promised that the Invest NI funded initiative would “also open avenues into the research skills of local universities and research institutes in order to facilitate the development of businesses which would add value to our primary agricultural produce.” TOURISM Tourism is generally cited as one of the most important industries in Fermanagh.

£86 million was spent in Fermanagh and Omagh by overnight visitors in 2013.

However, local providers are consistently calling for the local industry “to become more active in Tourism Ireland”. “Sometimes we don’t think further than Fermanagh,” comments owner of The Belmore Court, Terry McCartney. “We need to get more out-of-state visitors and to encourage people to promote themselves on Tourism Ireland,” he believes.

While Fermanagh is generally a popular destination for weddings, Mr. McCartney reveals that tourism providers have been “making sure their pencils are sharpened in terms of deals, while trying to maintain staffing levels and income”.

He is looking forward to the opportunities surrounding events like ‘the Wilde Weekend’ (a spin-off from the Beckett Festival) and the ‘Fermanagh Food Festival’.

Mr. McCartney concludes: “It’s been a difficult year but people are quietly optimistic.” At the 2014 ‘Meet the Buyer’ tourism workshop, held in The Lough Erne Resort this summer, a representative of German tour operator Skellig Reisen told The Impartial Reporter: “Trying to sell Fermanagh is not the easiest.” He added that tourists want to fly into Dublin, travel up to Belfast, along the North Antrim Coast, into Donegal and back into the Republic of Ireland.

The then General Manager of the Lough Erne Resort Ferghal Purcell, told The Impartial Reporter: “We are not the first choice destination … As an industry we’ve got to become more active in NITB and Tourism Ireland.” A Destination Fermanagh Tourism Area Plan was launched in April, with plans to improve the customer experience; enhance the tourism offering; develop and host high quality festivals and events; and develop the infrastructure of the area e.g. cycle trails.

MANUFACTURING In September, Fermanagh packaging firm Webtech NI announced an £11 million investment and 35 new jobs at its Killyhevlin Industrial Estate site as it focuses its efforts on increasing its processing capacity, sales and revenue (£767,000 of the investment came from Invest NI).

Webtech NI produces labels for the soft drinks industry, including Coca-Cola, Schweppes and Nestle and aims to increase its turnover by £10 million over the next four years, focusing on export growth in Europe and North Africa. Managing Director Nigel McSorley commented: “Our factory has the most advanced flexographic printing presses in the world and our aim is to become the European supplier of choice for flexible labelling. This investment enables us not only to expand capacity but to continue to innovate.” Tempo electrical contracting company G R White & Son were able to take on 20 new employees in September when it secured £42,000 of support from Invest NI and won a £750,000 contract to upgrade the lighting at Severfield UK’s factories in mainland UK.

Rodney White, Operations Director of GR White, told The Impartial Reporter: “We aim to grow our turnover substantially over the next two years and to increase the current market share of our business both in Ireland and the UK.” In Derrylin, the construction and industry supplies parts of the former Quinn Group manufacturing empire (which had been rebranded Aventas since its takeover by the Irish Bank Resolution Company) was bought by a consortium of local businessmen in a reported €90m deal in recent weeks. The Quinn Business Retention Company (QBRC) moved back into the Derrylin site before Christmas.

CONSTRUCTION There has been “little or no growth” in the construction sector “particularly in Fermanagh,” according to Tommy Clarke, Managing Director of P.Clarke & Sons. Patsy Tracey, Director of Tracey Concrete added: “Locally, there’s very little happening apart from the odd farmer building something.” Local construction companies have mainly been relying on UK and international projects to keep afloat. The Clarke Group was recently contracted to build apartments and houses in Manchester and telecomms infrastructure in Somerset, while Tracey Concrete has been supplying products to Scottish Water for a sewerage and roads projects and supplying contractors around London with tunnelling and jacking pipes. For the last three to four years, it has also been supplying tunnel pipes to Toronto.This trend has resulted in many local workers travelling across the water for work, only seeing their families every few weeks.

Future projects which should boost the construction sector here include the laying of the gas pipeline to the west in 2015 and the long-awaited Southern by-pass (the design development work to confirm the preferred route will be announced in the new year).

SMALL BUSINESS Commenting on the small business sector, General Manager of Fermanagh Enterprise John Treacy says: “Fermanagh’s trend of high numbers of business start-ups continued in 2014 when, supported by the Regional Start Programme, a total of 176 individuals in Fermanagh completed their business plans creating an estimated 118 jobs.

“We have been very pleased and honoured to be able to provide some assistance and support to these businesses. These figures are surely testament to the latent entreprenuerial attitude and flair which exist in the local population.” He concludes: “Small businesses in many ways are working very hard simply to survive and I hope we see easier trading conditions in the next year when some growth and expansion is possible.” Keep up-to-date with all the latest local business news in The Impartial Reporter’s weekly Business page.