BACK where it all began, one-time billionaire Sean Quinn now spends most of his time at the business he built up drumming up support from the many contacts he made over the years.

“He’s digging out the old filofax,” said Liam McCaffrey, the chief executive of Quinn Industrial Holdings, remarking that business has grown by 20 per cent since the much publicised takeover.

“Any vibes that we are picking up is that the mood has vastly improved. Sales across all our divisions are up 20 per cent on last year,” he said. “It brings benefits in terms of increased overtime and productivity payments so the vast majority if not all our staff are benefiting from that. We have increased the staff from 650 at the time of takeover to 700 today and if the current trends continue we expect that number to increase further.” Mr. McCaffrey added: “We are sending out 80 loads per day of product from this area across the water and that is bringing huge financial benefit back into the area. There will be a continuous push for volume.” The businessman believes taking over from Aventas Group has “helped the company develop”.

“Of course, it has. The results are clear, that’s not something you can make up or fix. I am not going to comment on the previous management team. We will be judged on what we do over the next period of time and what we have done over the last five months.” The return of Sean Quinn, once regarded as the richest man in Ireland, has also helped business, says Mr. McCaffrey, explaining that many former customers are now returning.

“Sean is focused on two main areas: sales and customer relations, particularly the cement customer base in Ireland which would have huge loyalty to him. The other area would be the production area, he has a passion for that. He’s here pretty much every day and seems to be enjoying it. The independent concrete producers in Ireland always appreciated the fact there was an independent cement supplier and that brought with it a huge deal of loyalty with it.” “We are all working very hard every day to make this business work,” said Mr. McCaffrey.