Mayo firms make mark on international market

The global economy may be struggling to drag itself out of recession but Mayo-based companies are continuing to make their mark internationally.

Among those attending a recent networking event organised by Enterprise Ireland at the Irish embassy in London were representatives of Claremorris-based electronics firm CBE and Westport-based supermarket chain, The Kavanagh Group.

Seamus Murray, group director of CBE, stated that his company’s software and hardware business continues to grow in the United Kingdom. The Claremorris firm, which was founded by Gerald Concannon, has been recently appointed as preferred suppliers to a number of leading companies, including the Chartman Group retailers, Shaw’s Petroleum and the Punches pub chain.

Meanwhile, the group managing director of the Kavanagh Group, Noel Kavanagh, has said the firm intends to expand on its international operations in 2012. The Kavanagh Group currently owns 11 Supervalu stores in Ireland and Northern Ireland, as well as four Budgens stores in the UK. Meanwhile, Foxford Woollen Mills recently exported its first consignments of products to China. Managing director Joe Queenan says the Chinese market is only in its infancy and has tremendous potential.

“There is a growing middle class in China who want to purchase the sort of high-brand products that we are producing in the Woollen Mills. ”

The orders from China – the first in the 119-yearold history of the famous Foxford facility – were sourced during a trade show in Paris and reflect an expanding export market for the mills. “There’s a lot to be positive about at the end of 2011,” he says.

Story adapted from Westernpeople.ie