The Irish Times published its annual list of the top 1,000 companies in Ireland this week and it makes for some interesting reading as far as Ireland’s food and drinks businesses are concerned. Ranked on turnover, Kerry Group remains the largest company within the food sector in Ireland after it recorded revenues of €6.1bn in 2016. On the overall list, Kerry is the 15th largest company in Ireland behind the likes of CRH, Google Ireland, Dell Ireland and Smurfit Kappa.

The second largest Irish food business is Total Produce, the fresh produce distributor, which reported sales of €3.45bn in 2015. Next on the list is Glanbia with sales of almost €2.8bn, which is closely followed by Larry Goodman’s ABP Food Group, which recorded strong sales of €2.7bn last year.

Ornua completes the top five-ranked agribusinesses with sales of more than €2.5bn last year. Other business high up on the list include Dawn Meats (€1.1bn), Dunbia (€930m) and Kepak (€850m). The highest machinery company on the list was McHale with an estimated turnover of €55m last year.

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