The well-known Queally family from Co Waterford, who are part-owners of beef processer Dawn Meats, received a dividend of €9m for last year. Accounts filed this week for the 2017 financial year of Arrow Group, a company controlled by the Queally family, show the dividend payout to shareholders totaled some €9m. No dividend was paid to shareholders the previous year.

Arrow Group, which has interests in meat processing, food solutions, property and even bottled water, reported pre-tax profits of €31.5m for 2017 – a 16% decline compared to last year. Operating profits in the business also fell 16% in the year to €32.6m, as profit margins tightened from 7.8% in 2016 to a still very healthy 6% in 2017.

Arrow said the drop in profits was a result of increased raw material prices in 2017, while a stronger euro relative to sterling and rising labour costs also negatively impacted.

Despite the currency headwind, sales for the year grew by 9% to reach €545.1m, which the group attributed to “key customer wins”.

Arrow’s net debt position at year end stood at €57.4m, which is an increase of more than €10m on last year. The company spent €7.5m on R&D.

The Arrow Group is really just the holding company for the wide array of businesses the Queally family has built up over the years. The controlling directors in Arrow are John Queally (80), Peter Queally (78) and Michael Queally (55), who between them have directorships in close to 250 other companies.

Brothers John and Peter Queally are well-known players in the beef sector, having founded Dawn Meats along with Dan Browne in 1980. The split in the shareholdings in Dawn Meats between the Queally and Browne families is not known. The controlling shareholder in Dawn Meats is a company called IMMOL Ltd, which is headquartered in the British Virgin Islands.

The Queally family’s other interests range from a pig-slaughtering enterprise in Waterford to a range of cold meat stores to significant property interests and even as far as a water distribution business based in Barcelona.

The largest subsidiary business of the Arrow Group is the Kildare-based Dawn Farm Foods. The business, which supplies cooked and fermented meats to the food manufacturing and foodservice industries, is 90% owned by the Queallys. The remaining 10% stake in the company is owned by Larry Murrin, the chief executive of Dawn Farm Foods.

Dawn Farm Foods supplies a number of blue-chip customers including Pizza Hut and the sandwich chain Subway.

Earlier this year, Dawn Farm Foods signed an €850m contract with Subway, which will see it supply over 4,000 Subway restaurants in more than 30 countries across Europe over the next seven years. The business is also a large supplier of meat ingredients to pizza, sandwich and ready meal markets, with about 80% of all business coming through export sales.

Other subsidiaries of Arrow Group that will be known to many farmers include the QK Meats and QK cold storage businesses. The group also controls Kildare-based Irish Dog Foods Ltd and owns 50% of Rednut Ltd, a joint venture pet food business between Arrow Group and Connolly’s Red Mills.

Arrow Foods also owns a 50% share in a UK pet foods business known as Bennington Foods.

The Queallys also control a number of consumer foods businesses that complement its core business of providing cooked meat solutions.

These include a meal solutions business called Kobefont, a pasta and pasta sauces business as well as a soups, stocks and sauces business called Simply Soups.

The group also owns a bottled water company based in Clonmel, Co Tipperary, called Glenpatrick Springwater, which manufactures bottled water and other beverages.