Over 30 years ago, business partners Denis Twomey and Martin Beirne saw a gap in the animal feed supplement market in Ireland and established a new business, Inform Nutrition.

Walking through the ingredients storage area of Inform Nutrition’s manufacturing facility at White’s Cross, Co Cork, it is clear that it is a business grounded in science with every type of ingredient, vitamin and compound mineral stacked on shelves.

The company manufactures nutritional products for a range of animals including cattle, calves, sheep, pigs, poultry, horses and pets.

Inform will be best known to Irish farmers for its Sweetlics brand of mineral licks, as well as its Milkshake brand of milk additive and acidifier, which was one of the first products developed by the company and remains a flagship product today.

Since it was established in 1986, (ownership remains in the same families, and William Twomey, Denis’s son, is now commercial director), the Inform business has grown steadily and today employs over 80 people at its two manufacturing facilities, which are located at White’s Cross and Watergrasshill in Co Cork.

The company exports to more than 60 countries around the world.

The company recently acquired a third site, also located at Watergrasshill, and is in the process of converting the site to an active manufacturing facility.

Exports

Ireland is still Inform’s biggest single market and hugely important to the business, with over 20% of the animal nutrition market here.

The company now exports to more than 60 countries around the world and has sales in markets such as the UK, Europe, Russia, the Middle East, China and Asia.

According to Darren Mulcahy, general manager with Inform Nutrition, the backbone of the business is new product development.

“Research and development (R&D) is vital to this business,” says Mulcahy.

“Without a strong focus on continuing to develop new products every year we wouldn’t have the business we have, employing over 80 people across three manufacturing sites.”

Indicative of this continual focus on new product development is Inform’s vast product range, which numbers in the hundreds today for animals of all shapes and sizes.

“When you’re exporting to over 60 countries worldwide you need to have a strong pipeline of new products,” says Mulcahy.

“We’re dealing with a lot of different customers in those countries with a variety of production needs for a wide range of animals.”

We’re exporting to Asian markets such as Taiwan, the Philippines and Thailand. We’re in a lot of places you wouldn’t expect us to be

To find new partners, particularly in international markets, the company attends many of the world’s biggest agri-trade fairs such as EuroTier in Germany and the VIV Asia trade fair, which was recently held in Bangkok.

“We’re exporting to Asian markets such as Taiwan, the Philippines and Thailand. We’re in a lot of places you wouldn’t expect us to be,” says Mulcahy.

“We also have an in-house export registration department because when exporting to these different countries you’re dealing with a lot of different legislation and customs requirements.”

New products

Some of the most recent R&D work ongoing at Inform has seen the company move further back the animal supply chain with a new product called KERVA.

“KERVA is a product we’ll be bringing to market in the coming months,” says Mulcahy.

“It’s a product for treating and preserving grain, which will also increase the pH of the grain which results in better rumen buffering.

"This, in turn, reduces acidosis and laminitis and increases protein levels by 30%,” he adds.

With a dedicated R&D team at its White’s Cross facility, Mulcahy says Inform Nutrition is now heavily involved in research aimed at mitigating the effects of agriculture on the environment.

The company also sees opportunities to help in the fight against antimicrobial resistance (AMR).

“There’s huge pressure worldwide to cut antibiotic usage in animals and we see that as an area we have a key role in.

"We’re not a pharmaceutical company but we’re focused on improving animal nutrition to improve animal health and immunity,” he says.

Global agenda

With AMR increasingly on the global agenda and farmers under pressure to reduce antibiotic usage, nutritional solutions to animal health issues will only become more important in the years ahead. Inform looks to have positioned itself to take advantage of this opportunity.