Herlihy on his holidays in Cavan

Liam Herlihy may be retiring as Glanbia chairman next May but he is still well able to woo the crowds.

Using no speaking notes and with a frequently witty turn of phrase, Herlihy entertained all in attendance at the announcement of Glanbia’s expansion plans at its plant in Virginia, Co Cavan. He also managed to do his bit in attempting to lure people to holiday in the Breffni county.

“We live in the deep south, we only get to come to Virginia for special occasions,” Herlihy joked in a room of 200 or so.

Most of the crowd there were Glanbia staff but there were some high-profile guests, including Lakeland CEO Michael Hanley, new Town of Monaghan CEO Gabriel D’Arcy, Joe Collins from the Dairy Board, ICMSA general secretary John Enright, as well as Brendan Gleeson from the Department of Agriculture.

Herlihy also turned tourist board member for the county of Cavan. He extolled the virtues of the local bed and breakfast he had stayed in the night before, as well as referencing the “magnificence and the beauty” of Lough Ramor, next to which the Glanbia Virginia site is built.

Despite his positivity, Herlihy was most certainly there on business. The near €8m investment at the Virginia plant will see capacity of producing protein grow from 4,000t to 10,000t and is coming at a time when there is a bit of head-scratching and worried faces in the industry, but Herlihy remains confident about the sector.

He said that there is obvious growth prospects in protein powders for the “18- to 35-year-old fitness fanatics”, but that Glanbia also wants to look after “those of us who are approaching the free travel pass”.

“It’s about sustainable and clinical nutrition as well as production … we want to make sure that there is a future there for everyone … there’s no point in being busy for the sake of it,” he concluded.