Arrow Group, the business controlled by the Queally family from Co Waterford, saw a more than 50% increase in pre-tax profits for its 2016 financial year to just under €38m. Accounts filed this week show the Waterford-headquartered group had sales close to €0.5bn in 2016, which was marginally back (-2%) on the previous year.

Operating profits, including from joint ventures and associates, increased a massive 43% year on year to €38.8m, meaning the business has a very healthy profit margin of close to 8%. In the last two years, the business has reduced its net debt position by €40m and stood at just over €47m at 2016 year-end.

Queally empire

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 (79), Peter Queally (77) and Michael Queally (54), who between them have directorships in close to 250 other companies. Brothers John and Peter Queally will be well-known to farmers in the beef sector as they are also directors in the Waterford-based beef processing company Dawn Meats, which they established 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 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 over 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.

Subsidiaries and joint ventures

Other subsidiaries of the Arrow Group that will be known to many farmers include the QK Meats and QK cold storage businesses. Interestingly, the group also controls or has interests in a number of pet foods businesses including Irish Dog Foods Ltd and Rednut Ltd, which is a 50:50 joint venture between the Arrow Group and Connolly’s Red Mills.

The Rednut joint venture generated profits of €588,000 for its 2016 financial year, 50% of which went to the Queallys. Arrow Foods also owns a 50% share in a UK pet foods business known as Bennington Foods. For 2015, Bennington had sales of €8.6m with retained profits of close to €720,000.

The Queallys also control a number of consumer food businesses that complement its core business of cooked meat solutions. These include a meal solutions business called Kobefont, a pasta and pasta sauces business and 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.

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