The Kepak Group is one of Europe’s foremost food processing companies. Celebrating 35 years in business in 2016, the Group has grown to employ 2,000 staff.
Kepak has come a long way since the late Noel Keating, who had a butcher shop in The Liberties in central Dublin, formed the company in Clonee, Co. Meath in 1981. Kepak is still owned by the Keating family, with the family involved in the day-to-day running.
Kepak is a young, professional and dynamic business that continues to grow and prosper. At the core of this success has been a commitment to developing strong customer relationships through a partnership approach. The Group prides itself on its dedication to innovation, brand management and consumer focus.
Kepak’s Irish processing facilities are located in Athleague, Cork, Clonee, Kilbeggan, Ballymahon, Ballybay and Cavan (McCarren Meats), while it has another facility in Kirkham, Lancashire. As well as in Ireland and the UK, Kepak has a sales presence in all major EU and international markets.
The Group’s Livestock Procurement Manager is Jonathan Forbes, whose role involves managing the procurement team and the overall sourcing of livestock to the processing sites in line with customer requirements and specifications. Jonathan is also responsible for the delivery of the Group Procurement Strategy – sourcing, availability, pricing and projects. He is also responsible for the Group’s Agriculture initiatives.
Kepak Procurement Team
Kepak’s procurement team work with farmers suppliers nationwide.
Frank Clarke, Athleague, 0872551665
Eamon Phelan Kilbeggan 0866076555
Graham Murphy Clonee 0860431513 & Brian Delaney Clonee 086/0288941
Alan Connaughton – Cork 0868268614 & Peter O’Keeffe Cork 086 7970023
Bertie Mannion- Athleague -0862572512
Aine Mulvihill Kepak Group Procurement
Forbes comments that the procurement team all come from farming backgrounds and actively farm their own enterprises – sheep, suckling and beef farms and this has proven a very solid foundation for all of their chosen career paths. ‘We all enjoy what we do and that’s really important’
Forbes reflects about the changes in beef farming, consumer demands and customer profile over the last 15 years and indeed how this impacts on the livestock procurement function- “strategically this role is now very important to the business to ensure that our team are fully enabled, knowledgeable, trained, and capable to deliver for the needs of the business. The focus on development of procurement skill sets to meet a changed and expanding customer environment and portfolio has been paramount to support farmer suppliers and customers /consumers. Coupled with the practical farming background knowledge of the procurement team, we have also pursued personal development of our Procurement Officers through training courses- ECDL, Department Grading License, Animal welfare and handling courses, training on Customer specific audit criteria, Internal and External Technical and Commercial training, Health and Safety training, and more recently some of our Procurement Officers have completed Supply Chain Management training so that the team are fully enabled to deal off all tasks that arise within the role. LEAN Manufacturing is core to our business at Kepak and all functions within the business, including procurement, have received training in this area in order for the business to work with maximum efficiency, minimising waste and optimising customer value principles.”
“We also appreciate that a significant communication onus lies with our procurement team to our farmer suppliers and this knowledge transfer is also supported through our own Agri Initiatives and involvement at stakeholder level in other Industry Projects to ensure that guidance and important technical information transfer is being communicated to our farmer suppliers. Informing and supporting producers and cattle breeders to efficiently produce target market specification animals, to understand importance and value of quality assurance, weights, ages, conformation and fatscore, production guidelines to meet particular market specification is one of the tasks of the procurement team.”
“A major forte of ours has been Supply chain integration- Most notably we were first processor to establish slaughtering of Angus cattle with the Certified Irish Angus Producer Group back in 1995 and grain fed cattle in 1997 for supply to specific end customers. We still work closely with CIA to market and promote the breed and have established very efficient and co-ordinated pre booking opportunities for suppliers to maximise value and premium from their cattle. More recently in 2013, we partnered with Irish Hereford Prime and have produced a very high quality product offering that consumers have responded very well towards. Kepak and Irish Hereford Prime also offer structured premiums year round. The Irish Hereford Prime Producer Group also has a field officer inspecting livestock on farm and offers a weighing service to farmer members.”
An innovative new project which Kepak are stakeholders in is the Beef Health Check Programme in collaboration with Animal Health Ireland. Kepak will be rolling out the project across the four Beef abattoirs this winter. The project aims to assist farmers to control losses due to liver fluke and pneumonia through capturing data on the line, analysis and reporting of abattoir data to farmers. Liver Fluke and Pneumonia are critical factors on Irish farms and by capturing this data Kepak hope to assist farmers in making health related decisions on farm.
Forbes who also has responsibility for the Kepak Farm, which is located close to Kepak Clonee, comments that the farm is utilised to host farm events based around the key technical focus areas that all beef farms need to be concentrating on. “We highlight key look outs, previous mistakes made on the farm, and the opportunities for improvement. We openly welcome groups to the farm to hear presentations from our own Vet, Nutritionist, Farm Manager, and also with regard to our tillage operation. Most recently, we welcomed over 230 Irish Hereford Prime members and looked at the performance of Hereford on our own farm – finished off by having a very nice Hereford steak sandwich, but we can’t promise that every day!”
Kepak welcome all suppliers to contact their local site to speak with one of the procurement team for quotes, advice and information.
Frank Clarke, Athleague, 0872551665
Eamon Phelan Kilbeggan 0866076555
Graham Murphy Clonee 0860431513 & Brian Delaney Clonee 086/0288941
Alan Connaughton – Cork 0868268614 & Peter O Keefe Cork 086 7970023
Bertie Mannion- Athleague -0862572512
Aine Mulvihill Kepak Group Procurement
Taken from Irish Tractor & Agri magazine Vol 3 No 11, December 2015
