Dan Donovan & Co. Ltd. has been supplying customers from the Lee Valley / West Cork region with unrivalled agri services, general merchant, fuel and grocery solutions for almost seven decades. We met up with general manager Joe O’Herlihy to find out more about this wide-ranging, long-serving family-run business, which has become an inherent part of the community it serves.
The genesis of Dan Donovan & Co. Ltd. dates back to the early 1940s, when the eponymous Dan founded the company in Berrings, on the outskirts of Cork city, west. Today, the O’Callaghan family fronts the business, Mary O’Callaghan having become MD following the sudden death of her husband, also Dan, some five years ago. All the qualities and positive characteristics that epitomise an archetypal family business remain inherent in the day-to-day running of the long-established operation.
“It is very much a family business and we pride ourselves on offering our customers a personal touch,” notes general manager Joe O’Herlihy. “We’re located on the west side of the city, with strong attachments to the Lee Valley region. Our catchment area would extend from here to the city boundaries. From Mallow down to Cork city and west as far as Macroom is the traditional heartland Dan Donovan & Co. serves.”
Like most businesses, the enterprise started from humble and uncomplicated origins, providing a vital service to the surrounding rural community. “It began as a mill and also transported cattle as well as supplying seed and some fertiliser,” Joe continues. “They’ve also always had their own coal business in the winter, which is an important part of the overall business.”
Dan Donovan & Co supplies an excellent range of animal feeds. “Traditionally, we would have a very close relationship with Macroom Mills and we’d also have a close relationship with Southern Mills in Cork at the moment, stocking the complete range of beef, dairy and calf feed, in bulk and bags. We also stock Liffey Mills calf rations.
“As the majority of our customers would be in dairy, we also supply a full range of fertilisers, seeds, chemicals, disinfectants, detergents etc. Along with the feed, that represents the core of the business. In addition to that, we also sell groceries, coal and petrol / diesel. It’s a community shop really, with anything and everything that our customers might need.”
And the customer is king! (To this end, one of the many superb, added-value products being passed on to customers at present is an innovative new type of fertiliser from Grassland Agro): “We are here to provide a top-quality service. Anybody who works here lives in the community and knows all the customers. We are acutely aware of the need to supply a great range of fertilisers and we work closely with all of the wholesaler providers. We stock Gouldings,Target, Nitrofert, Grassland Kilkenny, Yara and Grassland Agro.
“Grassland Agro has a division which is promoting a range of enhanced fertilisers and soil conditioners and we are trying to educate our customers about the benefits of these products in terms of soil fertility and growth etc. so that they can get the best out of their grass platforms. There are a number of different brands that fall into this category and the results speak for themselves. It is a more-expensive option than conventional fertiliser but a lot of trials and research and tests have been carried out and marked improvements in production and fertility have been recorded.”
It would be fair to say that the vast majority of customers are local dairy farmers. “As we’re in the middle of an intensive dairy region, we stock a full range of grassland and dairy hygiene products,” Joe confirms. “All the products are tested and approved by the Department and we carry the Top Five range of disinfectants, detergents and sterilisers. We’d also have everything from silage covers to bale silage plastic and anything else that a dairy farmer might require. Our customers include a lot of families who have been dealing with us for generations and there are very close ties there.”
Of course, it goes without saying that they wouldn’t keep coming back if the products and service weren’t up to scratch. Remember, these are businessmen and women at the end of the day! “They want a good product and service and we are confident that we offer that, along with a personal service and competitive pricing. We don’t get all of their business all of the time but we strive to get some of it and to offer them choices.”
While the dairy sector is tipping along, Joe points out that there’s little room for complacency or over-confidence: “Everybody was delighted when the quotas went but then the cold winds of low commodity prices soon came through and we have to be able to adapt to how prices fluctuate and to customers’ predicaments, especially now as we are heading into a very difficult and uncertain period in dairy farming for the next nine-ten months. All we can do is be here to support our customers.
“The mutual benefit of doing business with the same people over a long number of years is that they are here with us and we are there with them – through thick and thin. We are an independent and distinctive business and we are the only merchant in this part of the country offering people an independent choice.
“We offer a good broad range of products that are well-priced, while quality is critically important. Customers simply won’t accept any product that diminishes their end product – they can’t afford to. There is absolutely no room whatsoever for compromise on quality because demands on the dairy sector are intense and they can’t allow any inferior quality into their chain of production because the repercussions would be drastic for their livelihoods.
“Of course it’s a challenge to produce a high-quality product at a price that dairy farmers can afford, and the gap between their input costs and output prices is becoming unsustainably small, but we have been here for a long time and we will support our customers in the long haul any way we can.”
In another important contribution to the local economy, Dan Donovan & Co Ltd. generates gainful employment for a full-time team of seven, three of whom are drivers, who deliver products throughout the region, normally within 24 hours. Without the commitment and service of our employees, the business wouldn’t survive. It’s all part of the unrivalled service that’s defined this impressive enterprise since Day One!
Dan Donovan & Co. Ltd.,
Ballyshonin,
Berrings,
County Cork.
Tel: 021 7332153
Taken from Irish Tractor & Agri magazine Vol 4 No 1, January 2016
