2015 saw Corby Rock Mill Ltd celebrate 40 years of continued excellence in animal feed products, so Irish Tractor & Agri felt it was time to catch up with the Co Monaghan-based company which now has a thriving trade in the Poultry, Ruminant, Sheep and Calf markets.
Established since 1975, Corby Rock Mill was set-up to with the principal of ensuring that sister company – Corby Rock Eggs – continued to have high quality feeds.
This past May saw the passing of Corby Rock Mill’s founder George Quinn at the age of 91 and, needless to say, his giant legacy is something that is set to live on within the company for decades to come.
Having built up the business from scratch, George’s aim for Corby Rock Mill was to see it develop into a market leader with the quality and value of its products – something which it has undoubtedly achieved since.
George was known as a humble man who led by example in his running of the company, rarely taking a holiday, whilst ensuring that he had a strong team around him in order for the highest standards to be met week in, week out.
During the mid-1970s, Corby Rock Eggs had grown to become the country’s largest egg producers but George still wasn’t content with the performance his chickens were achieving on their brought-in feed. So, in trademark fashion, he decided to bring in his own.
Sure enough construction on a new mill began soon afterwards and it still stands tall at the company’s headquarters along the Ballybay Road in Co Monaghan to this day.
A veteran businessman who acted on his instincts and experience, George passed on so much of the knowledge he gained over the years to his grandson Mark Quinn prior to his death, which was felt by so many of the Corby Rock staff – both past and present.
Mark has now taken over the running of the company as its Technical Director and described his grandfather as “a great man” who was “very humble”.
From humble beginnings, Corby Rock now employs 47 full-time staff, with its poultry plant producing 140,000 tonnes of breeder feeds while on the ruminant end they are producing 60,000 tonnes.
The company’s state-of-the-art milling equipment and plant ensures the consistency of a quality product; additionally they also have the most up to date testing equipment to make sure that quality is maintained throughout the process.
Sales Manager Paul McArdle, who has been a part of the team at Corby Rock for an even decade now, gave us a bit more insight.
“We’re never going to be the cheapest but we stand by our feeds in terms of quality. They are good, honest, feeds that perform very well,” explained Paul.
“We’re lucky in the fact that we’re able to produce a wide range of feeds, across poultry and ruminant sectors, and that’s one of our big selling points.”
The success of Corby Rock today is undoubtedly a testament to its founder, who had learned from the early mistakes in his career to build something special and now his grandson, along with the current staff of former colleagues, are looking to carry on the George Quinn legacy.
Back in 1982, with the Corby Rock Mill brand having grown strong across the country, George took the decision to install a CPM Century pellet press. The output grew annually and five years later double pelleting was brought in, with a CPM 7726 retro fitted below the existing press.
By 1993, a new shed was constructed for blends production which would house a Red Rock mixer wagon and the success of ruminant feed production had been so vast that even further expansion was required. The construction of a ruminant mill got underway two years later and come 1998 a line was in place in the building which was completely dedicated to ruminant pellets.
A second pellet line would be added in 2002 prior to a state-of-the-art bagging line being introduced from BL Bagline, which was capable of bagging over 35 tonnes per hour and in its first year it proved a remarkable success having filled over one millions bags.
2005 saw the decision take to diversify into broiler feed production and that has seen Corby Rock Mill having to work closely with poultry processors throughout Ireland in order to develop feeding programs and formulations that deliver market requirements.
Today the company offers a complete range of broiler formulations in close conjunction with nutritional companies to offer quality broiler diets for poultry producers.
Next on the agenda for Corby Rock Mill is a whopping €5million investment plan over four years proving that, as Paul outlined, development still very much remains a cornerstone of their business model.
“At the minute we are investing in machinery to enhance the current mill we have here and we’re also putting up a poultry mill to cope with the customers’ requirements,” he revealed.
“All in all, it’s a €5million expansion that’s going to take place over the next four years, so it’s a fairly big project for us.”
The investment is set to create more capacity inside the mill and ensure the continuity of supply for the company’s customers.
During his tenure over Corby Rock, George was known for pointing out the fact that “when you stop progressing, you start going backwards”, so it’s no surprise to see the steps being taken by the current management to continue the company’s progression.
George’s death four months ago may have marked the passing of Corby Rock’s founder and forefather, but the business is very much alive and kicking as the evidence suggests.
“The staff here would have been very fond of him and he would have been very close to them all, from the office to the yard workers,” said Paul. “He left his own stamp on the business and he’s going to be greatly missed not only by his family, but by everyone at Corby Rock Mill.”
Corby Rock Mill
Address: Ballybay Road,
Monaghan, Co. Monaghan
Tel: +353 (47) 30099
Fax: +353 (47) 71452
E-mail: [email protected]
Web: corbyrock.ie
Taken from Irish Tractor & Agri magazine Vol 4 No 7, September 2016
