Based outside of Thurles, Co Tipperary, Irisford Ltd is a second-generation family business which has been in operation since the mid-1980s. Irish Tractor & Agri touched base with its Manager Richie Norton recently to learn all about the ins and outs of the company – from its origins to the state of business today.
Business is good nowadays at Irisford Ltd down in Thurles, Co Tipperary and the plan for the Norton clan is to try and keep things that way right through to next year.
Operating with eight employees, the business started as a small family pig farm and has since grown into a thriving enterprise with 750 sows now in operation.
For farm manager Richie Norton, he has been immersed in the business for almost all of his working life and is very much excited about what the future holds for it.
Irish Tractor & Agri spoke with the Kilkenny native to find out more details about the company, including its origins dating back some 40 years, and some of the machinery it has recently added.
“The main site was bought by my father in the mid-1980s and he and his brothers were farmers for years,” Richie outlined.
“My father developed it in the mid-1990s and he’s still involved today. It started as a pig farm with a mill attached and just grew from there, I suppose.
Richie himself went to third level in UCD and, once he finished his studies, he came back to work on the family farm in 2000.
Now, 21 years later, he’s the Manager in Rathbeg with eight staff working under him. The breakdown of those numbers sees six working on the pig farm, one looking after the cattle and another on the truck.
With 750 sows, the pig farm is very much the focal point of Irisford Ltd with its meat going to Rosderra Irish Meats Group Limited in Roscrea, Co Tipperary.
Business has been good as of late for the company and the hope is that things will continue that way in spite of all the challenges out there at the moment.
“The pig price over the last few years hasn’t been too bad really,” said Richie.
“The downturn in the Chinese herd because of the African Swine Fever saw prices settling back to normal but now with the Chinese pig herd is on the road to recovery we have seen the prices drop again.
“Feed has increased dramatically over the past 12 months and we’ve gone through a little bit of a tough time, but we’re optimistic for the long term.”
Having built a new mill in Rathbeg back in 2016 to produce their own feeds, it further allowed Irisford Ltd to become more self-sufficient.
“We’ve been supplying Rosderra Meats for as long as I can remember and we’ve had a great relationship with them down through the years,” said the Farm Manager.
“We have a small beef enterprise as well, as I mentioned, but the pig farm remains our main business and, I suppose, it’s what we’ve always been known for.”
The equipment at Irisford Ltd is regularly updated and also maintained to the highest standard.
“We are constantly upgrading our equipment here,” said Richie. “We do a lot of work with Irish Dairy Services and it was them that built the mill here in 2016 and we’re always willing to modernise and embrace new technology.
“We also put in a Spotmix system for pigs from Makeway in Tramore (Co Waterford) which has been going great for us ever since.
“With the mill, we’re working fairly closely with two nutrition companies at the moment; Swinco and Devenish.”
Looking at the coming months for the business, nothing at the moment is too clear for Richie but he remains optimistic nonetheless.
The Covid-19 pandemic – and the government lockdowns which followed in order to combat the spread of the virus – affected businesses nationwide and, while these are challenging times for everyone, Richie is glad to report that Irisford Ltd, as a company, wasn’t as badly impacted as others.
The challenges, at the moment, lay elsewhere according to the Kilkenny man.
“The future is hazy given the new environmental/welfare restrictions that have been brought in,” he pointed out.
“In saying that, they’re not new to us and we’re continuing to operate to a very high standard here at the minute. There is a lack of clarity around a few things with regards to the restrictions but we will work under them nonetheless.”
So, the burning question is, what has been the secret to continued success for this second-generation family business after all these years?
According to Richie, experience and expertise go a long way in this line of work and there aren’t many competitors out there that can match Irishford Ltd for it.
“Three of the lads are here over 30 years at this stage and we’re lucky in that we have a great, trustworthy crew here.
“It’s busy, pandemic or no pandemic, we are very busy thankfully I wouldn’t have it any other way,” the manager concluded.
Irisford Ltd.
Rathbeg, Gortnahoe, Thurles, Co Tipperary.
Mobile: 086 240 2570
First published in Irish Tractor & Agri magazine Vol 10 No 2, March/April 2022
